At the Oak Hill Business & Professional Association's monthly luncheon this afternoon, State Representatives Paul Workman, R-Austin, and Donna Howard, D-Austin, summarized a few key takeaways from Texas' 85^th legislative session.

“This session was labeled ‘It could’ve been worse’,” Howard said. “We had a lot of social issues that took us away from our primary focuses. So, some of us came out of it not having accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. But there were some good things that came out of this session.”

Howard highlighted a few accomplishments, including the adoption of the budget.

“We had a decent budget that we [myself and Workman] both supported in the end,” Howard said. “It’s not the way we wanted it to happen because we had less to work with based on some choices we made last session, like tax cuts and transportation, but it’s a decent budget.”

Workman said another positive outcome of the session was the strides made with Child Protective Services, or CPS.

“We made a lot of strides with CPS,” he said. “We’re going to hire more case managers and hopefully lower the caseloads. We’re also working on getting more community involvement.”

Workman said a total of 1,200 bills made it to the governor’s desk, which is pretty similar to quotas of the past.

Members of the audience were given the chance to ask questions based on their concerns. Topics of discussion included school finance, sanctuary cities legislation, health care and road improvements.

Howard, who supported House Bill 21, said there is not enough money in the public education system and disagreed with the way property taxes are distributed for school funding. HB 21 attempted to simplify the outdated funding formula that determines how money is allocated to public school districts. The bill died May 24.

“The property taxes you pay for schools doesn’t all go to schools,” Howard said. “It goes into the general revenue fund, which can be spent on anything. You are paying taxes on what we are saying you owe the school but it’s not all going to schools and I think that’s egregious”

Workman, an advocate for Senate Bill 4, said his support was based on public safety. SB 4 attempts to abolish sanctuary cities by making local officials criminally liable for not enforcing immigration laws. The bill passed in the Texas House 94 to 53.

“Yes, I supported the House version of Senate Bill 4,” Workman said. “You have to remember this is about public safety and making sure the criminal aliens are not among us... It’s not about rounding people up and sending them back to Mexico. This is about public safety. So yes, I supported that.