The LISD school board approved its agenda and City Council approved agenda amendments at their respective meetings Oct. 21.
“The board’s priority in the 85th legislative session was to increase the basic allotment," LISD Superintendent Lori Rapp said at the meeting. “We are now about to enter the 89th session and I do not know how many more people can say ‘the state needs to invest in Texas school and Texas teachers.’”
The context
The legislature is expected to consider legislation on a wide range of issues with a direct impact on municipal government and school districts. Topics already appearing in interim charge reports include appraisal caps, tax rate limits, debt limits, revised election procedures and state-imposed limits on land use.
State officials are also anticipated to discuss school funding, enrollment, decreasing attendance rates, increases in special education enrollment and a decrease in its funding. Rapp said the Senate Finance Committee and other entities are also preparing for discussions on attendance-based versus enrollment-based funding.
City and district staff both reviewed the North Texas Commission’s priorities as well as other agencies and drafted several priorities in alignment.
The details
The LISD legislative priority boils down to one item; a request to increase state funding for education by raising the per student allotment, according to district documents. LISD approved a $4.5 million shortfall for fiscal year 2024-25, and district officials are considering the closure of schools.
District officials believe raising the allotment will have the following effects:
- Ensure high quality staff
- Reduces recapture
- Puts more money in classroom
- Support student staff mental health
- Offset underfunded mandates
- Mitigate teacher shortages
- Maintain small class sizes
- Help ensure staff raises
- Allow for more program choice
According to district documents, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan indicated the education focus for the 89th session would be “a strong focus on school choice and education funding, with close collaboration planned with Governor Abbott, the Texas Senate, House Members and Chairman Brad Buckley of the House Public Education Committee.”
More details
On the city side, officials plan to continue voicing opposition to "proposed legislation that would cause direct harm to the city or would interfere with the city’s ability to provide quality services to its residents," according to city documents.
During a workshop held in August, council members discussed possible critical issues for the legislative session and identified seven priority topics. These issues will receive the highest level of monitoring from the city’s legislative team and each were assessed in their likelihood to be addressed by the legislature this session and by how much of an opportunity the city would have to influence any such legislation.
Based on that assessment, the city plans to track the following priorities this session:
- Sales tax sourcing and sales tax agreements relief
- Provide responsible property tax relief
- Initiatives to address the affordable housing crisis
- Support state investment in public transit infrastructure
- State funding for TSTC land acquisition and construction in Denton County
- Preserve the voice of local government in legislative matters
- Increased TxDOT resources for aesthetic maintenance of interstate highways
Other proposed legislative positions are listed in the document and divided into seven main categories: local authority, local revenue, parks funding, public safety, social equity, transportation and water.
On Oct. 21, Lewisville City Council amended 12 legislative positions into the agenda including:
- Support legislation to restore city’s ability to enforce reasonable public health and nuisance ordinances
- Support legislation that would preserve cities’ ability use tax-increment financing to fund infrastructure
- Oppose legislation that would prevent the court from issuing Capias Pro Fine Warrants to incompliant defendants
- Support increased funding and programming through the Texas State Library & Archives Commission
- Support legislation that will protect the right to read, intellectual freedom, academic freedom, and First Amendment rights of Texans in school, public, and academic libraries
- Support Broadband Development Office funding and other library programs
- Support legislation that would provide consistency and uniformity in the compliance fees for Class “C” misdemeanors
- Oppose legislation that would repeal a DPS program allowing courts to suspend a driver’s license a person fails to satisfy the judgments placed against them
- Oppose diversion of funding from the Local Park Grant program
- Oppose erosion of municipal authority to require a development to dedicate a portion of land for park use
- Support revise definitions in the Texas Penal Code to not classify a taser as a firearm
- Oppose legislation that would make it more difficult for legally eligible Texans to register to vote
City officials expect to be active again during 2025 with letters, written and in-person committee testimony, and open communication with our local legislative delegation, officials wrote in the agenda.
Similarly, LISD staff plan to update the board each month during the session and notify if any special sessions are called.
