HB 496 Case Study

There are special sessions that are called by the governor. The legislative process in Texas is a hybrid system with a combination of both the full time legislature and the part time legislature. The 140 day sessions is a short period to conduct all the business of the state and the constitution gives the governor the power to call as many special sessions needed in order to complete important state business. These special sessions are short and do not exceed 30 days. Reducing the duration of these sessions is important to ensure that the government does not govern too much. At the end of a legislative session any bills that have not been approved by both houses die on the last day of the session. The governor can use the threat of a special session to motivate legislators to focus on issues that are of concern to the governor. The compromises that are possible between Texas 140 day sessions and a full time approach include a reduction of costs and the availability of adequate time to discuss and debate legislations. The sessions are limited to 140 days, but if there are issues that need legislative attention, then the governor can convene special sessions to address these issues (Tucker,

Texas students deserve better. Our state leaders must take action to restore all funding cuts to higher education and keep the dream of college alive for all Texas

Continued funding of CTE classes in community college and adding money to the CSUs to increase openings. They do not want the emergency maintenance funding to come from Prop 39, but from

Texas faces many problems with the current educational system and many of them continue to go unresolved due to the way Texas has established certain laws. A decline in education has been seen since 2006 when legislators decided to cut property tax which pays for education (Maule). Those policies only further hinder the progress of education improving, which is why policies like those do not need to be further implemented. More involvement with students is needed and that will be acquired by having more effective teachers. Many studies have shown that students with effective teachers do better in class than those with ineffective teachers. Not only do students do poorly with ineffective teachers, but “[s]tudies show that most students drop out due to poor academic performance. And studies have proven that the teacher in the

Many of the other financing problems come from individual districts that some times misuse money that could be used to better the quality of education. Assistant Attorney General Shelly Dahlberg, said that individual districts must also “show they are spending their money efficiently”. Superintendents spend too much on items that they seem to prioritize such as iPads and equipment for the sports departments and other extracurricular activities that aren’t required by the state. At times, they also base their teacher pay on seniority rather than student performance. If Texas were to stop overemphasizing on the local control of its school districts and were to hold individual districts responsible for not spending their money efficiently, there would be a lot less shortcomings and a lot more money directed into bettering the

The Lawmakers passed a 2.6 billion supplemental spending bill that will be used to plug holes in the budget passed two years, this bill served Texas. Lawmakers also passed a bill that would make CPS’ parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services, a standalone agency, this Bill served the Children. Abbott has signed a bill that will increase punishment for teachers who engage in inappropriate relationships with their students. The new

The process of a bill becoming a law in the state of Texas can be harsh and brutal. With the number of complicated steps accompanied by the forces of many different delay tactics, the process can prove to be exhausting.

This could cut the local tax rate – in most school districts now around $1.50 per $100 of property value for maintenance and operations (M&O) – to roughly 50 cents! The maximum M&O tax rate – also now generally capped at $1.50 – must be reduced by the same percentage as total M&O taxes. If the income tax cut the property tax rate by 65%, then it would also cut the tax cap by 65%. After the cap was cut, only the voters in a school district could increase their district’s maximum tax rate. The Bullock Amendment then provides that the remaining one-third of income tax revenue could be spent, but only on education. State income tax payments are deductible from taxable income in calculating federal income taxes. Deductibility shifts part of the cost of public education to the federal government. The above chart shows that, although the tax would have raised $16.4 billion in 2004, the net cost to Texas taxpayers would have been only $3.9 billion. Lower property taxes would have returned most of the new revenue ($10.9 billion) to taxpayers. Uncle Sam would have picked up 10% of the total cost of the income tax ($1.6 billion) through higher deductions on federal tax

Greg Abbott is the 48th and current Governor of the State of Texas. Governor Abbott was born in Wichita Falls, Texas and was raised in Duncanville, Texas. He is currently married to the First Lady Cecilia Abbott and is the father to his only child, Audrey.

In recent years, the United States has been struggling to pass transgender rights, and Texas is of no means of an exception. Some of these include bathroom rights. In Texas, the bathroom bill passed through the Texas Senate, but did not survive through the Texas House, resulting in a temporary halt. Even now, the government still question the rights. It is suggested that Texas may need a bathroom bill, but would probably end in some kind of financial consequence, along with many Americans losing their jobs. The Texas Bathroom Bill, otherwise known as SB6, could also fuel disunity within our nation and cause several riots.

The HB 1111 did not survive committee and on 2/13/18 the bill was left in appropriations. I felt that the bill started off in the right direction. On 1/10/18 the bill was referred to Committee on Science and Technology. Science and Technology introduced an amendment to be added to the bill that stated, “ Grants shall be issued in the order that each completed eligible application is received. In the event that the amount of eligible grants requested in a fiscal year exceeds the funds available in the Fund, qualified schools may reapply for grants in the next fiscal year.” There were 22- Y and 0- N to the proposed amendment. On 1/29/18 the STEAM bill was referred to the Committee on Appropriations and on 1/31/18 the bill was assigned to Appropriations Subcommittee: Elementary and Secondary Education. On 2/7/18 the Elementary and Secondary subcommittee voted 5-Y and 3-N to lay the Bill on the table. Finally, on 2/13/18 the HB 1111 was left in appropriations.

The Texas AFT wants to influence the legislator because the school districts have been left to try to make up for inadequate state aid by raising local tax rates, even as the state has continued to make it much harder for them to accomplish this. Basically, all they want to do is handle the budget crisis in the school districts of Texas. To analyze the successes and failures of Texas AFT in influencing legislation is short and sweet; school systems are still under budgeted and local taxes are still being raised to help the schools. The only break educators have received was in 2006 with “surplus” dollars tax swap for which the bill is now belatedly coming due.

Expanding the school calendar will not only lessen the burden of having a limited amount of time to teach everything in the curriculum, but will also make up for lost school hours. This in turn will also decrease the cramming of tests into one semester. Of course going through with any of these plans would mean an increase in school finances and budgeting, which public schools lack since 2011.

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S.B. 496 was presented by Senator Woodhouse. The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Board of Regents to issue revenue bonds and other securities in a total principal amount not to exceed $58,710,000 to finance the construction of an engineer building and residence hall at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Current law stated that the Board of Regents can issue up to $45,000,000 of revenue bonds and