Flood relief, property tax limits: Texas senators approve 14 bills in first days of second special session

Keep reading for more information about the 14 bills state senators have approved so far.

The details

Senators began an evening floor session on Aug. 18 with three bills aimed at providing relief to Central Texas communities that flooded in early July and improving preparedness for future disasters.

One of those measures, Senate Bill 2, would make sweeping changes to Texas’ emergency management framework. Bill author Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, has said it was filed in response to over 24 hours of testimony from officials and residents in late July and is designed to fill “gaps” in local disaster response and recovery efforts.

Perry’s bill would:

• Require that all local emergency management coordinators become licensed and complete annual training
• Expand mass fatality training for local justices of the peace
• Establish a statewide volunteer management database
• Require background checks for most volunteers responding to natural disasters
• Direct a group of meteorological experts to create a statewide system of flood gauges and other meteorological equipment

Some Central Texas communities would be required to install flood warning sirens under SB 3, by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston. The bill would direct the Texas Water Development Board to identify areas impacted by the July 4-5 floods that have “a history of consistent or severe flooding” and mandate that local governments install sirens if they do not already have them.

Bettencourt said communities need to implement “old-school technology,” noting that cell service is limited in Kerr County and other rural areas.

“This is certainly something that’s needed in all of rural Texas,” Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, said on the Senate floor Aug. 18. “We’ve been talking about this for some time, and it’s unfortunate that it hasn’t been done. ... Here with what you’re doing, I think we could’ve prevented a tremendous loss of life.”

SB 5, by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would set aside $294 million for flood relief grants, including:

• $200 million to match federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
• $50 million to help counties impacted by the July 4-5 floods install flood warning sirens and flood gauges
• $24 million to strengthen weather forecasting and flood warning equipment in the Hill Country
• $20 million for a planned swift water rescue training facility in Harris County, which was announced in January

All three flood-related bills passed the Senate unanimously on Aug. 18. A special Senate committee created in the aftermath of the deadly July 4 weekend floods is scheduled to consider SB 1, which would require campgrounds to create flash flood evacuation plans and prohibit youth camps from operating cabins in floodplains, during an Aug. 20 public hearing.

More information

Senators also approved SB 6, which would prohibit any products containing hemp-derived tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, from being manufactured or sold in Texas. The proposal by Perry carves out exceptions for the state’s low-THC medical cannabis program and would allow retailers to continue selling nonintoxicating hemp products that do not contain THC, such as CBD and CBG.

This is the Senate’s third consecutive session passing a THC ban, after Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed similar legislation in June. During the previous special session, Abbott told Community Impact that he wanted to outlaw products with more than a 0.3% concentration of THC, or three milligrams per each gram of product.

Without naming Abbott directly, Perry told senators Aug. 19 that he hoped the proposed THC ban “goes through in the House and the Senate and sends a strong message that we don’t need to be another California [or] Colorado.”

SB 6 passed the Senate with a 22-8 vote.

Another proposal

Senators voted 18-12 to tighten limits on local property tax growth under SB 10. If the bill becomes law, cities and counties with populations of over 75,000 residents would be required to seek voter approval before raising tax rates by more than 2.5%, down from 3.5% under current law.

SB 10 would bring those cities and counties in line with all public school districts, which cannot raise taxes more than 2.5% annually without voter approval. Bettencourt, who authored the bill, cited a proposed 20% tax increase in Austin, which will be on local voters’ ballots this fall.

“I have many more examples of these [increases],” Bettencourt said. “We have to slow city and county tax bills—this is revenue that’s paid directly by the taxpayers.”

Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, voted against SB 10 on Aug. 19, urging lawmakers to wait until the next regular legislative session in 2027, which he said would give cities and counties more time to track the impacts of inflation and federal spending cuts.

“I want to allow our public officials time to come and talk to us,” Hinojosa said.

Also of note

Other bills advanced by the Senate include:

• SB 8, which would require local governments and state agencies to limit access to bathrooms, locker rooms, jails, prisons and certain family violence shelters based on a person’s sex assigned at birth, rather than the gender they identify with
• SB 11, which is aimed at protecting human trafficking victims from being prosecuted for crimes they were forced to commit
• SB 12, which would allow the state attorney general to independently prosecute election crimes
• SB 13, which would prohibit cities, counties and school districts from spending public money to hire outside lobbyists to advocate for or against legislation at the capitol
• SB 14 and SB 18, which are aimed at reducing barriers to the construction of water conservation and flood control projects
• SB 15, which would limit the public disclosure of police personnel records
• SB 16, which would increase criminal penalties for people convicted of using fraudulent deeds to transfer or sell someone else’s property
• SB 34, which would change the law surrounding testimony to legislative committees to protect people from being prosecuted for specific testimony or evidence they share with the legislature while removing complete immunity under current law

The 14 bills were sent to the Texas House, which is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. Aug. 20 to discuss the congressional redistricting proposal.