Latest news with #TexasBudget
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas' $338 billion budget passes Senate, heads to Gov. Abbott's desk
The Brief The Texas Legislature has passed a $338 billion state budget for the next two years, which now heads to Governor Greg Abbott for approval. Key spending areas include $51 billion for property tax relief, $8.5 billion for public education, and investments in the electrical grid and water infrastructure. Governor Abbott has 10 days to sign or veto the budget and related bills, or they will automatically become law. AUSTIN - The Texas Senate approved Senate Bill 1 on Saturday, marking the final passage of the state budget before it's signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Here are some of the notable ways your tax dollars will be spent over the next two years. According to a Saturday release by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the highlights of the budget are property tax relief, public education, and electrical grid and water infrastructure expansion. See breakdowns of the legislature's plans for these further down. In all, the legislature has passed a $338 billion budget to fund the state's operations for the next two years. Patrick's release notes that this is a 1.2% increase from the last biennium. The All State Funds budget for Texas is $237.1 billion, an increase of 4.8% from the last biennium. The House passed SB 1 on April 11. What they're saying Patrick's office released the following statement on his X account on Saturday: As noted by Patrick, $51 billion of the new budget is allocated towards property tax relief. What this means for the Texas homeowner is that more money will now be sent by the state to school districts, reducing the amount of property tax dollars those districts will collect from residents, in combination with a raising of the state's homestead exemption. The latter, a joint effort of Senate Bill 4 and Senate Joint Resolution 2, both passed in February, would raise the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000, or $150,000 for seniors. This is the value of your home that cannot be taxed to pay for public schools; the remainder of the home's value is still eligible to be taxed. According to the Texas Tribune, this is a continuation of existing cuts that were passed in 2019. To read the Texas Tribune's full breakdown of property tax relief covered by SB 1, click here. Last week, the House and Senate were able to come to an agreement on Senate Bill 2, the sweeping school funding bill with a final price tag of $8.5 billion. The funding includes a $4.2 billion allotment towards pay raises for teachers and staff, as well as expanded incentive pay and teacher training programs. Some Texas school districts have already announced how they'll be using this funding. Other highlights include $1.3 billion for expenses like insurance, utilities and contributions to the state teacher retirement system. The increase in funding also feeds into special education funding, the funding of full-day pre-K for children of teachers, early learning interventions and career and technical education. Those changes add up to $2 billion. Also included is another $430 million for school safety improvements. Senate Bill 6, the proposal to increase Texas' electric grid reliability, and House Joint Resolution 7, which creates a state water fund, both await the governor's approval. SB 6 gives Texas oversight over energy transactions between power generators and the state's largest consumers of electricity. The Texas Tribune covered this legislation in depth in a report you can read here. HJR 7 allocates $1 billion towards the state's sales and use tax to create a water fund. The legislature plans to use this fund for projects to bolster the state's water supply. What's next SB 1 and the related legislation it would fund have either been approved or are awaiting the approval of the governor. Abbott has 10 days to either sign or veto the bills. After 10 days of no action, they would become law by default. The Source Information in this article comes from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas Legislature Online, the Texas Tribune and previous FOX reporting.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas budget bill passes with crime victim compensation fix sparked by KXAN
AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Texas budget bill, following conference committee agreement, has passed the legislature and will soon head to Gov. Greg Abbott for consideration. Included in Senate Bill 1 is a fix to the performance reporting process of the state's Crime Victims' Compensation Program sparked by a KXAN investigation. EXPLORE: KXAN's Crime Victims' Compensation fund investigations In 2022, KXAN began reporting on the impact of delayed payments by the CVC program, which is run by the Office of Attorney General. Amid that investigation, KXAN found the OAG was reporting an inaccurate picture of its performance to state officials and lawmakers. KXAN discovered the office was using a flawed formula that mixed two different types of payments in its calculation: victim claims and sexual assault examination reimbursements, the latter of which take just days and are paid directly to hospitals. That method made it appear crime victims and their loved ones were paid much faster for items like funeral expenses and medical restitution, on average, than the months-long reality our team documented through victim interviews and related records. After KXAN's reporting, the OAG acknowledged to lawmakers that the measurements weren't accurate. The budget bill directs the measurements be split apart, and it provides a 90-day average goal for victims' first payments. The bill also indicates the OAG 'shall submit a report detailing the expenditure of funds' for victim assistance. That report – which is to be submitted within 100 calendar days after the close of each fiscal year to the Legislative Budget Board, governor, Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee – will include 'audit and oversight activities conducted' related to the grants, thus increasing transparency and accountability for victims under the program. SB 1 next heads to the State Comptroller for certification. The comptroller will confirm the spending bill does not exceed the amount of revenue available. After certification, the bill heads to the governor for approval. The governor does have the power to line-item veto specific appropriations in the bill. Once signed, the bill becomes law. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas legislature approves $338B state budget for next two years
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas Legislature has come to an agreement on the $338 billion budget that will fund state agencies and priorities over the next two fiscal years, including billions in property tax relief, billions in additional dollars for public schools and a new education savings account, and additional dollars for childcare. By law, the appropriations bill is the only piece of legislation the legislature must pass when they convene every two years. State Rep. Greg Bonnen, R – Friendswood — the chair of the House Appropriations Committee — laid out the final version of the bill on the House floor. 'This is a very responsible balanced budget that falls within all of our constitutional and statutory spending limits, and it meets the needs of our rapidly growing state,' Bonnen said. Bonnen laid out just some of the highlights of the bill. The budget addresses the workload on the Department of Public Safety as the state continues to grow by allocating $319 million to add an additional 467 new state troopers along with another $102 million to improve drivers license services. Lawmakers also approved a $10.4 billion investment in behavioral health services, including dollars for research and prevention of mental health disorders. More than $2 billion will go toward increasing the wages of personal care attendants from $10.60 an hour to $13 an hour. There is also money to help with a gap in healthcare in the state's rural areas. About $100 million will be added to the state's rural hospital grant program to help keep hospitals in these areas funded and open as many are closing their doors. The appropriations bill also includes $51 billion of property tax relief. That includes a measure — pending approval from voters in November — that will increase the homestead exemption for homeowners from $100,000 to $140,000. Supporters said it will save the average homeowner $500 annually. The final version of the budget increases the Foundation School Program by more than $13 billion to a total of $75.1 billion in all funds. The FSP is the primary source of state funding for public schools. In terms of education, the bill provides for the additional $8.5 billion of new funding for public schools and $1 billion for the state's newly adopted education savings account program, which will allow families to apply for state dollars to be used toward paying for private education. State Rep. Donna Howard, D – Austin, supports the appropriations bill but did mention that the new dollars for public funding still fall short of what schools need to catch back up with the costs of inflation and the lack of new state funding in previous sessions. 'Though it's not enough to get schools back to where they were in 2019, it's far better than current law or what the House and Senate were proposing back in January,' Howard said. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised the budget and the work of Senate Finance Chair Joan Huffman. Patrick issued a statement after the Senate passed the legislation, noting investments in the electrical grid and water infrastructure that he said keep the state on 'a path to sustainable growth.' Patrick also highlighted plans to boost dementia research. 'The budget funds the creation of the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT), which will bring the best Dementia researchers and care providers to our state,' Patrick wrote. Voters will decide in November whether to establish DPRIT and transfer $3 billion to the Dementia Prevention & Research Fund from state general revenue to provide funding over the next 10 years. The appropriations bill will now head to the State Comptroller for certification. The comptroller will confirm that the spending bill does not exceed the amount of revenue available. After certification, the bill heads to the governor for approval. The governor does have the power to line-item veto specific appropriations in the bill. Once signed, the bill becomes law. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
3 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Texas Legislature approves $338 billion two-year spending plan with a focus on property tax relief
Texas lawmakers signed off Saturday on a $338 billion two-year spending plan that directs billions toward hiking teacher pay, cutting property taxes and shoring up the state's water infrastructure, after House and Senate budget writers ironed out their differences and won approval from both chambers on their final draft. The budget now heads to Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who is expected to verify there is enough revenue to cover the Legislature's planned spending — the last step before the 1,056-page bill reaches Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. The Texas State Capitol on Sept. 20, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Tamir Kalifa / Stringer / Getty Images The spending plan doles out the money to run the state's business for the next two years, from September through the end of August 2027. It includes the underlying funding for some of the biggest bills passed this session, much of it paid for with general revenue, Texas' main source of taxpayer funds used to cover core services. Lawmakers approved $149 billion in general revenue spending, with the rest drawn from federal funds and other state revenue earmarked for specific uses. The budget's $338 billion price tag is nearly $17 billion more than what lawmakers budgeted two years ago, about a 5% increase. However, the Legislature is expected to approve additional spending for the current cycle — which runs through the end of August — in what is known as the supplemental budget, lessening the year-to-year increase. A large chunk of the budget — more than one out of every seven dollars — is devoted to maintaining and providing new property tax cuts, a tab that has grown to $51 billion. For the last several years, lawmakers have tried to rein in Texans' property tax bills by sending billions of dollars to school districts to reduce how much in property taxes they collect from homeowners and businesses. The state does not collect property taxes; its coffers are filled through a combination of sources that include sales tax, taxes on oil and gas production, and franchise taxes on businesses. With the help of a projected $24 billion budget surplus, the Legislature is spending some $45 billion to maintain existing cuts lawmakers have enacted since 2019, with the rest going toward a mix of "compression" — sending money to school districts to replace funds they otherwise would have collected in property taxes, thus lowering tax rates — and raising the state's homestead exemption, or the amount of a home's value that can't be taxed to pay for public schools. A chunk of the money will also go toward tax cuts for businesses. About $3 billion of the property tax relief will come from money lawmakers had originally planned to spend on border security. The team of five senators and five House members who hammered out the final budget draft diverted nearly half of the $6.5 billion set aside for the state's border clampdown in earlier versions, marking one of the biggest eleventh-hour budget changes. It was a reflection of a monthslong decrease in illegal border crossings and the billions that could be coming to Texas under a tentative federal plan to reimburse states for their immigration enforcement efforts under the Biden administration. Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the spending plan is a "responsible, balanced budget that falls within all constitutional and statutory spending limits and meets the needs of our rapidly growing state." "The Texas economy is the envy of the nation, and the budget will secure our state's prosperity for generations to come," Huffman, the Senate's lead budget writer, said on the floor Saturday. "We have leveraged our state surplus over several sessions to make targeted, one-time investments without burdening future budgets." Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood and Huffman's counterpart in the House, said the budget "prioritizes public education, tax relief, public safety, infrastructure and improving taxpayer services for individuals and businesses." The House and Senate have been largely aligned on budget matters this session. Each chamber approved plans earlier this year that spent similar amounts overall and lined up on big-ticket items including how much money to put toward school vouchers, property tax cuts and water infrastructure. Much of the fine print — outlining how that money would be used — was worked out in separate bills. Among the marquee items is an $8.5 billion boost for Texas' public schools, the product of weeks of negotiations between the chambers. The funding package, known as House Bill 2, provides extra money for teacher and staff pay raises, educator preparation, special education, safety requirements and early childhood learning. Another $1 billion in the budget is set aside for a school voucher program that will allow families to use public money to fund their children's private school tuition or pay for a range of school-related expenses. Abbott has already signed the voucher bill into law and has said he will approve the school funding bill. "We passed historic policies for the nearly 6 million students across Texas, but this is where we bring those policies to life," Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and chair of the Senate Education Committee, said of the state budget, known as Senate Bill 1. "Without SB 1, those reforms are just words on paper. This budget turns our promises into action and gives lasting weight to our priorities." Shannon Halbrook, a fiscal policy expert at the left-leaning think tank Every Texan, said the budget contains "some things that we consider wins with an asterisk." "We're definitely happy that they're investing more into public education," Halbrook said. "It's not quite the way we would have preferred for them to do it. For example, we've consistently advocated for increasing the basic allotment, because it's a really simple way to provide additional funding for schools across the board. Instead, HB 2 chooses to kind of do it in a much more complicated, convoluted way." More than 70% of the budget is reserved for education and health and human services, the latter of which includes Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage for children from low-income households that make too much to qualify for Medicaid. One lingering uncertainty was how much the state would hike pay for personal care "community attendants," who are paid through the Medicaid program to help patients with tasks such as laundry, errands, grooming, eating and medication. The House had proposed increasing their base wage to more than $14 an hour, nearly $2 more than the Senate's proposal. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican and the chamber's lead health care budget writer, said the issue amounted to "one of the most contentious parts" of her section of the budget. In the end, the chambers agreed to meet in the middle, spending nearly $1 billion in general revenue to hike the attendants' base pay to $13 an hour. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said the attendants fulfill a critical function caring for vulnerable Texans, and even with the pay raises, "we have not gotten anywhere near where we need to be." But, she acknowledged, "we did get something." "This is the Legislature's budget. It doesn't have everything in it we want," said Howard, a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee. "That's the whole point of why we're here. It's a compromise with the Senate … And any compromise doesn't include everything we fought for in the House." The budget also puts some $10 billion toward the state's energy, water and broadband infrastructure. That includes $5 billion to double the Texas Energy Fund, a low-interest taxpayer-funded loan program meant to incentivize the development of gas-fueled power plants. Lawmakers are also putting $2.5 billion into the Texas Water Fund as part of the supplemental budget for the current spending cycle. The fund is used to pay for new water supply projects — such as desalination — repairing old water infrastructure, conservation and flood mitigation projects. In November, voters will be asked to approve a proposal to allot $1 billion a year starting in 2027— $20 billion in total — until 2047 to secure the state's water supply. Disclosure: Every Texan has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas Legislature approves $338 billion two-year spending plan with a focus on property tax relief
Texas lawmakers signed off Saturday on a $338 billion two-year spending plan that directs billions toward hiking teacher pay, cutting property taxes and shoring up the state's water infrastructure, after House and Senate budget writers ironed out their differences and won approval from both chambers on their final draft. The budget now heads to Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who is expected to verify there is enough revenue to cover the Legislature's planned spending — the last step before the 1,056-page bill reaches Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. The spending plan doles out the money to run the state's business for the next two years, from September through the end of August 2027. It includes the underlying funding for some of the biggest bills passed this session, much of it paid for with general revenue, Texas' main source of taxpayer funds used to cover core services. Lawmakers approved $149 billion in general revenue spending, with the rest drawn from federal funds and other state revenue earmarked for specific uses. The budget's $338 billion price tag is nearly $17 billion more than what lawmakers budgeted two years ago, about a 5% increase. However, the Legislature is expected to approve additional spending for the current cycle — which runs through the end of August — in what is known as the supplemental budget, lessening the year-to-year increase. A large chunk of the budget — more than one out of every seven dollars — is devoted to maintaining and providing new property tax cuts, a tab that has grown to $51 billion. For the last several years, lawmakers have tried to rein in Texans' property tax bills by sending billions of dollars to school districts to reduce how much in property taxes they collect from homeowners and businesses. The state does not collect property taxes; its coffers are filled through a combination of sources that include sales tax, taxes on oil and gas production, and franchise taxes on businesses. With the help of a projected $24 billion budget surplus, the Legislature is spending some $45 billion to maintain existing cuts lawmakers have enacted since 2019, with the rest going toward a mix of 'compression' — sending money to school districts to replace funds they otherwise would have collected in property taxes, thus lowering tax rates — and raising the state's homestead exemption, or the amount of a home's value that can't be taxed to pay for public schools. A chunk of the money will also go toward tax cuts for businesses. About $3 billion of the property tax relief will come from money lawmakers had originally planned to spend on border security. The team of five senators and five House members who hammered out the final budget draft diverted nearly half of the $6.5 billion set aside for the state's border clampdown in earlier versions, marking one of the biggest eleventh-hour budget changes. It was a reflection of a monthslong decrease in illegal border crossings and the billions that could be coming to Texas under a tentative federal plan to reimburse states for their immigration enforcement efforts under the Biden administration. Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the spending plan is a 'responsible, balanced budget that falls within all constitutional and statutory spending limits and meets the needs of our rapidly growing state.' 'The Texas economy is the envy of the nation, and the budget will secure our state's prosperity for generations to come,' Huffman, the Senate's lead budget writer, said on the floor Saturday. 'We have leveraged our state surplus over several sessions to make targeted, one-time investments without burdening future budgets.' Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood and Huffman's counterpart in the House, said the budget 'prioritizes public education, tax relief, public safety, infrastructure and improving taxpayer services for individuals and businesses.' The House and Senate have been largely aligned on budget matters this session. Each chamber approved plans earlier this year that spent similar amounts overall and lined up on big-ticket items including how much money to put toward school vouchers, property tax cuts and water infrastructure. Much of the fine print — outlining how that money would be used — was worked out in separate bills. Among the marquee items is an $8.5 billion boost for Texas' public schools, the product of weeks of negotiations between the chambers. The funding package, known as House Bill 2, provides extra money for teacher and staff pay raises, educator preparation, special education, safety requirements and early childhood learning. Another $1 billion in the budget is set aside for a school voucher program that will allow families to use public money to fund their children's private school tuition or pay for a range of school-related expenses. Abbott has already signed the voucher bill into law and has said he will approve the school funding bill. 'We passed historic policies for the nearly 6 million students across Texas, but this is where we bring those policies to life,' Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and chair of the Senate Education Committee, said of the state budget, known as Senate Bill 1. 'Without SB 1, those reforms are just words on paper. This budget turns our promises into action and gives lasting weight to our priorities.' Shannon Halbrook, a fiscal policy expert at the left-leaning think tank Every Texan, said the budget contains 'some things that we consider wins with an asterisk.' 'We're definitely happy that they're investing more into public education,' Halbrook said. 'It's not quite the way we would have preferred for them to do it. For example, we've consistently advocated for increasing the basic allotment, because it's a really simple way to provide additional funding for schools across the board. Instead, HB 2 chooses to kind of do it in a much more complicated, convoluted way.' More than 70% of the budget is reserved for education and health and human services, the latter of which includes Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage for children from low-income households that make too much to qualify for Medicaid. One lingering uncertainty was how much the state would hike pay for personal care 'community attendants,' who are paid through the Medicaid program to help patients with tasks such as laundry, errands, grooming, eating and medication. The House had proposed increasing their base wage to more than $14 an hour, nearly $2 more than the Senate's proposal. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican and the chamber's lead health care budget writer, said the issue amounted to 'one of the most contentious parts' of her section of the budget. In the end, the chambers agreed to meet in the middle, spending nearly $1 billion in general revenue to hike the attendants' base pay to $13 an hour. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said the attendants fulfill a critical function caring for vulnerable Texans, and even with the pay raises, 'we have not gotten anywhere near where we need to be.' But, she acknowledged, 'we did get something.' 'This is the Legislature's budget. It doesn't have everything in it we want,' said Howard, a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee. 'That's the whole point of why we're here. It's a compromise with the Senate … And any compromise doesn't include everything we fought for in the House.' The budget also puts some $10 billion toward the state's energy, water and broadband infrastructure. That includes $5 billion to double the Texas Energy Fund, a low-interest taxpayer-funded loan program meant to incentivize the development of gas-fueled power plants. Lawmakers are also putting $2.5 billion into the Texas Water Fund as part of the supplemental budget for the current spending cycle. The fund is used to pay for new water supply projects — such as desalination — repairing old water infrastructure, conservation and flood mitigation projects. In November, voters will be asked to approve a proposal to allot $1 billion a year starting in 2027— $20 billion in total — until 2047 to secure the state's water supply. Disclosure: Every Texan has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
