Texas House, Senate agree on property tax relief, school safety & border security funding
AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM) – The Republican majority in the Texas House and Senate have now formally proposed spending billions of dollars in relief from rising property tax bills across the state.
The first budget proposals released by each chamber of the legislature show a general funds budget of more than $130 billion, with agreement on a number of spending priorities.
With a record budget surplus of nearly $33 billion dollars, both Republicans and Democrats at the Texas Capitol agree the state is in a good position to give money back to Texans.
Each chamber has set aside $15 billion dollars for property tax relief with details still having to be sorted out.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announced Tuesday during his Inauguration that the Senate would propose raising the homestead property exemption from $40,000 to $70,000, which would cost about $3 billion alone.
After the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, there's at least $600 million for school safety measures in both the House and Senate budgets.
Lawmakers are also looking to increase funding for mental health hospital beds, by $2.3 billion in the House and $3 billion in the Senate.
Both budget proposals call for spending $4.6 billion to maintain current state border security operations.
The plans leave billions of dollars in revenue unspent because of a spending cap.
State Senator Royce West, D-Dallas, agreed Wednesday the state shouldn't spend all of the extra cash available. "We know we're flush with resources that we've never had here in the State of Texas. That doesn't mean we spend everything needless to say. While we're flush with monies now, around the corner, we will need some of those dollars."
State Representative Justin Holland, R-Heath said, "I do believe spending caps are important. I know there's a lot of people, having served on Appropriations, a lot of people would wish we could spend all of it and a little bit more but in Texas, we like to operate like you should operate a budget in a household, not spend all the money."
Lawmakers have also proposed about $2 billion to give state employees a raise, and lawmakers we spoke with told us they deserve it.
West said, "In order to keep a stable workforce, an engaged workforce, a competent workforce, we've got to compensate them."
Holland agreed. "Our state employees are some of the hardest working people and they work for very little, very long hours. A lot of time and it's not cheap to live in Austin, Texas."
One area in which Democrats and Republicans disagree is expanding Medicaid in Texas.
West said, "The problem is getting Republicans to work with us on this issue. We will try again, yes, we will. The question is whether it will get done and frankly, we're at the mercy, the mercy of our Republican colleagues."
Holland said, "I don't wee an appetite for that in the House or the Senate. I do believe Health and Human Services and healthcare is important. It's a large ticket item, one of the top two items we spend money on."
More than 2,000 bills have been filed during the legislative session that began last week.
But there's only one bill required to pass by the Texas Constitution and that's the state budget.
The regular session is set to end Memorial Day weekend.
