The 86th Legislative Session adjourned sine die on May 27 after taking up thousands of bills and issues over the last 140 days. During the 86th Session a total of 7,324 House and Senate bills were filed and a total of 1,429 bills were passed (not including resolutions). *TLO
A deeper analysis of the statistics indicates 460 Senate bills passed and 969 House bills passed. According to the TLO records since the 72nd Session, there has been only one other session where the House passed more bills – the 77th Session (992).
Over 1,000 bills were finally passed out of both chambers in the last week. High-profile legislation addressing property taxes, school finance and improvement legislation, and the must pass budget bill for the upcoming biennium came out of the chambers in the final 3 days of session.
As a result, homeowners are expected to see a total reduction in property taxes due to the passage of a school finance and improvement bill (HB 3) and a property tax reform bill (SB 2) with the total price tag on school property tax compression at just over $5 billion, an anticipated average reduction of 13 cents per $100 valuation by 2021. The property tax bill also implements new rollback rate reductions, down to 2.5 percent for school districts and 3.5 percent for cities and counties. School districts subject to recapture, the distribution of funds from property-rich to property-poor districts, will have those payments reduced by $3.6 billion – nearly half of the projected recapture payments for the next biennium. HB 3 also increases the state share of education funding by seven percent, up to a total of 45 percent.
During final passage in both chambers, several members questioned the price tag of these two bills, how the required funding will be sustained and the impact on local government. Supporters argue the changes are transformational and address a myriad of issues.
A possible sleeper issue is disaster preparedness, response and recovery with a total of 53 bills and 2 joint resolutions passed to address the issue.
Lawmakers also approved the budget by passing HB 1. The bill which includes $118.8 billion in General Revenue and $250.7 billion in All Funds for Fiscal Years 20-21. When adjusted for tax relief, these totals are within all constitutional spending limits and population times inflation with 4.9 percent growth in General Revenue and 4.2 percent growth in All Funds. Also funded was the supplemental appropriations bill (SB 500) which provides appropriations for Fiscal Year 2019 totaling $8.7 billion and $1.16 billion for Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021, the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) appropriation totaled $6.03 billion for Fiscal Years 2019-2021.
Below is a “BILL SPOTLIGHT” on certain bills that passed out of the 86th Session broken out by issues. Notable bills that did not pass are also spotlighted below. *Please note when reviewing bill text to determine final language, technical corrections with substantive language changes were made to many bills after the CCRs were approved. For final copies of bills, including substantive corrections if they were made, please look at the enrolled bill text.
The final deadline of interest in the 86th Session is the last day the Governor can sign or veto bills passed during the regular session – June 16.