By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Editor
Texas lawmakers are being called back to Austin. Tuesday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced his call for a legislative special session.
During that session, Abbott has tasked lawmakers with considering 20 items, including the so called “bathroom bill.”
“Considering all the successes of the 85th legislative session, we should not be where we are today,” Abbott said.
Abbott told reporters the special session was “entirely avoidable.”
“There was plenty of time for the Legislature to forge compromises to avoid the time and taxpayer expense of a special session,” Abbott said. “As Governor, if I am going to call a special session, I intend to make it count.”
The special session agenda includes:
- Sunset legislation
- Teacher pay increase of $1,000
- Administrative flexibility in teacher hiring and retention practices
- School finance reform commission
- School choice for special needs students
- Property tax reform
- Caps on state and local spending
- Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land
- Preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects
- Speeding up local government permitting process
- Municipal annexation reform
- Texting while driving preemption
- Privacy
- Prohibition of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues
- Prohibition of taxpayer funding for abortion providers
- Pro-life insurance reform
- Strengthening abortion reporting requirements when health complications arise
- Strengthening patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders
- Cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud
- Extending maternal mortality task force
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick applauded Abbott’s announcement Tuesday afternoon, saying the action solidly reflects the priorities of the people of Texas.
“Almost every issue he addressed today passed the Senate during the regular session, and I am confident the senators are ready to hit the ground running to move these issues forward,” Patrick said. “The people of Texas have a right to expect that we will finish the job on these critical issues, and I am happy to join with the governor in doing the work they elected us to do.”
The special session will begin July 18.
Retired teachers need HELP ! WE are long suffering and need to live in dignity . Please help NOW.
Thanks,
Stan Jobe
Roan Prairie, Texas
Thank you, Governor Abbott- I also like to see things get finished. I do hope the Property Tax Reform will include a separate standard for determining Market Value on farms and ranches that have been in a family for a long time. When you are surrounded by farms and ranches that are being sold and resold (flipped for profit) it causes our taxes to skyrocket along with theirs, but we don’t receive any of the money. It seems the American way should still be that one is permitted to work their land to make a living, generation to generation and not lose it because of people who only care about making a profit by selling land that is not sacred to them. In my case, my father made a downpayment on our ranch in 1948 with what little he was able to save while serving in WW11. It took many hard years for him, my mother and we children to make a living and make the property payments. If we continue to be taxed at the same rate as the (flipped) land, our children will not understand the true meaning of Hard Work and Being a good steward of hard earned land. Thanks
Thank goodness, maybe they will stop the counties from spending money they don’t have and then raising taxes to pay for it. Two years ago they raised my building from 90,000 to 254.000 in one year. This year they have raised it another 80,000. That is TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
Retired teachers under the age of 65 have had their insurance totally ruined. More funding is essential or this is their insurance plan on 1/1/18:
=Deductible goes from $300 to $3000!
=Out of pocket from $5000 to $7000
For a couple who are both retired teachers, this is a HUGE hardship.
47000
It seems to me that a logical alternative to county property tax would be a sales tax. People who want to buy expensive (not always necessary) things can pay more tax. Those people who are willing to buy used or less expensive things could opt to spend their money wisely and make ends meet. In a nutshell, buy more, pay more tax. Pride in home ownership makes a stronger community. Homes auctioned off for failure or inability to pay the property taxes makes a weaker community and promotes poverty. Just a thought.