Print 🖨

On February 8, 2022, Governor Greg Abbott released his “2022 Report to the People of Texas” which overview 2021 accomplishments in Texas. This is Abbott’s fourth report since taking office in 2015. It includes overviews of: the 87th Legislative Sessions, initiatives benefitting job growth, pandemic response programs, law enforcement, border security efforts, and the First Lady’s report. The 2022 Report to the People of Texas can be found here.

 

Letter from Governor Greg Abbott

  • Texas has the 9th largest economy among nations; offers opportunities for families and businesses to grow
  • Top state for population growth, job creation, attracting job-creating capital investments
  • Priorities from 87th legislative session; high-quality health care access, improved public safety, personal liberty protection, increasing employment post-COVID and expanding Texas economy
  • By the end of 2021, Texas hit a record employment high with 13,059,600 jobs

 

87th Legislative Sessions Summary

Health Care

  • Expanded telemedicine to rural areas, increased access to COVID vaccinations, built on past expansion of mental health supports, and extended Medicaid coverage for pregnant women 6 months post pregnancy

 

Public Safety

  • Continued securement of the border, cracked down on human trafficking and drug smuggling, prevented cities from defunding the police, provided law enforcement with tools and trainings, enhanced public safety protections, and reformed the bail system

 

Personal Liberties

  • Prevented any government entity to shut down religious activity, enforced second amendment right, passed election integrity laws, protected Texans from wrongful censorship on social media, and passed heartbeat bill to stop abortions after 6-weeks’ gestation

 

Economy

  • Balanced budget without raising taxes, established broadband access, improved grid reliability, provided regulatory relief to businesses through PPP loan, improved property tax relief, and invested in workforce development
  • Two-year budget was signed in June 2021; highlights property tax relief, additional border security funds, and money towards over capacitated foster care system

 

2022-2023 State Budget

  • HB 3 provides an additional $664 million for student learning affected by the pandemic; additional federal funding increase of $16 million
  • $60 million for supplemental special education services
  • Maintained insurance premiums for Teachers Retirement System; Employees Retirement Fund changed to cash-balance plan for employee flexibility and less financial risk
  • $110 million into higher education financial aid, $20 million for regional university improved student success programs, and $15 million for technical and community colleges
  • $321.3 million to finish construction of Austin State Hospital and San Antonio State Hospital; creating a state hospital in the DFW area
  • $231.5 towards expanding mental health initiatives for children, pregnant women, and women up to one year postpartum
  • $90 million to increase foster care capacity
  • $3 billion in border security; additional $1.8 billion during second session
  • $57.6 million in recourses to combat human trafficking
  • $139.2 million for salary increases for law enforcement; $25 million for body armor/body cameras and $22 million for bullet resistant windshield for DPS vehicles
  • $100 million for school safety
  • $26.5 billion for highway design and $200 million to improve costal barrier infrastructure
  • $4.2 million to enhance PUC, ERCOT and grid reliability
  • $500 million towards broadband coverage
  • $60 million to the Texas Division of Emergency Management and disaster response
  • Pay off $7 billion in Unemployment Trust Fund debt
  • $2 billion to surge medical staff
  • $180 million to pandemic recovery to businesses, tourism, and travel
  • $237 million to construct new mental health hospital in Dallas
  • $75 million in grants to support rural hospitals
  • $400 million for recruitment and retention at the state’s highest-need medical centers such as nursing homes
  • $160 million to support victims of crime
  • Increased cap on residence homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000

 

Jobs and Economy

  • Texas has been awarded Best State for Business title for 17 years in a row; over 230 new cooperate headquarters since 2015
  • Economic business advantages: lower land cost, few land-use restrictions, lower energy costs Lower cost of living, fast permitting, and civil liberty protections
  • Nearly 50 Fortune 500 cooperate headquarters reside in Texas
  • In fiscal years 2020-2021 Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) helped attract $2.8 billion in capital investing and created 3,900 new jobs
  • Texas leads the nation for small business job growth
  • Over the past two years, the Office of Small Business Assistance has aided more than 1,500 entrepreneurs
  • This year, 4 million Texans participated in workforce and educational services, and 622,000 completed a degree, certificate, or other educational credential

 

Travel and Tourism

  • In 2019 travel generated $169.8 billion, creating 1 in 10 Texas jobs
  • In 2021 $1.85 billion was spent from travelers out-of-state; 18% increase from previous yeas
  • $180 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding was appropriated for tourism, travel, and hospitality grants to support industry recovery in Texas.

 

Media Production in Texas Growing Local Jobs

  • The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program created 11,305 local jobs; generated $339 million of in-state spending through 43 projects

 

Texas Music

  • The music industry in Texas creates 100,000 permanent jobs, $4.4 billion in annual earnings, and $10.8 billion in annual economic activity in the pre-pandemic year of 2019

 

Pandemic Response and Recovery

  • COVID strategy includes mobilizing state agencies, leveraging federal funding, removing regulatory roadblocks, working with local leaders, keeping Texans informed, expanding access to healthcare, surging supplies and medica personnel, and helping families, small businesses, and communities to cope

 

Economic Impact

  • Texas was one of the first states to ensure that the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund ($11.24 billion) was allocated to local government that did not receive funding from the U.S. Treasury Department
  • Federal funds given to Texas; $1.29 billion to Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, $441.46 million to Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, $141.85 million to Community Development Block Grant, $42 million to Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding and $5.4 billion to Emergency SNAP Food Benefits

 

PPE Distribution

  • 9 million masks, 31.6 million gowns, 238 million gloves, and 12 million face shields
  • Distributed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM)

 

Testing

  • State agencies partnered with local government, FEMA, and private providers to expand testing access, prioritizing seniors, schools, frontline workers, and small businesses

 

Health Care Access

  • Emergency licensing of nurses, PAs, and emergency responders, expansion of hospital capacity, expansion of patient access to telemedicine, and increase in the pharmacy workforce
  • Surge medical staffing was deployed to hotspots around the state
  • TDEM deployed alternative care sites (ACS) to provide hospital care outside of traditional locations

 

Vaccines Administered

  • DSHS administered vaccinations at state clinics, community events, and other vaccination sites, administering nearly 200,000 doses at 4,700 events
  • 19,407,637 Texans vaccinated,16,504,702 Texans fully vaccinated
  • Mobile Vaccine Pilot launched in January 2021 to increase vaccination efforts in underserved areas
  • “Save Our Seniors” initiative provides voluntary vaccinations to homebound seniors

 

Therapeutics Administered

  • Antibody infusion centers established in highly impacted areas, providing monoclonal antibody therapeutics
  • Treatment is free for Texans who test positive and have a doctor’s referral

 

Health and Human Services

  • HHSC launched a statewide Covid-19 mental health support line and text chat option, 20,326 calls were made
  • HHSC also provided 5.4 billion dollars in emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits to 1.5 million Texans
  • CHIP clients were allowed the use of telemedicine services and office visit copayments were waived

 

Workforce Programs

  • Texas Workforce Commission doubled call centers to ensure Texans can get necessary unemployment benefits, more than 56.5 billion dollars in benefits paid to Texans
  • TWC established MyTXCareer.com to help Texans find jobs and provided free resume-boosting online classes
  • Without increasing unemployment tax rates for businesses, TWC allocated $72 million in training funding to employers, invested $4 billion in childcare programs, and established a Restaurant Recovery program to help affected businesses

 

Education Programs

  • Texas committed $400 million to Texas schools by purchasing e-Learning devices, providing student hotspots, implementing home learning programs, offering emergency education grants, and supporting the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, which supported over 17,000 students
  • The Texas Rent Relief Program offered $1 billion in rent assistance

 

Border Crisis

  • New laws provide $3 billion in funding for Texas’ border security efforts
  • Operation Lone Star deployed 10,000 Texas National Guard and Texas DPS personnel
  • Abbott signed budget authorization to build the border wall and issued a border crisis disaster declaration
  • Efforts to ease prosecution of smugglers, trespassers, and drug manufacturers and distributors

 

Operation Steel Curtain

  • Placed physical barriers, personnel, and equipment along the border to deter criminal activity from crossing the border

 

Border Wall Construction

  • Border wall plan announced on June 16, 2021, and $250 million down payment made to launch construction
  • First phase of construction built in December 2021 in Rio Grande City

 

Public Safety

  • Public Safety Office (PSO) distributed over $775 million to improve public safety in communities
  • PSO invested $195 million to support personnel, training, and operational costs associated with law enforcement, first responders, and emergency management and planning
  • Over $158 million in federal and state funds administered to equip law enforcement officers with necessary equipment
  • PSO will distribute an additional $25 million from the Legislature for bullet-resistant body armor and body-worn cameras for law enforcement

 

First Responder Mental Health

  • First Responder Mental Health Grant Program provides critical crisis services, support groups, counseling, and legal advocacy to help first responders address trauma
  • $3.7 million in funds served over 3,700 first responders

 

Law Enforcement and School Marshal Training

  • Recruits must complete over 800 hours of training
  • PSO has provided over $8 million to support quality, cost-effective training, 4,400 certified courses provided to over 51,000 peace officers

 

Championing Law Enforcement

  • Multiple bills signed to counteract attempts to defund police operations:
  • If cities adopt budgets reducing appropriations to police department, they will be classified as a “defunding municipality” until the reductions are reversed
  • Bills financially punish large cities and counties that cut police budgets and prohibit them from raising new property tax revenues or annexing new land
  • Cities reducing police budget must let residents of neighborhoods annexed in the past 30 years vote to de-annex themselves
  • Counties with populations over 1 million are required to hold an election for voter approval to implement a reduction or reallocation of funding for a primary law enforcement agency

 

Protecting Texas Communities

  • PSO provided over $108 million to state and local jurisdictions in support of border security efforts
  • Border Prosecution Unit (BPU) provides prosecution resources for district attorneys along the border
  • 6,029 of 15,846 border cases resulted in convictions or community supervision

 

Enhanced Border Patrol

  • PSO leveraged funding to enhance cooperation between Customs and Border Protection, US Border Patrol, Texas DPS, and other law enforcement agencies
  • PSO receives $5.3 million state appropriation from Texas Legislature

 

Texas Anti-Gang Centers (TAG)

  • Eight centers focus on gang prevention, intervention, suppression, and targeting other criminal organizations
  • Locations include Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso, San Antonio, Lubbock, McAllen, Tyler, and Waco
  • TAGs funded through $7.1 million from the Legislature
  • 578 gangs targeted, 2,372 gang members arrested

 

Texas Crime Stoppers

  • 135 certified Crime Stoppers community and campus organizations, financial assistance provided to 37 organizations, partnered with DPS to pursue top-wanted fugitives and sex offenders
  • 39 criminals captured in 2021, highest number since the program’s inception in 1993
  • Damon Allen Act reforms Texas bail system, paying tribute to deceased Highway Patrol Trooper

 

Covid-19 Response

  • PSO administered $41.2 million to cities and counties to alleviate pandemic burden
  • Funds overtime for first responders and medical personnel, Personnel Protective Equipment, sanitation and decontamination services, testing and medical resources, and transitions to teleworking models

 

Safeguarding Texas Children

  • $20 million awarded to support prevention and intervention programs for at-risk youth, including mental health services, school programs, community-based services, truancy prevention programs, and juvenile case managers
  • The Child Sex Trafficking Team (CSTT) received $5.6 million to implement strategies, make grants, and address commercial sexual exploitation
  • Children’s Advocacy Centers of Texas take a multidisciplinary approach to achieve restoration for child victims of crime
  • CASA provides services to children who have been removed from their homes due to child abuse and neglect

 

Restoring Texas

  • $262.7 million funds programs contributing to a comprehensive victim assistance network, providing resources, counseling, emergency housing, and legal advocacy to 994,150 victims
  • $160 million appropriated by Legislature from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds to maintain these services
  • Legislature expanded SAFE-Ready Facilities which provide medical examinations to survivors of sexual assault

 

Sexual Assault Survivors’ Task Force

  • Includes survivors of sexual violence and Texas’ experts in the field to recommend policy recommendations to the Legislature, focused on access to exams and accountability with kit tracking processes
  • Two bills signed including all of the Task Force’s recommendations
  • The Task Force also submitted recommendations to improve training for law enforcement, agency policies, and frameworks for survivor-centered responses and resources

 

Texans Serving Texans

  • February 2 proclaimed as Texas Military Heroes Day
  • Local governments authorized to enter into intergovernmental support agreements with a branch of US armed forces
  • Texas DPS authorized to enter an agreement with the Department of Defense to provide road services on military installations
  • Infrastructure changes to prevent unlawful operation of unmanned aircraft systems and prohibiting contracts with certain foreign-owned companies for critical infrastructure

 

Supporting Military Families

  • Establishing State Advisory Council on Educational Opportunity for Military Children
  • Expanded various programs to assist veterans in the work force: postsecondary course credits for workforce credentials, apprenticeship training programs, and nonprofit job trainings
  • Occupational licensing extended for military spouses and veterans, including an expedited application process for educators

 

Securing Military Jobs

  • Military instillations in Texas and the headquarters of the Army Futures Command add $123.6 billion to Texas’ economy and support over 800,000 jobs across Texas
  • Texas Military Preparedness Commission advises military issues to strengthen installations in preparation for DOD actions, hosts Texas Military Summits to share best practices for supporting installations
  • TMPC administers the Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant Program (DEAAG), an infrastructure grant program that has awarded $83 million to infrastructure projects
  • Legislature approved $30 million in funding to invest in projects ensuring the value of our military installations

 

Empowering Women Leaders

  • Governor’s Commission for Women hosted a Women-Owned Business summer series with educational webinars and a pitch competition that awarded $7,500 to each winner
  • The commission held other events such as the Outstanding Women in Texas Awards, panel discussions, educational events, and recovery programs
  • Six women inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame

 

Ensuring Equal Access to Opportunity

  • Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities (GCPD) makes recommendations on disability issues, advocates for compliance with disability laws, and promotes similar committees
  • GCPD hosted Q&A webinars and educational materials to inform Texans regarding the pandemic
  • GCPD promotes transportation independence through the Texas Driving with Disability campaign
  • Legislature passed multiple bills to support Texans with disabilities relating to student materials, sports access, teacher training, and emergency assistance registry

 

Appointments to State Boards

  • Over 1,130 appointments made in 2020 and 2021

 

The First Lady’s Report

  • In April, launched a digital hub of volunteerism called VolunteerTX with the help of OneStar Foundation, complies volunteer opportunities so Texans can easily search in a database
  • GRACE initiative seeks to end child exploitation and protect vulnerable individuals