WATCH: Gov. Abbott says Big Country will benefit from school vouchers, other legislative priorities

Yahoo

02-04-2025

BIG COUNTRY, Texas () – We're now just past the halfway mark of the Texas 89th legislative session, and Governor Greg Abbott is laying out his priorities, focusing on water infrastructure, rising property taxes, and school vouchers. Abbott appeared on our newscast to discuss these issues and how they impact the Big Country.
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Texans across the state are feeling the burden of rising property taxes, and Abbott says he's looking at the budget surplus as a way to bring rates down.
'What we (the state) can do is tap into the budget surplus that we have and buy down those property tax rates so that your property taxes will go down,' Abbott explained. 'However, we did that two years ago, only to see local jurisdictions increase those property tax rates again. This time, we will continue to reduce your property tax rates by using the budget surplus to do so. However, we must limit the ability of local taxing jurisdictions to go back and raise their property taxes.'
Abbott also emphasized the importance of water infrastructure, noting that the issue is especially critical for the Big Country.
'Water may be more essential in your viewing area (the Big Country) than almost any other area in the entire state of Texas. I am calling for an all-time record investment to build out water infrastructure so that the farmers, ranchers and homeowners are going to be able to have the water they need. That includes fixing pipes across our entire state, many of which are aged and broken,' Abbott said.
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A major priority for Abbott this session is school choice, arguing that parents should have the ability to decide where their children receive their education.
'The last two Republican primaries. There was a ballot initiative on that primary where voters, who're in the Big Country, got to cast a vote, do they support school choice or not. Overwhelmingly, they said, Yes, they support school choice,' Abbott shared. 'But the fact of the matter is, we can have both. It's not one or the other. We can fully fund our public schools, which is what we're going to do, while at the same time providing a school choice option for parents across the region. We find it to be very effective in rural areas as well as suburban and urban areas.'
However, some locals, including Representative Stan Lambert, have voiced concerns that school vouchers could negatively impact rural school districts. Abbott countered that the program is much smaller in scale than charter schools.
'But know this, the scope of this school choice program is smaller than one quarter of charter schools. You haven't seen charter schools disrupt public schools in Abilene. Neither will you see school choice disrupt public schools in Abilene, San Angelo, or any other place like that,' Abbott said.
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Teacher pay has been labeled an emergency item multiple times. As the state moves through the 89th session, Abbott says raises are coming.
'I did make it an emergency item, because there are several criteria that lead to the best education. One of the foremost is having good-quality educators. To make sure we have those educators, we want to pay them and pay them more. We will be providing an all-time record amount of pay for teachers this session. That money will pass in the final bill that will reach my desk, the budget at the end of May, and should be effective come September,' explained Abbott.
He added that teachers in districts with 5,000 or more students could see a raise of at least $5,500, while those in districts with fewer than 5,000 students could receive up to $10,000.
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