88th Texas Legislature | NTC State Report  Monday, February 20, 2023 Quick Takes Legislative priorities released from the Senate. Low bill number filings occurred in the House. Governor Abbott designated emergency items during State of the State address. Be sure to register for NTX Unites; hotels are filling up fast! Scroll down to register today.  State Report There are less than one hundred days remaining in the regular session of the 88th Texas Legislature. The March 10th bill filing deadline is approaching, and lawmakers are on pace to exceed the number of bills filed in 2021. Through last Friday, House and Senate members had filed more than 3,400 bills. Additionally, last week marked the first time this session that Senate bills were referred to committees, with the exception of SB 1, the budget bill, which was referred to Senate Finance in late January. Senate committee referrals are expected to continue this week. However, Senate Finance remains the only committee scheduled to meet this week. Meanwhile, in the House, Appropriations Chairman Greg Bonnen appointed subcommittee members. The subcommittees are all scheduled to meet this week to receive testimony and feedback from the various state agencies under their jurisdictions. A few other House committees have scheduled organizational hearings this week, too. Bills have not yet been referred in the House.   Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick released a list of legislative priorities before Governor Greg Abbott’s State of the State address last week. The priorities were assigned by issue to Senate bill numbers one through thirty. However, with the exception of SB 1, none of the bills have been filed, and no bill authors have been identified. Priorities include property tax relief, increasing the business personal property tax exemption, improvements to the electric grid, parental rights, and teacher rights, among several others. Although Speaker Dade Phelan has not released a list of priorities, some of his preferences have been revealed through the filings of HB 4 and HB 18. House bill 4, by Representative Giovanni Capriglione, represents his ongoing efforts to establish laws related to consumer data privacy in Texas. It was originally filed as HB 1844 before being refiled last week with the lower bill number, thereby signaling the Speaker’s interest in the issue. Representative Shelby Slawson filed HB 18, the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act. The intention of this bill is to provide parents with more discretion over the collection and use of minors’ private information. Additional leadership priority bills are expected to be filed this week. Governor Abbott delivered his biennial State of the State address last Thursday evening from Noveon Magnetics in San Marcos. The governor designated seven emergency items during his speech, which will allow lawmakers to immediately move forward on these specific issues. The list of emergency items includes: Cutting property taxes Ending COVID restrictions Providing education freedom for students and parents Ensuring school safety Ending revolving door bail Strengthening border security Addressing the fentanyl crisis Governor Abbott also released his  2024-2025 budget proposal last Thursday. The proposal includes spending almost half of the estimated $32 billion budget surplus on property tax cuts which matches what House and Senate budget writers have also proposed. The Senate will reconvene Tuesday at 11 am, and the House will meet at 2 pm Tuesday afternoon. For questions regarding the legislative session, please reach out to Patrick Brophey. Join us on March 23, 2023, as we travel to Austin for North Texas Unites. This full-day event will feature a variety of meetings with members of the North Texas delegation and end with an evening reception at the Capitol. The NTC team has noted several large-scale events are taking place in Austin during the week of North Texas Unites, so we encourage you to purchase your ticket and book your hotel as soon as possible! March 23, 2022 | 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. | Austin, Texas Individual Ticket Prices: $150.00 REGISTER

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