The Texas House and Senate are entering the busiest phase of the legislative session. The first 60 days are reserved for pomp and circumstance, filing bills, the governor’s state of the state address, and generally getting organized. This session, Governor Abbott declared four items as emergencies: Child Protective Services reform, legislation ending sanctuary cities, reforming state ethics laws, and supporting efforts to rein in the federal government.
Business at the Capitol is now being conducted at a dizzying pace. House and Senate committees are meeting daily to hear bills, taking testimony from interested parties, moving what the legislative body deem to be “good bills” along the process, or allowing “bad bills” to languish and suffer a slow death in committee. NFIB/Texas has testified, for and against, on more than a dozen bills and have granted support or opposition to dozens more.
To be noted, the Texas Senate and House have both passed their versions of the state budget and will soon, presumably, begin the process of hashing out the differences between the two bodies through what’s known as a Conference Committee made up of five members from each chamber. The state budget is the only piece of legislation that is required to pass under the Texas Constitution and unlike the U.S. Congress it must be balanced. Likewise, both chambers have passed key NFIB/Texas legislation to abolish the ill-conceived and business killing state franchise tax. HB 28 by Rep. Dennis Bonnen (Angleton) and SB 17 by Senator Jane Nelson (Flower Mound) both accomplish this goal by using future revenue triggers that allows surpluses to be used to eliminate the tax over time.
Session is set to end or as the Capitol Crowd calls it Sine Die on May 29th and there is quite a bit to do in a very short time. NFIB/Texas has many top issues working their way through the process. Top among them are regulatory reform, property tax reform, repealing Texas’ favoritism to unions, and workforce development and education reforms. Keep watch here, in the Spilman Report, and on our website to keep up to date on hot topics in the Texas Legislature.
Sincerely,
Will Newton
NFIB/Texas Executive Director
