State troopers will help Austin with police patrols as the city struggles with an officer shortage
Austin officials view the partnership as a stopgap measure as they try to fill the city’s more than 200 police vacancies. Full Story
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![The Austin Police Department building with the Austin skyline in the background on March 22, 2021.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
LGBTQ groups criticize Texas bill’s broad restrictions on school lessons and activities about sexuality and gender identity
Senate Bill 8 supporters say the legislation protects the rights of parents who don’t want their kids to learn about gender identity and sexual orientation. Critics say it could force schools to ignore the existence of LGBTQ people. Full Story
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![Free pronoun buttons at the AISD "Pride Out!" Party in the Park event at Eastside Early College High School in Austin on Saturday, Mar. 26, 2022. There were fill-in-the-blank and other options not pictured as well.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate passes $16.5 billion package to lower property taxes
The proposals target the taxes homeowners pay and require school districts to lower their tax rates. Full Story
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![Homes in Austin on Feb. 21, 2019.]()
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“We just want parity”: Military groups call on lawmakers to give Operation Lone Star troops death benefits
Law enforcement officers who serve on Operation Lone Star get a $500,000 death benefit for their survivors if they die on duty. But National Guard troops on the same mission don’t get a dime from the state for their families if they die. Full Story
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![Jo Ann Johnson goes through awards given to her grandson Bishop Evans, who died while working on Operation Lone Star, inside of her home in Arlington, TX on December 7, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
The Texas House and Senate differ on how to cut property taxes. Here’s what their proposals say.
Cuts to school property tax bills. Bigger tax benefits for homeowners. A controversial idea to limit property tax growth. Here’s what you need to know about the brewing property tax debate at the Texas Legislature. Full Story
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![An Aerial image of a suburban neighborhood in San Marcos on October 18, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate passes bill to make illegal voting a felony again
The priority bill, backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, reverses a change the Legislature made two years ago during an omnibus voting bill that made illegal voting a misdemeanor. Full Story
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![Voters line up outside of the Hays County Independent School District Arnold Transportation Building voting center to cast their vote in the Texas General Elections on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 in Kyle.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
Texas families would get $8,000 in tax dollars to send students to private school in sweeping ‘parental rights’ bill backed by Lt. Gov.
The bill, which has the blessing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, will create new rules on how gender and sexual orientation is taught. It will face a tougher test in the House. Full Story
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![An empty classroom at Chapa Middle School in Kyle on Aug. 24, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate’s priority bills on higher ed would end tenure, diversity policies
The bills are part of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s list of priorities and, if passed as filed, could have profound impacts on how Texas universities recruit top faculty and other employees. Full Story
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![University of Houston students back on campus in Houston on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Texas bill requiring 10-year prison sentences for gun felonies faces opposition from criminal justice and firearm advocates
Under Senate Bill 23, all felonies involving a gun would incur a mandatory 10-year prison sentence. It’s meant to curb crime, despite the lack of correlation between harsher sentences and crime rates. Full Story
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![Assault-style weapons are laid on a table at a gun show in San Marcos on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and senators unveil package of bills aimed at improving Texas’ power grid
The bills would allow the state to hire companies to build emergency gas-fueled power plants, among other ideas for swinging the state’s power balance away from wind and solar. Full Story
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![Nicholas Ware, a freshman computer science major at Texas State University, walks down the stairs to his dorm room on campus, which has been without consistent power for days. Feb. 17, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Republicans have filed dozens of bills affecting LGBTQ people. Here’s what they’d do.
Texas lawmakers this year will debate whether to block transgender kids’ access to transition-related health care, classify businesses that host drag shows as sexually oriented establishments and limit public school lessons on sexuality and gender identity. Full Story
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![Members of Austin's LGBT community gather on the steps of the capitol to celebrate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots on June 28, 2017.]()
Credit: Austin Price for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Education Agency would have new power to enforce school safety plans under Senate bill
The bill, introduced months after the Uvalde school shooting, also allocates more funds to the state’s school safety allotment, which is money given to districts to improve campus security. Full Story
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![A police officer monitors Maplewood Elementary School in Austin the Monday morning following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.]()
Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune -
Texas legislative leaders — Dan Patrick, Dade Phelan — jab each other’s priorities in dueling speeches
During dueling speeches to a conservative think tank in Austin, state House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who have a history of animus, split over property tax relief, criminal justice reform and school choice. Full Story
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![House Speaker Dade Phelan, left, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.]()
Credit: The Texas Tribune -
Texas House’s property tax bill calls for $17 billion in cuts, tighter appraisal cap
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan’s proposal reveals the different roads the Texas House and Senate want to take on property taxes — and the fight that might emerge between the two chambers this session. Full Story
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![Construction workers build houses in the new Teravista neighborhood in Georgetown on May 18, 2016.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Republican Texas lawmakers rally around bill restricting the college sports teams transgender athletes can join
Seventy-seven Texas House Republicans signed on as co-authors to state Rep. Valoree Swanson’s bill extending restrictions on transgender athletes to college sports. Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed support for the legislation, which is also a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Full Story
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![Track athletes at a school track meet.]()
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Texas lawmakers take first step to restoring felony penalty for illegal voting
Republican lawmakers — backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — are working to reverse a change to state law they approved two years ago as part of a sweeping overhaul to Texas election law that included downgrading illegal voting to a misdemeanor. Full Story
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![Voters cast their ballots at the Lochwood Branch Library in Dallas on Feb. 25, 2022, the last day of early voting in the Texas primary. Dallas County voting centers’ hours were extended till 10 P.M. on the last day of early voting to make up for early closures due to icy weather.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas will revamp economic development program after property tax incentive expires
Abbott told business leaders in Arlington on Wednesday that Texas is already suffering from the end of the tax-break program, recently losing a “massive” computer chip factory to New York. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a Site Selection’s Governor’s Cup award announcement at the Texas Governor's Mansion in Austin on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
What you need to know about education savings accounts, the voucher-like program championed by Gov. Greg Abbott
Texas is the latest state to pitch a version of the program, which lets parents who opt out of their local school districts use tax dollars to pay for private schooling. Full Story
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![Isabel Suarez works on homework prior to the start of the school day from her home in Pflugerville on Dec 9, 2020.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Gov. Greg Abbott promises to be “heavily involved” in push for education savings accounts
In an interview with the Tribune, the governor also backed criminalizing some health care treatments for transgender kids and shrugged off the idea that he’s in a conservative policy rivalry with Ron DeSantis. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott addresses the House floor on the opening day of the 88th Legislative Session at the state Capitol in Austin on Jan. 10, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority bills signal another swing at pushing Texas to the right
Speaking in December, Patrick was less out front about conservative priorities like school book bans and restrictions to rights for transgender people. His priority bill list made clear those are a major part of his focus. Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick delivers his Inaugural address after taking the Oath of Office at the state Capitol in Austin on Jan. 17, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune