Leaders of education organizations and school districts such as Klein ISD hope education spending will be emphasized during the upcoming session, including better pay and benefits for teachers. State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, said he will be advocating for increases in teacher pay as well as cost-of-living increases for retired teachers’ pensions.
“I think it’s important that we hold our teachers to a level that embraces their worth and their value and certainly making sure that ... we give them the pay raises and the money that they absolutely need,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Texas counties saw property values increase by an average of 20% in the last year, according to state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe. During an Oct. 5 meeting held by the Greater East Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Creighton said he hopes this increase will spark tax relief from the Legislature. Creighton has proposed legislators lower the property value appraisal cap to around 3% instead of the current limit of 10%.
From 2021-22, the average market value of properties increased 21% in Harris County, according to data from the county. Prior to 2010, the county’s average market value rose no more than 15.4% year over year.
Another top priority for local legislators in the upcoming session will be criminal justice reform as multiple legislators have already filed bills pertaining to changes in police conduct and judicial protocol.
Education funding
According to a 2022 poll from the Charles Butt Foundation—a nonprofit research organization that merged with public education advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas in 2022—77% of Texas public school teachers are considering leaving their profession, citing feelings of being “undervalued, underpaid and overworked.” Local schools and policy advocates hope to change this statistic with help from Texas legislators.
Texas ranks $7,500 below the national average for teacher pay, according to Bob Popinski, the senior director of policy for RYHT.
“We need to have amazing teachers in our classrooms. ... But we also need to provide them a salary that keeps pace with inflation,” Popinksi said.
Klein ISD leaders would like to see more per-student funding for Texas school districts and measures to help retain teachers, KISD board President Ronnie Anderson said.
“With additional funding, not only will school districts be able to cover the additional costs they’ve incurred due to inflation, ... but they will also be able to make sure that our hard-working teachers and staff receive increased compensation for the critically important work that they do,” Anderson said.
RYHT is advocating for the state’s allotment for school district funding of $6,160 per student to be increased to at least $7,100 to account for inflation, according to Popinski.
“With 5.5 million kids on a $70 billion system, it’s tough to maneuver a school finance bill through the legislative process,” Popinkski said. “We’ll continue to inch forward until we meet those goals of being ... at least average in per-pupil spending.”
Spring ISD’s board of trustees had not yet approved its official legislative priorities as of press time Dec. 13. However, on Nov. 10, trustees discussed considering the Texas Association of School Board’s legislative priorities, which include additional funding for teacher retention, expanding the school district accountability framework and funding for school facilities.
“We will ... take a look at which ones impact us here in SISD the most, ... and then we’ll get busy about making sure that our voices are heard with our legislators,” SISD board President Justine Durant said.
Property taxes
Local legislators also hope to see tax relief for property owners come out of the 88th session.
“We’ve been pushing for a lower appraisal cap [on] ... property taxes for your house since 2005 every single session,” Creighton said. “That tells you how hard it is to get a bill passed.”
Rising property taxes impact Texans unequally, according to Luis Figueroa, the chief of legislative affairs for Every Texan, a nonprofit specializing in policy research. Figueroa said he hopes equity will be kept in mind when addressing property taxes in the upcoming session.
To address rising property values, Figueroa said he hopes legislators will consider a flat-dollar local homestead exemption—which would allow homeowners to pay a flat rate instead of a percentage for their taxes—or a sales price disclosure, which would require the disclosure of commercial property values.
“If we just do across-the-board property tax cuts, that will have a disproportionate benefit to [the] wealthy and businesses,” Figueroa said. “Nothing could be more clear than this. And ... the Chapter 313 tax cuts, which are tax abatements that big corporations get in order to not have to pay school taxes. ... This is a big problem in Texas.”
In 2001, the Texas Legislature created the Texas Economic Development Act, or Chapter 313, which enables public school districts to offer tax abatements for new businesses seeking to operate within the district’s boundaries. This program was not renewed in the last session.
Creating a new version of the Chapter 313 program—one that addresses problems of the old program that allowed it to be abused—is one of the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce’s top legislative priorities for the upcoming session, CEO and President Bobby Lieb said.
“Chapter 313 is about creating jobs—that’s what that is at the core,” Lieb said. “So if we can use that tool to continue to keep Houston as an economic ... powerhouse, then that’s all the better.”
Public safety
Most local legislators in the Spring area have filed at least one bill related to public safety or crime.
In an emailed statement, state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, said one of her main priorities for the upcoming session will be to “increase public safety so constituents of District 150 can feel safe in their homes.”
Swanson has filed multiple bills related to the Texas criminal justice system, including House Bill 93, which would prevent drunk drivers from avoiding jail time with a “three strikes” system. Swanson’s HB 210 would require an intoxicated driver who kills a parent to pay child support for the victim’s children.
State Rep. Sam Harless, R-Spring, said he would like to see more transparency among judges pertaining to the backlog of cases in Texas courts that has been accumulating since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. He said he plans to file a bill that would require judges to report the number of cases they are assigned each month as well as the numbers of adjudicated and dismissed cases.
“We have to be transparent ... as elected officials, and I think the voters should have the right to know which judges are working,” Harless said.
In the upcoming session, Johnson said he hopes to address the way police interact with families after making an arrest. Currently, if a parent is arrested, police calls Child Protective Services to handle who takes care of the arrested parent’s children, but Johnson’s HB 347 would change the protocol so the next of kin is contacted first.
“It’s an unfortunate situation [that] simply because a parent may have had a traffic violation that they lose their children,” Johnson said.
Wesley Gardner and Kayli Thompson contributed to this report.
