Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen today announced that an agreement has been reached on the session’s priority bills: HB 1, the state budget; SB 2, property tax reform; and HB 3, school finance reform. As of the time of the press conference, all three bills are in document production, and…

Two Big Taxpayer Wins in the Senate HB 3143, extending Tax Code Chapter 312 to 2029, passed the Senate last night on a 30 to 1 vote. Chapter 312 allows local governments to offer tax abatements on new investment projects. The bipartisan bill was authored by Representative Jim Murphy (R-Houston) and sponsored by Senator Royce…

We have two 86th Legislative Wrap-Up Sessions planned—providing continuing education credit through IPT, the State Board of Public Accountancy, and the State Bar. On June 5th, starting at 10:00 a.m., we’re going to conduct an informative, interactive, and entertaining two hour session in Austin in which we review the key bills of the session through a…

Senate Passes School Finance Bill The Senate last night passed its version of HB 3, the school finance bill overhauling the school finance formulas, 26-2-3. The bill implements most of the recommendations of the School Finance Commission which met every month during 2018 and took expert testimony on the recommendations. The Senate de-coupled the bill from a…

In this Issue House Passes Senate Bill 2 (Property Tax Reform Bill) Senate Education Committee Votes Out School Finance Bill House Passes Senate Bill 2 (Property Tax Reform Bill) After a seven-hour debate, the House substitute for SB 2 passed the House of Representatives on second reading on Tuesday with a vote of 107—40 ( see…