The bill would increase state, school district and teacher contributions to the fund, and provide a one-time additional check for retirees.
Texas Legislature 2019
The 86th Legislature runs from Jan. 8 to May 27. From the state budget to health care to education policy — and the politics behind it all — we focus on what Texans need to know about the biennial legislative session.
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Texas Legislature 2019
Analysis: Some of the secrets of Texas government aren’t supposed to be secrets
The Texas Legislature, full of people who believe in open government and who also like to settle things quietly and outside of public view, is diving into open-government legislation.
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Texas Legislature 2019
Analysis: Texas lawmakers will obviously need a special session, right? Only if they screw things up.
Halfway through the session, the Capitol’s hallways are full of talk of a special session on school finance and property taxes. That won’t happen — unless the Legislature makes a mess of the time it’s got left.
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Texas Legislature 2019
Texas officials say it would cost $1 billion to cool prisons – but they’ve grossly overestimated AC costs before
An estimate to put air conditioning into one prison changed from more than $20 million to $4 million last year.
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Texas Legislature 2019
Tribcast: Dan Patrick’s stance on medical cannabis, Castro’s struggles, O’Rourke’s first week
On this week’s TribCast, Aman talks to Alex, Aliyya and Ross about the mood in the Texas Capitol halfway through the session, why Dan Patrick has some pot advocates feeling paranoid and how the two Texans running for president are doing — and yes, there are still two.
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Texas Legislature 2019
Point of Order: Texas and the sexes
In the latest episode of our podcast about the 86th Legislature, Evan Smith talks to House members Mary Gonzalez, Sarah Davis and Toni Rose about gender, politics and public policy in a state where the population is majority female but elected officials are overwhelmingly male.
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Texas Legislature 2019
On some big issues this year, Texas lawmakers are going against the polls
Issues like city-mandated paid sick leave and “red flag” gun laws are popular among Texas voters, polls suggest. Will opposing them have consequences in 2020?
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Texas Legislature 2019
Texas lawmakers eye a record-breaking rainy day fund withdrawal
Proposals in the Texas House would spend $6.6 billion from the state’s savings account; the Senate would spend $4.4 billion.
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Texas Legislature 2019
Texas Senate approves $1.8 billion package to assist with Harvey recovery, guard against future storms
The upper chamber cast three, 31-0 votes on Wednesday to approve disaster recovery and preparedness legislation that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick named a top priority.
![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is "is “strongly opposed to weakening any laws against marijuana [and] remains wary of the various medicinal use proposals that could become a vehicle for expanding access to this drug,” according to a spokesperson.](https://i0.wp.com/www.texastribune.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/10_Lit._Gov._Dan_Patrick_Senate_Floor_MG_TT-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&quality=89&ssl=1)
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Texas Legislature 2019
Medical cannabis expansion has high support in the Texas Legislature. But Dan Patrick might stand in the way.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s wariness of proposals to expand the state’s narrow medical cannabis program may block any such bills from reaching the governor’s desk this session.