The overview
During a Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon Oct. 25, Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, shared what legislators have accomplished and are working on as well as what remains to be done.
“We have a lot before us,” he said.
Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, and Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston, were supposed to join Middleton for the discussion but couldn’t make an appearance due to the House meeting during the luncheon.
Zooming in
Legislators passed property tax relief in the form of increasing homestead exemptions and lowering school district tax rates by 24%. The state will essentially pay for the difference instead of local taxpayers, Middleton said.
Middleton encouraged the audience to vote in favor of state Proposition 4 on Nov. 7 ballots to secure the savings for Texan taxpayers.
Middleton also said he authored a bill that passed that will allow school districts to hire chaplains. If a district’s leaders want to hire a chaplain and then students want to visit that chaplain, that should be allowed, he said.
Some other things legislators accomplished this session include:
- Appropriating a record amount—$1.4 billion—for school security
- Funding colleges based on outcomes such as how much debt students attain and if graduates get jobs after college
- Making the state pay for dual-credit classes for low-income students, a burden that previously fell on the districts
Middleton said the electric grid suffered this summer in part because wind energy was not at the levels it should have been. While wind provides normally 33% of the grid’s power, it was only about 8% during the heatwave, Middleton said.
“We were right on the edge of blackouts again,” he said.
State Proposition 7 on the Nov. 7 ballot is related to oil and gas power distribution not only to ensure Texas’ grid stays on but that the cost to energy users doesn’t balloon, Middleton said.
Middleton also said he’s hopeful a piece of legislation will pass that would ban COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The vaccine should be the choice of the individual, and no one’s livelihood should be threatened because they refuse to take it, he said.
Additionally, Middleton mentioned Senate Bill 1, which would allow parents to use state money to pay for private schools. Middleton said the state trusts residents to choose what grocery stores to use their food stamps at, and schools should be treated the same.
Stay tuned
Middleton said the federal government is undoing a lot of the work the state is doing—work he said the federal government should be doing in the first place—to secure Texas’ border to Mexico.
The state has allocated $5.1 billion toward border security, and that’s money that could have been set aside for further property tax relief, Middleton said.
“Hopefully we get paid back some day,” he said.
