A Recap of the 85th Texas Legislature’s Special Session
By Royce Poinsett
Readers will recall that the 85th regular session of the Texas
Legislature concluded in June with Republican leaders clashing publicly.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, legislative leader of the “movement Republicans,”
had successfully pushed an ambitious, populist conservative agenda
through the Texas Senate. House Speaker Joe Straus, leader of the
“moderate Republicans,” had led the House in defeating several of the
Senate’s most controversial proposals, heeding calls from many local
officials and business leaders.
Once it became clear that
several of Patrick’s priorities (particularly the Senate’s versions of
local property tax reform and bathroom legislation) were going to die in
the House, he scuttled a few “must-pass” sunset bills, including one
reauthorizing the state agency that licenses and regulates Texas
doctors. Patrick’s stated goal was to force Republican Gov. Greg Abbott
to call a special legislative session, which he hoped would include
continued work on the Senate’s agenda items.
Abbott complied,
and more. The governor called a 30-day special session for work on
sunset, property tax reform, and bathroom bills, as well as 17 other
agenda items designed to please Patrick and the conservative base.
In many ways the special session was a replay of the regular
session. Patrick and the Senate quickly passed most of the governor’s
proposals out of the upper chamber, cheered on by Abbott and grassroots
conservatives. Straus and the House proceeded much more deliberately:
agreeing to some of the proposals, narrowing others, and outright
killing several.
ENACTED LEGISLATION OF THE
SPECIAL SESSION
When the special session concluded on August 15, the Legislature had
enacted bills substantially accomplishing 10 of the governor’s 20 agenda
items:
Sunset legislation. SB 20 and SB 60 successfully
extended the life of several important state agencies, resolving the
issue that forced the special session.
Annexation reform. SB 6 requires cities seeking to
annex an area to first obtain approval from a majority of residents in
that area.
Mail-in ballot fraud. SB 5 increases criminal
penalties in the hope of combating mail-in voter fraud, particularly
fraud involving elderly voters.
Abortion insurance. HB 214 makes Texas one of eight
states to bar private insurance companies from including abortion
procedures in base coverage; Texas women will have to buy supplemental
policies to cover abortions performed outside of medical emergencies.
Abortion reporting. HB 13 requires health care
providers to report more details about abortion complications. HB 215
requires doctors to report more details on whether minors receiving
abortions did so as a result of parental consent or a judicial
bypass.
End of life. SB 11 requires explicit patient approval
before doctors can act on do-not-resuscitate orders, creates a criminal
penalty for doctors who willfully violate a patient’s do-not-resuscitate
wishes, and creates an exception to that penalty for doctors who err “in
good faith.”
Local tree ordinances. HB 7 restricts the ability of
municipalities to prevent landowners from removing trees on their
private property. The bill allows landowners to remove trees and to
offset any local fees or penalties by planting new trees in their
place.
Maternal mortality. SB 17 extends the life of the
state’s Task Force on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity, providing it
more time to study the rapidly rising death rate among Texas
mothers.
Teacher retirement benefits. HB 21 injects $212
million in new money into the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to
offset rising health insurance premiums and health care costs. However,
neither chamber passed Abbott’s proposal to increase teacher salaries by
an average of $1,000 out of existing funding; legislators may have been
swayed by the many school leaders who opposed the measure as an
“unfunded mandate.”
School finance reform. The House pushed an ambitious
school finance reform package that would have injected $1.8 billion in
new state funding into the Texas school finance system, and then
reluctantly agreed to the Senate’s much more limited proposal. HB 21
puts $351 million in new money into public schools and creates a new
commission to study and recommend more comprehensive reforms for the
2019 session.
UNPASSED LEGISLATION OF THE
SPECIAL SESSION
The Legislature failed to pass legislation addressing 10 of the
governor’s 20 agenda items:
Property tax reform. The Legislature failed to
deliver on the top priority of the governor and lieutenant governor. The
Senate’s proposal would have required property tax rate elections before
a local entity could raise tax revenues more than 4 percent over the
prior year. The House countered with a proposal setting a more lenient 6
percent trigger rate, and the two chambers failed to reach a compromise
before the special session ended. House leaders continue to maintain
that more comprehensive school finance reform (and increased state
education spending) is a prerequisite to meaningful property tax reform
that will actually lower local taxes.
Bathroom legislation. The Senate once again passed
legislation barring individuals from using restrooms that do not match
their biological sex, but no related legislation ever made it to the
floor for a vote in the House.
State government spending cap. The Senate passed
legislation to further restrict the permitted annual growth in state
spending, proposing a new, lower cap based on the estimated combined
growth in the state’s population and inflation. However, the proposal
died in the House.
Local government spending cap. Neither chamber passed
legislation to create a cap on the annual growth in spending by local
governments.
Local government permitting. The Senate passed
legislation seeking to speed local government permitting, by imposing a
new statewide uniform process and timeline for certain local permit
applications, but the measure did not pass the House.
Local government regulations. Neither chamber passed
legislation to restrict local governments from enforcing new local
regulations against a landowner who acquired a property before the
regulation was enacted.
Texting ban preemption. The Legislature did pass a
statewide texting-while-driving ban during the regular session (HB 62).
But neither chamber heeded the governor’s call to pass further
legislation during the special session to pre-empt any existing local
ordinances. The stricter existing ordinances that exist in more than 40
Texas cities will remain in effect.
Union dues deduction. The Senate passed a bill to
prevent governmental entities from collecting membership dues from the
paychecks of government employees who are members of labor unions, but
the bill did not receive a vote in the House.
Abortion funding. The Senate passed legislation to
broaden the existing state and federal bans on abortion funding by
prohibiting Texas governmental entities from entering into any
contractual relationships with clinics affiliated with abortion
providers. The measure did not succeed in the House.
“Private school choice” for disabled students. The
Senate passed legislation to subsidize private school tuition for
students with disabilities, but the measure never emerged from the
House.
LOOKING FORWARD
The special session ended with Abbott and Patrick openly blaming
Speaker Straus for the failure of several agenda items. Abbott left open
the possibility that he might call yet another special session at some
point, particularly on the issue of property tax reform.
The governor and lieutenant governor have also strongly suggested that
they plan to get involved in the upcoming spring 2018 House Republican
primary races. Presumably, they hope to influence the speaker’s
legislative priorities by moving the House’s Republican membership in a
more conservative direction. Some business groups, on the other hand,
have applauded the legislative defiance of Straus and the House and have
pledged to defend incumbent Republicans against more conservative
primary challenges.
The results of this upcoming GOP electoral battle will determine
whether one of the Republican camps gains the upper hand going into the
next regular session of the Legislature, which begins in January 2019.
The unresolved issues of school finance and property tax reform, state
versus local control, and bathrooms are certain to return.
TBJ
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ROYCE POINSETT is a government relations attorney and registered lobbyist in the Austin office of Gardere Wynne Sewell. He previously served as an adviser to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Tom Craddick, and he now represents businesses and associations at the Texas Capitol. |
