Summary: Property taxes, school safety and parental choice of schools, border security, public safety, pandemic emergency powers restrictions -- all directly affect you and your family. These are the priorities of Gov. Abbott for the 88th Legislative Session, and the priorities of the Texas Governor are among the most powerful in the TX legislature.
Latest Update: Friday, 17 February, 2023
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Gov. Abbott's Legislative Priorities for the 88th Legislative Session
• Gov. Greg Abbott calls for legislative action on school choice, property taxes and fentanyl in State of the State, The Texas Tribune, 16 February, 2023, Excerpts. Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday outlined his highest priorities for the legislative session, offering an agenda centered on the economy, schools and public safety, complete with some proposals to push Texas even further to the political right.
During his biennial State of the State speech, the Republican governor named seven emergency items that lawmakers can vote on immediately: cutting property taxes, ending COVID-19 restrictions “forever,” expanding school choice, making schools safer, ending “revolving-door” bail policies, securing the state’s border with Mexico and cracking down on fentanyl.
The legislative session, which began in early January, is Abbott’s fifth as governor, and it comes months after he secured a decisive reelection victory for a third term. It also comes as he has emerged as more of a national political figure for his attention-grabbing efforts to secure the border — and as a possible 2024 presidential candidate.
The speech otherwise included a host of priorities that Abbott has been emphasizing for months, like using the state’s historic budget surplus to deliver the “largest property tax cut in the history of Texas.” He also reiterated he wants to root out “woke agendas” in the classroom and let parents use tax dollars to send their kids to schools outside the traditional public education system. He repeated that he wants to do so through Education Savings Accounts, in which state funds would be deposited to help parents pay for nontraditional education expenses, like home schooling or private school.
Emergency items are proposals that allow lawmakers to bypass a ban on passing legislation before the 60th day of a session — which would be March 10. Thursday is the 37th day of the session.
Among his emergency items, Abbott called for legislation to permanently prevent COVID-19 mandates, like local requirements to wear masks, get vaccines and shut down businesses. While Texas long ago lifted its statewide COVID-19 restrictions, Abbott has kept in place a disaster declaration for the pandemic that has drawn some criticism from his right, and he has promised to end it once lawmakers act.
Notably, Abbott also nodded to conservative pushback by giving lawmakers more of a say in how he responds to the next pandemic.
“We must change how government responds to future pandemics, including requiring the Legislature to convene if another pandemic is ever declared,” Abbott said.
In his speech, Abbott alluded to some of the biggest tests of his governorship over the past two years, including the 2021 power-grid collapse. As he did in his inaugural address last month, he said he wants to build a power grid that will endure for many years to come, but he did not designate it as an emergency item. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has deemed it one of his highest priorities for the session and has vowed to force a special session if he does not get his way in the form of adding natural gas plants.
Abbott also talked about the most likely policy response to come out of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting: school safety. He did not get too detailed, calling for the “safest standards” and more mental health professionals in schools.
When it came to guns, Abbott focused on getting tougher on crimes involving guns, calling for a 10-year mandatory minimum jail sentence “for criminals who illegally possess guns.” That is consistent with a top priority of the lieutenant governor this session.
Beyond his emergency items, Abbott peppered his speech with other pet issues. For example, he said “local communities need new economic development tools this session,” alluding to an effort to reinvent a popular corporate tax-break program that lawmakers let expire last year.
Abbott opened his speech by recognizing Noveon as a “cutting-edge business in the critical field of rare earth elements.” He warned that China currently dominates the rare earth materials market and that Texas needs to embrace companies like Noveon to become more self-reliant.
“The future of Texas and the United States should not depend on China,” Abbott said.
• Property Taxes, Ending COVID-19 Restrictions, School Choice: Abbott’s State of the State Address Lists Priorities, The Texan, 16 February 2023, Excerpts. This session, we will ensure Texas remains the leader of this nation as an unflinching force in this world. Together, we will build a Texas for the next generation — the Texas of tomorrow,” Abbott said in his speech. / “Texans have inherited a legendary pedigree, a state first settled by brave pioneers willing to risk everything for the promise of freedom and opportunity.”
With the 88th Legislative Session now well underway, Abbott named seven emergency items that highlight his top priorities for the five-month sprint.
Those items include:
Providing property tax relief
Restricting pandemic emergency powers
School choice by way of Education Savings Accounts
School safety measures
Bail restrictions
Securing the border
Cracking down on fentanyl trafficking
Currently, the first versions of the 2024-25 budget lay out $15 billion for property tax cuts, about two-thirds of which is for new cuts. The other third is to maintain previous cuts. To avoid the constitutional spending cap, that tranche will likely be appropriated to a Property Tax Fund that exists separately from the General Fund; such a mechanism must be passed by constitutional amendment.
In a sizable shift from last session, Abbott explicitly called for reforms to the state’s emergency powers — something that sputtered out during the 2021 session. “We must prohibit any government from imposing COVID mask mandates, COVID vaccine mandates, and from closing any business or school because of COVID,” he said. “These actions will help Texas close the door on COVID restrictions.”
Two other school-related items Abbott spotlighted were passing a school choice program, specifically in the form of Education Savings Accounts, and school hardening measures in response to the 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Other items Abbott called for, but did not make emergency items, were:
Reviving Chapter 313 economic development program in some fashion
Creating specialized commercial courts
Providing community colleges with financial rewards for producing skilled workers
Approving a $100 billion transportation infrastructure plan
Building more thermal generation
Requiring the Legislature to convene if a future pandemic is declared
Increasing per-student school funding and teacher pay raise
Reforming school curricula through a Parental Bill of Rights
Increasing nursing home funding
Creating a 10-year mandatory minimum for those convicted of gun crimes or smuggling illegal immigrants into the country
• Gov. Abbott Announces 2023 Priorities in State of the State Address, Texas Scorecard, 16 February 2023, Excerpts. “The state of our state has never been more exceptional.”
With this claim, amid multiple critical issues threatening Texans, Gov. Greg Abbott opened his biennial State of the State address on Thursday evening.
Although the address has traditionally been delivered during a joint session of the Texas House and Senate in the middle of the day, Abbott is taking this year’s address in a different direction. Instead, he gave the address from the Noveon Magnetics Corp. manufacturing facility near San Marcos.
“Property taxes are suffocating Texans,” said Abbott, proposing using $15 billion (only half) of the budget surplus for property tax cuts this legislative session. The governor also stressed the need for lasting property tax relief, but he outlined no plan to deliver that this session and beyond.
The governor’s next emergency item includes prohibiting “any government from imposing COVID mask mandates, COVID vaccine mandates, and from closing any business or school because of COVID.” Abbott recommended a requirement that the Legislature convene if another pandemic is ever declared.
Abbott then pivoted to education. “Many children today are not being educated like you and I were,” he said. “Our schools are for education, not indoctrination. … Schools should not be pushing a woke agenda period.” Rather, Abbott insisted that the current education curriculum be reformed: Get kids back to the basics of learning; and we must empower parents.
As for school safety, he recommended more healthcare professionals in public schools.
After referencing the border crisis created by the Biden administration, Abbott touted the work of Texas through Operation Lone Star and made border security an emergency priority. He highlighted several areas of needed reform:
“We must impose a mandatory minimum jail sentence of at least 10 years for anyone caught smuggling illegal immigrants in the United States or here in Texas.”
“We must call fentanyl deaths what they are—poisonings—and prosecute them as murderers.”
“We must also increase the supply of life-saving Narcan,” for fentanyl overdoses.
Also discussed by Abbott—but not given emergency status—were threats from communist China, legislation for transportation infrastructure, and electric grid security.
• Abbott calls for ending 'revolving door bail system,' property tax relief, more, The Center Square, 17 January 2023, Excerpts. (The Center Square) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants the state legislature to prioritize seven emergency items this session, including cutting property taxes, passing a “Parental Bill of Rights,” securing the southern border and fighting the fentanyl crisis. During his state of the state address Thursday night, Abbott also said lawmakers must end the “revolving door bail system" in the state.
The governor highlighted the many firsts of Texas, including the state leading the U.S. in job growth. Since he’s been governor, Texas has added over 1.9 million new jobs, more than any other state, he said. Texas also leads all states in economic development, exports, and is the national headquarters of several Fortune 500 headquarters.
Texas’ $2 trillion economy makes it the ninth-largest economy in the world, he added. “Hardworking Texans produced the largest budget surplus in Texas history,” referring to the state’s record $188.2 billion biennial revenue and $32.7 billion surplus, the highest in state history.
“That money belongs to the taxpayers,” he said. “We should return it to you with the largest property tax cut in the history of Texas,” saying the legislature was proposing using $15 billion to do so.
• Governor Abbott Delivers 2023 State Of The State Address, Texas Governor Website, 16 February 2023
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