Texas House and Senate reach a deal on property tax relief

After failing to arrive at a compromise during either the regular legislative session or first special session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) released a joint statement today with details of a property tax deal their respective chambers are expected to pass later this week.  

Missing from the deal, as described by Patrick and Phelan, is the teacher bonus unanimously adopted as an amendment to the Senate’s property tax proposal or the school funding increase that would have triggered a salary jump for educators as proposed in a bill filed last week by a group of Democratic House members.  

There is considerable speculation that the funding for teachers that was so highly touted by members of both chambers as recently as last week was nixed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who is still working to get private school vouchers into law. Relatively meager proposals to increase educator compensation during the regular session ultimately failed when they were tied to the governor-backed effort to pass a voucher bill.  

The House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment is scheduled to meet this Tuesday and Wednesday, July 12-13, to discuss both teacher pay and vouchers. ATPE strongly encourages educators to submit comments to the committee on the need for legislation to give educators additional pay that is not contingent on passage of a voucher bill, which would defund public schools. Read this post for more on how to submit comments directly to the committee ahead of this week’s hearings.