HB 3 by Huberty et al, the comprehensive school finance bill that implements recommendations made by the Texas Commission on Public School Finance to improve our school finance system is scheduled to be voted on later today. The bill provides $4.5 billion in new funding to public school districts to improve student achievement, an additional $2…

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…

With the House deadline for passing bills now before us, there are ten bills still alive that would impact Texans broadly that TTARA is following: Good Bills Yet to Pass HB 1: State Budget for 2020-21. The bill is one of only two bills that absolutely, positively must pass this session (the other is the supplemental…