While we celebrate these substantial investments, there is room for continued work next session, and the most important question becomes, how do we sustain the funding boost? And as an optional pool of dollars for independent school districts to enact locally-developed teacher evaluation systems.Įach one of these strategies is research-proven to increase student outcomes and be critical indicators along the journey towards post-secondary readiness and success.Strategic teacher compensation that called for across the board pay raises.Outcomes-based funding for post-secondary readiness and access.New dollars for low-income and English-language learners in grades K-3 and a focus on third-grade literacy.Increasing focus on early literacy and full-day pre-K for eligible families.Increasing the per-pupil basic allotment.These new dollars focused on several key strategies our Chamber supported: To lower local property tax rates and increase investment in education (our future workforce), the legislature passed House Bill 3, also known as the Texas Plan (check out detailed info at While it does not bring the state to an even 50-50 split in the cost of educating Texas schoolchildren, the allocation for implementing HB 3 included $4.5 billion in new dollars for schools, $2 billion additional for teacher compensation, and $5.1 billion to allow for compression of local taxes and property tax relief.
While educating Texas children is a constitutional requirement for the state, the state share of per-pupil spending had been gradually declining, with increasing amounts coming from ballooning local property taxes, so that the state share was projected to have hit a record-low of 36 percent this upcoming biennium. Top of everyone’s mind and priority list this legislative session were the interlaced issues of property tax and school finance reform. This is our state’s first quarter-trillion-dollar budget! When all was said and done, the legislature adopted a $250.7 billion biannual budget. Going into the session, legislators were given the good news from the State Comptroller that due to the state’s economic strength, they’d have even more money to disburse in the state budget. Reporters and political observers across the state have commented that picking up those seats contributed greatly in making the 86th Legislative Session more productive and less contentious. On the House side, Democrats picked up twelve seats. As the body that focused last session on more “hot button” social issues, the narrower margins led the body this year to a more pro-business focus on issues of greater economic impact.
Republicans in the Texas Senate lost two seats, and thereby lost their supermajority. It is worth noting that the 2018 elections brought some changes, and those had policy consequences. While your Chamber is non-partisan and always focuses on policy, not politics, policy is of course impacted by politics.
86th texas legislative session bills full#
It was a full session!īefore diving into legislative outcomes, it could be helpful to provide a little context as to the overall tone and tenor of the 86th Session. This year was no different, and with more than 10,000 bills filed, it was helpful to have our state priority platform to keep us focused on our key issues: economic development, fiscal and tax policy, healthcare, transportation, water and natural resources, and workforce and education. Once approved by the Chamber’s Board of Directors, those platforms inform and guide our work throughout the year. The governing public policy committee, guided by chair David Lacy, then identifies the key issues that most significantly impact growing our regional economy, and articulates those issues in our state and federal policy platforms. We have issue-specific policy subcommittees that meet two to four times annually to discuss challenges and possible legislative solutions and formulate policy priorities at both the state and federal level. Our Chamber’s public policy initiative is guided by input from our member businesses and volunteer leadership. The focus and work throughout the session was guided by our state legislative priority platform, a robust and issue-focused policy agenda.
This was a highly productive session in many regards, and while there remains work to be done moving forward, it is worth it to pause to assess the accomplishments of those 140 days. With kids back in school and football season officially underway, the 86th Texas Legislative Session, which ran from January to May, is well behind us. Article written by Jessica Attas, VP of Public Policy at the Greater Waco Chamber, published in the 2019 third-quarter edition of Greater Waco Business magazine.
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