The Texas House is taking up the Senate’s version of the state budget this week, which is a crucial step in getting the document to the governor to sign.
Blaise Gainey, who covers state politics at The Texas Newsroom, said until the budget is finalized, we won’t know exactly how much money various state departments and programs will receive for the next two years.
“Basically, the House will be looking over the Senate’s version [of the budget]. Eventually, the Senate will also look at the House’s version, and they’ll try to come to some agreement on spending,” Gainey said. “That could be fairly easy if their matters are pretty close or if it’s not at all, then it could take a conference committee sort of at the end.
“But ultimately they must come to an agreement on a [total budget] number how things are going to be spent and then get it to the governor in order to move forward.”
The budget is the only bill legislators have to pass during the session, Gainey said. From what he can tell, the two versions are pretty close together.
“[The two versions] are actually pretty close. I think it’s more so exactly how they want to spend it. So both want to do a property tax cut, but one version gives more property tax relief to homeowners. The other focuses on homeowners and businesses. So there’s not really too much of a difference,” Gainey said. “It’s not necessarily how the money is spent, but it’s what the money does once it’s spent and who it benefits.”
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Property tax relief was also a major issue during the last legislative session, with lawmakers passing a relief measure to reduce costs for homeowners.
“It’ll be interesting whether or not to see if they go with the version that is more beneficial just to homeowners because I think last time around, they did that,” Gainey said. “Business owners also want to get some sort of property tax relief as well.”
A bill that would outlaw products with any THC, which is being championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is also being discussed in the House this week. This would include gummies, beverages, vapes and flour buds. Such products are currently sold at more than 8,000 locations around the state.
Gainey said this House State Affairs Committee meeting will likely be the last time lawmakers hear public testimony on this issue.
“You can expect a lot of testimony. I think when this bill was heard over in the Senate, there was about 10 hours of testimony on it,” he said. “They’re taking up both the Senate version, which bans THC, and the House version, which doesn’t ban but makes it 21 and up, and then put some restrictions on it. It’s HB 28, Representative Ken King’s bill. The bill also regulates the amount of THC per serving, which I believe is the big issue, at least that the Senate has, is that like some kid could get into some packaging and it be so such a high quantity that, you, know, by the time the parent finds the kid, he’s already taken too much of the THC.”
