Five takeaways from Texas’ third special legislative session
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office says there’s no plan for a fourth special session at this time. If this was the final special session of the year, what did we learn from it? Full Story
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![The north side of the Capitol building on Oct. 6, 2021.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune -
Texas legislators pass most — but not all — of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority measures in final flurry of lawmaking
Lawmakers approved new political maps and decided how to spend COVID-19 relief money. But they didn’t pass bills about vaccine mandates or the criminal penalty for illegal voting. Full Story
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![Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan listens to a colleague while presiding over the chamber on Oct. 18, 2021, shortly before the Texas Legislature ended its third special session of the year.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy for The Texas Tribune -
Texas voters will decide whether to lower their property tax payments after Legislature completes last-minute Hail Mary
If voters approve the measure next year, it will raise the state’s homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000 for school district property taxes, netting the average homeowner about $176 in savings. Full Story
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![An Aerial image of a suburban neighborhood in San Marcos on October 18, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas bill to block COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employers failed in Legislature after business groups rallied against it
A prohibition on vaccine mandates was one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities for the special session, but it did not have enough support in the Legislature. Full Story
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![Diana Phipps pulls up doses of the Pfizer vaccine into syringes at a clinic organized by the Travis County Mobile Vaccine Collaborative at Rodriguez Elementary School on July 28, 2021.
Source diversity info: White Female]()
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Texas Senate approves $3 billion college campus construction bill
Lawmakers haven’t passed a tuition revenue bond bill since 2015. Full Story
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![Students walk through an area known as “The Quad” on the first day of the fall semester at Texas State University in San Marcos on Aug. 24, 2020.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asks Gov. Greg Abbott to add higher ed construction projects to third special session
The Texas Legislature has not approved bonds to fund capital projects on public university campuses since 2015, and many school leaders say they need help to build new buildings and maintain current structures. Full Story
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![Graduates at a Texas A&M University commencement ceremony at Reed Arena in College Station on Dec 17, 2020.]()
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Mike Collier wants a rematch against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. But first he’s got to beat fellow Democrat Matthew Dowd.
Collier says his 2018 close call against Patrick was no fluke. Next year, he’s out to prove that his campaign can make a real challenge to the two-term incumbent. Full Story
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![Texas Tribune editor Evan Smith interviews Mike Collier, then-candidate for State Comptroller of Texas.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Greg Abbott and the policy contradiction of an anti-mandate mandate
Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest executive order contradicts what he's been saying for months about mandates and the personal choices of Texans and their businesses during the pandemic. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference about the state's response to the coronavirus on Tuesday in Austin on March 24, 2020.]()
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Senate approves map cementing GOP dominance in upper chamber, dividing up Tarrant county’s voters of color
Democrats criticized Republicans for “targeting” a North Texas district that had been trending Democratic and for not drawing any new districts where people of color would represent a majority of eligible voters. Full Story
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![State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, speaks to state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, on his resolution to declare an emergency on the Texas-Mexico border on April 2, 2019.]()
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Matthew Dowd, former George W. Bush strategist, to run as Democrat for Texas lieutenant governor
Dowd said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has focused on “culture war” issues to divide and hurt Texans. Full Story
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![Political analyst Matthew Dowd at a Texas Tribune event in Austin with Tribune CEO Evan Smith on May 10, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick blast state bar investigation into Ken Paxton as “politically motivated”
The Texas attorney general is being investigated for professional misconduct for his filing of a lawsuit challenging the 2020 presidential elections in battleground states. Fellow Republicans say the probe encroaches on Paxton’s executive branch authority. Full Story
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![Ken Paxton at the inauguration ceremony of Judge Michelle Slaughter at the state Capitol in Austin on Jan. 11, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
State Rep. Chris Paddie, chair of powerful state affairs committee, says he won’t run for reelection
The news comes less than a month after Paddie, who has represented House District 9 since 2013, announced he would run for reelection. Full Story
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![State Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, speaks from the podium at the front of the House of Representatives on Sunday, May 23, 2021.]()
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UT-Austin attempts to calm faculty concerns over planned Liberty Institute organized with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, conservative donors
Provost Sharon Wood attempted to reassure faculty that the new institute is an investment in politics, philosophy and economics to attract new faculty. But some professors said they’re concerned UT-Austin is allowing the Legislature to politicize the university with the new center. Full Story
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![The University of Texas at Austin emblem on campus on July 16, 2020.]()
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First draft of Legislature’s map of new State Board of Education districts shores up Republican majority
The Republican-dominated, 15-member board determines what millions of public school students in the state are taught in classrooms. Full Story
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![The State Capitol on Nov. 19, 2020.]()
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Bill tripling Texas’ border security budget and allocating $750 million to wall construction becomes law
Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas was stepping up to do the federal government’s job after Biden’s immigration policies had “opened the floodgates” to illegal immigration and crime. Full Story
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![A portion of an unfinished border wall stands near the U.S. and Mexico border in Del Rio on July 22, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Gov. Greg Abbott signs bill restoring the funding that he vetoed for the Texas Legislature and its 2,100 state employees
Abbott vetoed the funding earlier this year as retribution for the House Democrats’ walkout to block the GOP elections bill at the end of the regular session. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks with lawmakers on the House floor during the legislative session on Sunday, May 23, 2021.]()
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The Texas GOP lawmaker behind the abortion ban, voting restrictions bill and more
State Sen. Bryan Hughes authored the six-week abortion ban and the elections bill and carried other conservative priorities that grabbed national attention. Full Story
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![State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, speaks in favor of Senate Bill 1 on Aug. 11, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
Dan Patrick warns Democrats are allowing in immigrants for “silent revolution,” mirroring language of far-right extremists
Patrick’s comments mirrored a far-right theory that says political elites are replacing white populations through mass migration and demographic changes. He called the increase of migrants at the border an “invasion.” Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks at a press conference about Senate Bill 7 at the Texas Capitol on April 7, 2021.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ second special session of the year is over. Here are five things you need to know.
Lawmakers will return to Austin at least one more time this year to redraw the state's political maps. Only Gov. Greg Abbott knows when that will be and if there will be additional special sessions beyond that. Full Story
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![The House floor on Aug. 17, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Abortion ban, permitless carry, elections bill: The week that solidified Texas' hard right turn after the 2020 election
Texas’ new near-total abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the nation, punctuated a week that brought into stunning relief just how far the state’s political pendulum has swung to the right since the 2020 election. Full Story
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune
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