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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gov. Greg Abbott used his January inaugural address to promise "lasting" property tax cuts.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vowed plummeting oil prices wouldn't derail plans for the meatiest rollbacks in a decade: "Let there be no doubt — there will be tax cuts."
A budget deal between the House and Senate does indeed deliver lower taxes. For many homeowners the windfall will be fleeting, however, and a slowdown in Texas' oil and gas industry is raining on the rest of the tax-cutting parade.
The proposed budget features $3.8 billion in tax reductions — about $1 billion less than what lawmakers at one point proposed. And property tax relief works out to around $120 a year in extra exemptions for homeowners — relative pocket change that will quickly get gobbled up in many areas, amid rising home values.
Top Republicans didn't push for more ambitious tax cuts in part because they feared that future budget shortfalls could get harder to make up if low oil prices continue to punish the state economy.
Taxes are going down — but not by much and, in most cases, not for long.
Here are other issues that had strong weeks, and didn't, in the home stretch before the session ends June 1.
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WHAT'S UP
Crunch Time Calm
The weeks-long Senate-House standoff over the best way to cut taxes has ended in a compromise. Legalized open carry of handguns looks like a foregone conclusion. Republicans passed small new abortion restrictions and anti-gay marriage bills, but don't seem poised to pick fights over more-ambitious proposals on either issue. And especially contentious bills promoting school vouchers and instituting stricter state immigration policies have stalled without much fanfare. Things could still heat up in a hurry. But lawmakers look ready to wrap up the session without the last-minute ideological clashes — and the looming threat of heading into a special session — commonplace in years past.
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WHAT'S DOWN
School Vouchers
It's been more than a month since the tea party-led Senate approved a plan letting parents get state funding to pull their kids out of struggling public schools and send them to private alternatives. But the much-ballyhooed proposal remains stuck in House committee and may well die there. Senate Education Committee Chairman Larry Taylor says his bill isn't about vouchers, instead offering tax breaks to businesses that contribute to nonprofit groups giving students scholarships to change schools. Still, languishing in committee has at least spared Taylor's proposal a likely House floor defeat. Lower chamber Democrats have traditionally teamed with many Republicans to oppose anything that smacks of vouchers, arguing that public funding should stay with public schools.
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WHAT'S IN-BETWEEN
Union Paycheck Deduction Ban
A proposal barring many public employees from deducting union dues from their paychecks has cleared the Senate, but House Democrats thwarted GOP plans for a hurry-up committee meeting to consider it. When the bill finally did come up in lower chamber committee after three days' delay, top Republicans conceded it was so badly drafted that it likely wouldn't survive even the most rudimentary logistical challenges from opponents on the House floor. That's enough to run the clock out on the bill — though, because there are still GOP leaders who would support it, the proposal's core could yet live on as an amendment attached to other legislation and may not be totally dead.
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