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Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Press Conference

November 30, 2022

 

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick held a press conference on November 30 go over the November 30 LBB meeting and vote to set the spending limit and to overview his priorities for the upcoming 88th Legislative Session.

 

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick

  • Going over the LBB meeting and decision from today
  • Will also be going over my priorities, the senators’ priorities, and the people’s priorities
  • Will not be specific, it is up to the members to write the bills themselves
  • Are thousands of people moving to this state each day; many moving from other states

 

The Budget

  • Overviews historical data on available GR, which includes:
    • Jan-19 $119.1b
    • Jan-21 $112.5b
    • Jul-22 $149.1b
    • Jan-23 TBD
  • These numbers are in addition to ARPA funds and other federal funds
  • Excess revenue, the surplus, resulted from low estimates due to COVID
  • Have unprecedented growth in Texas; may not be the largest surplus in the nation; California had a larger one, but will not follow them in spending it all at once
  • Voted today to set the spending limit at 12.33% which is about 6% per year
  • Current appropriations are $119b, this would add about $12.5b; $131b in total
  • Want members to understand this great opportunity to craft the future of Texas
  • Need to leave a solid reserve and cannot put it into programs that will always need to be funded at that level
  • ESF (Rainy Day Fund) cap currently around $15b, but cap will grow to $19b
  • Should look at putting that statute at the higher cap into law as budgets as a state get bigger; Sen. Schwertner will be working on this bill

 

88th Legislative Session Priorities

  • Should not have to tap the Rainy Day Fund this upcoming session
  • Need more property tax relief; have $27b, some say need to spend half on property tax relief, but that would bust the spending cap
  • Would need to do this creatively; could raise homestead exemption to $60k-$65k
    • One day would like to raise it to $100k
  • Need to do more than raising the homestead exemption like adding a onetime dividend
  • Need to cut tax by expanding personal property tax exemption for small businesses
  • Need to address the electric grid; is the other most important issue along with our spending
  • New ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas says it’s important to redesign the market to ensure there is enough power
  • Made great progress last session but need new natural gas plants
  • Current plan the PUC has laid out seems to be long-range, but need to level the playing field with renewables
  • Was a bill last session that addresses this, but did not make it through the process
  • Want to create a rural law enforcement fund; support proposed plan to raise salaries, but the state could maintain a fund with $500k-$1m a year to smallest counties
  • Want to put a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for criminals who commit an offence with a gun
  • Are some district attorneys and judges who do not want to try certain crimes; Harris County is the “poster child for that situation”
  • Need to have the ability move those cases to another county or to recall those DAs or judges
  • Need to continue the Governor’s plan for border funding built into the base budget
    • Do not know how much will be asked for, but should be there ready to use
    • Hopefully will be new leadership in 2024 to address the border security issue
  • Is a lot of money in the PUF fund that A&M and UT get to use
  • Support setting an endowment for other schools such as Texas Tech and University of Houston
    • Would like for A&M and UT to contribute to this fund
  • Want to expand use current scholarship program for teachers, nurses, and law enforcement; have passed this bill through the Senate previously
  • Need to continue to increase teacher pay like we did in 2019
  • Need a COLA for retired teachers; might be more money to write a 13th check, but would support either move
  • Need a parental rights bill and to continue school safety funding
  • Need to continue investment in state mental health system; have been told no other lt. governor has invested as much
  • Proposing we build a number of new mental health hospitals across the state
    • Building a new facility in the Panhandle, adding beds to: El Paso, RGV, Wichita Falls, and the Terrell facility
    • Approximate cost is $2.2b
  • Need to restore voter fraud back to felony from the misdemeanor it was changed to; have a bill ready for this item
  • Need to review voting machine integrity; notes Harris County took a long time to count their votes and “need to get their act together”

 

Closing Remarks

  • Reiterates that the goal is to not spend all the excess funds
  • Can either build some of these items into the base budget or let the people vote via a constitutional amendment which is not counted against the spending cap

 

Questions & Answers

Q: Concerned about rural hospitals and staffing?

  • Am focused on rural Texas; now have the money to focus on them

 

Q: How much would you like to spend on property tax relief?

  • Would be $2.5b to raise the homestead exemption, but want to give members time to think of the most robust property tax bill they can that would include more than that

 

Q: Why not just bust the cap and explain to voters why you had to?

  • Busting the spending cap sets a dangerous precedent; members are not in favor of that as well
  • Aim to empower the voters to spend x amount of dollars on their priorities; reiterates some of this can be in the base budget

 

Q: Will force a special session if a bill is not passed that increases natural gas production?

  • Would not be a responsible legislature without passing legislation that would guarantee we are building new natural gas plants

 

Q: Priority would be to deal with property tax first?

  • Property tax is at the top of the list
  • Republicans in Texans, speaking for the Senators, support the priorities laid out today

 

Q: Previously had priorities related to tenure in higher education?

  • Tenure is still important; parents have spoken for K-12 they do not want CRT, pornography in libraries or learning about different genders
  • Same goes for higher education; Republicans are always pushing back on the left
  • Notes a back and forth he had with UT concerning the teachings of CRT

 

Q: Concerned that will impact the hiring of professors?

  • Chancellors said to me they want the option to get rid of these teachers; not concerned about that