(The Texas Tribune) – Lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate filed more than a thousand pieces of legislation Tuesday, offering an early look at the issues they hope to prioritize when they gavel in for the 89th legislative session in January.

Tuesday marked the first day lawmakers could file bills they hope to pass when the Texas Legislature reconvenes next year. Republicans control both chambers and expanded their majority in the House and Senate after flipping a handful of seats during this year’s elections. The ouster of many Republicans by challengers further to their right during this year’s primaries means that the Texas GOP’s far-right wing will have unprecedented sway over the upcoming legislative session. Few of those lawmakers filed bills on Tuesday, but it’s likely they’ll seek to push the Legislature’s already deep-red agenda even further right once they file their own bills.

Lawmakers typically file thousands of bills in the course of a legislative session, and most never make it to the governor’s desk. The lowest bill numbers are reserved for the highest priority bills set by the House speaker and lieutenant governor, who leads the Senate.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last week that his top policy priority will be Senate Bill 2, which is expected to propose a program that lets families use tax dollars to pay for their children’s private schooling. Other priorities have yet to be announced.

Texas is expected to have plenty of cash to fund any new mandates. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar projected the state will have a $20 billion surplus at the start of the 2025 session on Jan. 14.

Some of the topics covered in the first day of filing for 2025 session:

• Property taxes
• Abortion
• Public education
• Higher education
• Border and immigration
• Elections
• LGBTQ+ rights
• Marriage
• Criminal justice
• Energy
• Health
• Guns
• Workers’ wages

Property taxes

Last year, legislators approved a $12.7 billion package that included tax breaks for homeowners and money for school districts to lower how much they collect in property taxes. A Texas Tribune analysis showed many residents have seen significant tax reductions as a result of the last several years of property tax cuts. The amount of taxes school districts collected from property owners fell by nearly 10% between 2022 and 2023, according to figures provided by the Texas Comptroller’s office.

Lawmakers filed dozens of bills Tuesday seeking to further lower Texans’ property taxes. Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, filed a bill that would eliminate property taxes altogether and create a committee to study “alternative methods of taxation” to replace them. Eliminating all local property taxes would cost the state an estimated $81.5 billion, based on figures presented by the Legislative Budget Board. Spending that much on tax cuts would likely require a significant increase in the sales tax, lawmakers have said.

Several proposed bills would use the state’s surplus revenue to offset property taxes. For example, House Bill 264, filed by Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney, would dedicate half of any budget surplus every two years to tax relief. House Bill 275, filed by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, would use the surplus to further reduce the amount of money that school districts collect in property taxes. House Bill 378, filed by Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, would increase the homestead exemption ­– the portion of a home’s value that is exempted from taxation – from $100,000 to $200,000. The state would make up the school district’s loss in revenue.

Several lawmakers filed bills that would limit increases in a property’s appraised value. Such caps could create inequities between taxpayers, experts have warned. New homeowners could end up paying significantly more than those who have owned homes for a long time. And the cap could also disrupt the housing market by enticing people to stay in their homes for longer in order to obtain the tax benefit, thus reducing the number of homes that become available each year.

Abortion

State Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat and one of the chamber’s loudest voices in support of abortion access, filed two bills that would expand when a health care provider can legally perform an abortion.

The current law allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy when, in their “reasonable medical judgment,” it is necessary to save the life of the patient. While Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists say the law is clear, dozens of women have come forward with stories of delayed or denied medical care. At least two women died after doctors hesitated to treat them because of worries about the law’s strict penalties. Last week, more than 100 Texas OB/GYNs signed a letter saying the near-total ban has restricted them from providing high-quality, evidence-based care to their patients.

Under HB 257, physicians would be able to rely on their “best medical judgment,” which could not be overruled by an external review process. It would additionally allow abortions to preserve a patient’s mental health or future fertility, and in cases where the fetus is either not going to survive after birth or is “incompatible with life without extraordinary medical interventions.” HB 395, also filed by Howard, would allow abortions in cases of rape or incest. Six Democrats filed a companion bill for each of these proposals in the Senate.

Howard and other Democratic lawmakers filed a slew of similar bills last session. None received a hearing.

Public education

Some Republicans and conservative groups have long advocated for “school choice,” or the idea that the state should support families that decide not to send their children to public schools. Last year, Republican lawmakers attempted to pass a bill that would have created “education savings accounts,” a type of school voucher program that would provide public funds directly to families to help them pay for their children’s private schooling and other educational expenses.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Senate, said last week that establishing a voucher program in Texas would be his top legislative priority, while Gov. Greg Abbott said the House has enough votes to get it approved. At least one bill proposing a voucher program was filed Tuesday, and more are likely to come.

House Bill 212, proposed by Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, would establish a process for parents or legal guardians to get reimbursed by the state for enrolling their children into private schools. Any school-aged child would be eligible for the program.

Several Republicans also filed legislation that would guide or limit what learning materials children are exposed to in school. House Bill 183, introduced by Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco, would give the GOP-dominated State Board of Education the power to prohibit school districts from using library materials it considers “inappropriate” or “sexually explicit.” Local school districts typically make those decisions.

House Bill 196, from Rep. Cody Thane Vasut, R-Angleton, would require schools to teach “that human life begins at conception and has inherent dignity and immeasurable worth from the moment of conception.”

Senate Bill 86, a proposal by Sen. Bob Hall, an Edgewood Republican, would prohibit classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. Hall also filed legislation that would make school board elections partisan and require that they occur on the same day as midterms or the general election.

Houston Democratic Rep. Christina Morales filed House Bill 178, reviving legislation that seeks to include ethnic studies as part of the required social studies curriculum. Public education advocates have sought to ensure students are learning about historically underserved groups – like Black and Indigenous communities – different from their own.

Two bills, one from a Republican and the other from a Democrat, were filed to change the way Texas schools are funded. The current attendance-based funding system has resulted in schools losing out on money if youth aren’t showing up to class. Advocates of changing the system say basing it on enrollment would offer schools more financial stability.

– Jaden Edison/Texas Tribune contributed to this portion of the report.

Higher education

Last legislative session, some of the most contentious higher education bills were Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority legislation to end diversity, equity and inclusion offices, which went into effect at the start of the year, and a bill that initially intended to eliminate faculty tenure, which was approved but watered down.

At a Senate Higher Education subcommittee meeting Monday, Republican senators signaled a broad openness to further curtailing faculty’s powers, reinforcing the authority of the boards of regents over public universities and continuing to eliminate DEI programs. Legislation surrounding those issues has not yet been filed.

On Tuesday, multiple Republican House members filed identical versions of a bill to stop providing in-state tuition to certain undocumented students who live in Texas.

In 2001, lawmakers passed the Texas Dream Act, which extends in-state tuition to undocumented students who graduated from a Texas high school, lived in Texas for three years before graduating and lived in the state for a year before enrolling at a Texas public college or university. Students who qualify must sign an affidavit declaring their intent to apply for permanent resident status as soon as they are able. The Texas Dream Act also applies to students who are not U.S. citizens but are authorized to be in the country.

Lawmakers have tried to eliminate the Texas Dream Act in the past without success. But as the Texas House shifts further to the right, it may find renewed support.

Another bill, House Bill 281 would require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to eliminate or sanction degree programs when graduates would generally have trouble paying for their student loan debt with their expected earnings. Graduates in high-earning fields like medicine and law often have higher student loans but find it easier to pay for them because of their earning potential, while graduates in lower-paying degrees like education and social work may struggle to manage their debt even if they took out fewer loans.

Texas Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, filed the bill at a time when Republicans are playing offense on higher education. Public perception of the value of a college degree has also been declining, as people become increasingly skeptical of student loan debt.

Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a bill requiring all public college and university students to take an economics course to graduate.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/12/texas-legislature-bills-filing/.

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