May 30, 2023      6:18 PM

SB: Abbott pushes for a full time Texas Legislature, fumbles the special session call by trying to micromanage the process

After staying silent on specifics of property tax reform for months, Abbott now demands specific legislation; like Rick Perry a decade ago, Abbott faces a noncompliant Senate because he is likely overstepping his authority by using his proclamation to write legislation

“If the Texas House and Senate do not do a thing together, then that thing does not happen.”

Those are the words of former Speaker Joe Straus, who like Speaker Dade Phelan has had the joy of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blasting him on a daily basis. Meantime, Gov. Greg Abbott has now finally told us all what he’d like the Texas Legislature to do about property taxes.

Abbott, who for five months stayed publicly silent on the details of any property tax plan, issued his proclamation for a special session last night instructing the members to “cut property-tax rates solely by reducing the school district maximum compressed tax rate in order to provide lasting property-tax relief for Texas taxpayers.” The House tonight is passing such a legislative package.

But Lt. Gov. Patrick pushed back immediately, telling a crowd this morning at the Texas Public Policy Foundation that there was an unsuccessful candidate for governor who ran on a platform that included fixing property taxes solely through tax compression. Patrick didn’t name him, but that candidate was former Sen. Don Huffines.

Then Patrick went on to lead a revolt against the governor as the Senate passed a property tax bill including tax compression and an increase in the homestead exemption up to $100,000. The House didn’t even take up that plan as Speaker Phelan ruled it wasn’t germane to Abbott’s micromanagement.

So, this is already a mess. How did we get here?

By Scott Braddock

Copyright May 30, 2023, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved