20 things Gov. Greg Abbott wants lawmakers to address in a special session
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he's calling lawmakers back for a special legislative session starting July 18.
But he's not just calling them back to finish up must-pass legislation that keeps agencies afloat. And he added a lot more to the call than two issues that were anticipated: property tax relief and bathroom restrictions for transgender Texans. Abbott announced 20 different items he wants lawmakers to consider during a special session.
Here's that list.
- "Sunset" legislation, which would keep several crucial state agencies alive
- A teacher pay raise of $1,000
- Giving school administrators flexibility in teacher hiring and retention
- School finance reform
- School choice for special-needs students
- Rollback elections for property tax increases
- Caps on state and local spending
- Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land
- Preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects
- Speeding up local government permitting processes
- Municipal annexation reform
- Preventing local entities from passing their own texting-while-driving bans
- Restrictions on bathroom use for transgender Texans
- Prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues
- Prohibiting the use of taxpayer funding to subsidize health providers that also perform abortion
- Requiring women to get separate insurance policies to cover non-emergency abortions
- Increasing existing reporting requirements when complications arise during abortions
- Strengthening patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders
- Cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud
- Extending the state's maternal mortality task force
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