Budgets are out! After a combative primary and election cycle, Speaker Burrows (R-Lubbock) says the Senate and House budgets are “substantially identical.” Could this mean that the legislative session will be more of a group project than a group fight? We shall see!
House Rules pass
The Texas House passed its rules on how it will operate this legislative session in a 116–23 vote. The House did not allow debate on the rules or take up any amendments, which did not sit well with some of the most conservative members of the House. The new rules state that House committees will be led by majority party members (Republicans) and vice chairs will be from the minority party (Democrats), similar to the operating procedure in Washington D.C. In practical terms, that means six Democratic chairs from last session will not get that job this session.
In addition to the new rule about chairs and vice-chairs, six committees were eliminated (Business and Industry, County Affairs, Defense and Veterans Affairs, Juvenile Justice and Family Issues, Resolutions Calendars, and Urban Affairs) and their jurisdiction transferred to other committees, and two new ones were created. Texas now has its own Delivery of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Committee with general jurisdiction over government efficiency and waste. The Intergovernmental Affairs Committee is also new; it combines the jurisdictions of the former County Affairs and Urban Affairs Committees along with the former International Relations and Economic Development Committee over state-federal relations. Notably, a new permanent standing sub-committee for Juvenile Justice will report to the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee rather than be its own independent group. (Yes, yes, we all know juvenile law is civil, not criminal, but such niceties sometimes have to be overlooked in these political patronage game of musical (committee) chairs.)
Proposed Budget for Texas
Allow us to discuss some big-ticket items found in the two chambers’ budget bills (HB 1 and SB 1), then we will drill down into funding issues specific to your business and/or pocketbook.
Both chambers set aside $1 billion for education savings accounts that allows state funds to cover the cost of private school tuition and other education-related expenses. This was the most contentious issue last session—it prompted special sessions and primary opponents backed by Governor Abbott. Two years ago, Governor Abbott promised to make vouchers a priority and warned lawmakers to pass a bill last session or there would be election consequences in House races. It seems that with all the members who lost their primary elections, the rest of the House got the message. Both chambers also propose to increase public school funding by $5 billion, which includes teacher pay raises. Teacher salaries would increase $4,000 for all teachers, plus an additional $6,000 for rural teachers. Both chambers further allocate $400 million to fund the mandate of having an armed security guard at every school and providing mental health training to certain school employees.
Aside from these school funding issues that contributed to four special sessions last time around, the two chambers’ competing budgets also promise yet more property tax relief and make improvements to water and energy and broadband infrastructure. Lastly, healthcare spending continues to represent nearly half of the state budget—namely, Texas Medicaid takes up the largest portion of the state’s healthcare investment with an annual budget exceeding $40 billion.
Last on this overview list, the Legislature continues its commitment to border security with a proposed allocation of $6.5 billion. Of that, $1.2 billion would go to the Texas Department of Public Safety, with an additional $402 million dedicated to hiring more troopers, and over $46 million is being proposed to fund border prosecution.
Pay raises
For those of you who have been asking about an increase in the judicial benchmark salary, the amount in statute to which elected felony prosecutors’ state salaries are directly tied, as well as county attorney’s state supplements—we have some news for you, both in the proposed Senate budget and a stand-alone bill proposing a 15-percent raise for judicial branch officers.
Mark down Senate Bill 293 by Huffman (R-Houston) as a “bill to watch.” (It can also be found on the bill track of that exact same name on our website. But before you start to read it, a warning: The caption of the bill is “relating to the discipline of judges by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, notice of certain reprimands, judicial compensation and related retirement benefits, and the reporting of certain judicial transparency information; authorizing an administrative penalty” (emphasis added). So, as you might guess, there’s a lot in the bill not directly applicable to you. That’s because much of this bill is a sequel to one filed last session to crack down on “rogue judges” and change their disciplinary procedures, much like a judicial version of last session’s “rogue prosecutor” bill (HB 17). However, the judge version did not pass last session, so it is back in the form of SB 293.
For our purposes focusing on compensation, you can skip ahead to pp. 13–17 of the bill and see that it includes a 15-percent increase in the judiciary’s baseline pay (from $140,000 to $161,000). One could surmise that the raise is there to help the other “medicine” in the bill go down easier, but whatever the reason, the truth is that for the pay raise to pass, the judiciary will almost certainly have to accept some or all of the other disciplinary provisions in the bill.
The Senate’s budget bill, SB 1, also includes appropriations contingent on the passage of SB 293 (or a similar bill) that adds up to more than $130 million over the next biennium in additional judge and prosecutor salaries and retirement obligations incurred by the state if it adopts such a raise. That is not chump change, so any judges or prosecutors seeking more than this initial offer of a 15-percent raise starting in Fiscal Year 2026 should recognize the financial costs to the state of going beyond what is currently on the table.
This quick summary just scratches the surface of the many issues related to judicial branch pay increases, so feel free to call or email Shannon if you have questions about SB 293 or related issues.
Senate Bill 22 grants
Those of you who receive rural law enforcement grants pursuant to last session’s SB 22 should be pleased to learn that both the House and Senate budgets include continued full funding of those programs, to the tune of another $330,800,000 for the next two-year budget cycle. We know there was some angst two years ago about the continuing viability of this new grant program, but it appears that the budget-writing committees of both chambers intend to honor the commitment initially proposed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and passed into law by the full legislature. Appropriations can always change during a session, of course, so we will continue to watch that line-item like a hawk for you, but for now we’d just like to note: Isn’t it nice when promises made are promises kept?
New Senate Bill 22 rules
And while we’re on the topic of SB 22, let us deviate from our budget talk to notify everyone that this morning’s Texas Register includes official notice that the Comptroller has adopted new rules governing those grants. We first told you about the proposed changes in our November 2024 interim update, but in the absence of any public comment on their proposals, the Comptroller has adopted them effective January 30, 2025. The agency’s summary of the changes can be accessed online here. Most of the changes relate to law enforcement, but for your office’s purposes, the highlights include clarifications that:
- “investigator” is now defined to only include a person licensed under Occupations Code §1701.301 (License Required);
- a county with multiple prosecutors can receive multiple grants for those offices;
- there is now a list of unallowable indirect costs for which the grant cannot be used; and
- grants funds may be used for temporary employees but not contract labor.
The rules as amended can be viewed online here for those who did not read them previously.
VAC grants
While SB 22 grants can be used for certain victim assistance coordinator (VAC) positions, there are other (limited) state funding opportunities for those positions as well. One source is the Victim Assistance Coordinators and Victim Liaisons Grant (VCLG) administered by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Unfortunately, that grant is woefully underfunded by the state—in fact, we have been told that only 21 grantees currently receive those funds, even though there are more than 1,300 prosecutor and law enforcement entities potentially eligible for them.
This session, some crime victims advocates are seeking an $8 million increase in the VCLG appropriation, and they need your help—as soon as TUESDAY, no less! The Senate Finance Committee begins its review of SB 1 next week and OAG programs like this are up for review Tuesday in a hearing that begins in the Capitol extension at 9:00 a.m. If that is something you would like to get involved in, reach out to Hector or Shannon ASAP for more details. And if you are not available next week but still want to help, contact us for more information in that regard.
Legislative rotation
As you can see, committee hearings on the budget are already beginning in the Senate, and slots in our legislative rotation are filling up to represent your concerns at the Texas Capitol! As you know, TDCAA can serve as your eyes and ears at the Big Pink Dome, but the voice legislators need to hear is yours. To help you do that, we organize a rotating schedule of volunteer slots for elected prosecutors or their designees who wish to come to Austin to be a part of the legislative process. If you would like to plan ahead and schedule a time to watch (or help) the sausage being made in Austin, contact Hector for more details. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!
Quotes of the week
“… We make this commitment to Robert Roberson and his dauntless attorney, Gretchen Sween: We won’t quit until the legal roadblocks and blind spots you’ve experienced no longer stand in the way of justice for future Texans.”
—Foreword of the Interim Report of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.
“It’s saying we are going to deny all members of this House the right to have any say other than a monkey pushing a button.”
“WAR! #txlege”
—Representative Nate Schatzline posting on X after the House Rules vote.
New federal definitions:
Crime = when your enemy breaks the law.
Weaponization = when your friend gets prosecuted for breaking the law.
—Recent tweet on X by Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons), a national political commentator.
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