By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the Texas economy, and the upcoming 87th Texas Legislature will face unprecedented challenges.
Elected officials will face a multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall while still charged with carrying out normal legislative business. The 2021 biennial session is also a redistricting session in which district boundaries for the U.S. House, Texas Senate and Texas House must be re-drawn for the 2022 election season, adding further political dynamics to the session.
Next year will certainly pose major challenges for policymakers, as well as grassroots organizations like Texas Farm Bureau (TFB).
To discuss these issues, TFB is hosting a webinar, Lone Star Pandemic: COVID-19 and the 2021 Texas Legislature, on Tuesday, July 28, at 6:30 p.m.
Participants will hear from Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and Texas Senator Lois Kolkhorst.
They will address the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and state budget, property tax issues caused by the pandemic and 2019 property tax reform measures. Other topics will include the Legislature’s options for meeting these challenges and how COVID-19 challenges will affect other issues like eminent domain reform.
Glenn Hegar
Glenn Hegar has served as Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts since 2015. Hegar, a sixth-generation Texan, grew up farming land that has been in his family since the mid-1800s. He was a member of the Texas Legislature from 2002-2014, where he worked on many issues important to Texans, including public education, transportation, tax reform, government transparency, Second Amendment rights, water issues and tort reform.
As Comptroller, Hegar monitors the state economy and tax revenue to provide the Legislature with an estimate of how much revenue the state will have for its budget. His agency also has oversight over property valuations for the purposes of implementing the state’s public school finance system.
Lois Kolkhorst
Lois Kolkhorst is a fifth-generation Texan. She served seven terms in the Texas House before being elected to the Texas Senate in 2014. As the senator for District 18, Kolkhorst represents 21 counties between Houston, Austin and San Antonio and a third of the Texas coastline. Kolkhorst is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, which sets public health policies, and she has been intimately involved in the state’s response to COVID-19.
Kolkhorst will be involved in efforts to address the impact of the pandemic on the state budget. In addition, as the longtime Senate champion for eminent domain reform, Kolkhorst will have to navigate these unprecedented circumstances as she continues to fight for private property rights next session.
Webinar details
Click here to register for the July 28 webinar via Zoom. The webinar will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Registration will remain open until the webinar begins. You must pre-register to receive the link to participate in the webinar, because each link is unique to an individual.
Questions can be submitted in advance when registering online, and questions will also be accepted during the webinar.
This is the last webinar in TFB’s Summer Virtual Conference Series.
Click here to view the previous webinars: The Road Ahead for Texas Agriculture and Today’s Volatile Cattle Industry.
If you have questions, contact Associate Director of Government Affairs Billy Howe at bhowe@txfb.org.