From the 85th: State of the State

On Tuesday, January 31, Gov. Abbott gave his State of the State speech. He described the state as exceptional as he went through his list of priorities for the 2017 Legislative Session. Governors typically use their ability to declare “emergency items,” which means items that can then be addressed faster than the normal flow of bills in a session, to lay out their highest priority items. Gov. Abbott had four emergency items – addressing the state's child welfare system, ethics reform, banning "sanctuary cities,” and moving forward to achieve a convention of states to amend the U.S. Constitution.

The tight budget concerns of the state prompted Gov. Abbott to issue a state employee hiring freeze, which would provide about $200 million more in the current budget. But even with a tight budget, Abbott was clear about certain expenses he expected to be addressed naming his pre-K education program, and funding the Texas Enterprise Fund, which is used to attract businesses to Texas.

As for the state’s $11.9 billion “Rainy Day Fund,” Abbott said he was confident they could balance the budget without “looting” the fund. Potentially then opening up some opportunity for some level of fund expenditure. If this were to happen at all, most likely it would be for non-reoccurring expenses. There appears to be less political will to use the fund for ongoing expenses.

Other notable items from his speech, the governor endorsed the idea from Sen. Bettencourt to lower the triggering threshold on local officials’ ability to increase taxes without voter approval. And he said he thought it was the right time to tackle school finance and supported school choice legislation. School choice was listed among the top priorities by Lt. Gov. Patrick before session started, and the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Sen. Taylor, announced earlier S.B. 3 which would in part, provide Texas parents public money to spend on private school tuition.

Now that the governor has addressed the state, we wait for the third major spoke in the wheel – House committee assignments. The Senate already has their committees set. Once the Speaker announces House assignments we will really see things start spinning. Filed bills will be referred to their appropriate committees, hearings will be set, testimony provided and votes will be cast. But we won’t get ahead of ourselves with this post. We will certainly be back soon with more From the 85th.

Total Bill Count: 2,127
TMHA Tracking Bills: 49