Q1 2020 Texas CEO Magazine

There’s an adage in football, now America’s favorite sport (at least
if you believe the TV ratings), that winning comes down to the
fundamentals. If you block and tackle properly, success will follow.
Members of the 86th Texas Legislature certainly did a lot of
blocking and tackling. They filed more than 7,300 bills in 2019 and
enacted over 1,400 into law, addressing some difficult issues and
coming away with some big wins.
The “Big Three” in Texas state government—Governor Greg Abbott,
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, all
Republicans—focused their legislative energies on fundamental
policy issues like property tax relief and school finance reform, and
largely avoided the more divisive social issues.
Why the newfound synergy? Look no further than the November
2018 elections; Republicans lost 12 House seats, two incumbent
senators, and two incumbent congressmen, and other statewide
elected officials survived closer-than-expected elections.
It was apparently enough to scare Republicans straight. What
resulted was a more “moderated” leadership team and a Legislature
that focused more on issues like taxes and education reform and
less on social issues, as they had previously done with the so-called
“bathroom bill.”
While it was pragmatic politics, let’s also give credit where credit
is due—the 86th Legislature solved some longstanding, thorny
issues. And, importantly to our state’s CEOs, they didn’t tread on
the nation’s leading economy, which continues to create jobs in
record numbers.
Highlights
State Budget. House Bill 1 establishes a two-year balanced
state budget (as required by the Texas Constitution) with $250.7
billion in overall spending. This is an increase of more than 16
percent over the prior biennium, made possible by a healthy Texas
economy and growth in the energy sector.
Much of the new spending went to the top legislative priorities:
$6.5 billion for public schools and $5.1 billion to “buy down”
Texans’ property tax bills (more on that in a moment).
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