School choice, border, affordability among priorities in upcoming legislative session
AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- In two weeks the Texas Legislature will be back in session in Austin to deliberate on thousands of bills -- a historic amount -- that have already been pre-filed. Historically only about 15% of bills filed at the Texas Capitol are actually passed, meaning lawmakers will have to prioritize what they want to get done.
State Republicans, who will hold a healthy majority in both chambers of the Capitol, have made it clear one of the top priorities this session will be school choice. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick already said it was his top priority and Gov. Greg Abbott said Republicans have the votes needed to pass.
We do not yet know the specifics of the school choice bill, but state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, explained, "I think we'll have a full universal bill this time around just as we did last time around, and I expect there to be a priority set."
School choice is not the only focus for state Republicans this year. Abraham George, the chair of the Texas Republican Party, said there are 11 priorities for the Texas GOP.
"It starts with the border security, election integrity, all the way down to property tax reform," George explained.
On the other side of the aisle there is new leadership. House Democratic members elected state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, to be the chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Wu said the party will be working on a minimum wage increase, making insurance prices cheaper and looking at making housing more affordable.
"When are we going to do all these things that are just slowly strangling Texans across the board," Rep. Wu questioned.
Both parties seem to have a common ground to stand on when it comes to affordability issues in the state. Both sides have expressed support for looking at housing affordability and lowering property taxes.
"Texans want Republicans and Democrats to come together and figure out how to lower costs and make it affordable to live in this state again," state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, said.