Top Texas lawmakers cut deal on $4.5B boost in education, $5B for property tax relief

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Houston Chronicle by Allie Morris and Andrea Zelinski 5/23/2019

Declaring victory akin to winning the Super Bowl, Gov. Greg Abbott and leaders of the Texas House and Senate on Thursday unveiled a plan they say will solve Texas’ biggest problems by boosting education spending by $4.5 billion and allocating $5 billion to tamp down property tax bills starting next year.

Republicans Abbott, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said they struck a deal on Wednesday night that will lower school property tax rates by an average of 8 cents per $100 in home value in 2020 and by 13 cents in 2021. For the owner of a $200,000 home, that would amount to decrease of about $160 in 2020.

But the GOP leaders have yet to reveal the details or text of the plan, and provided few details about where the funding would come from or how each of the roughly 1,200 school districts across Texas will fare. While teachers could see a raise — especially those who have spent at least six years in the classroom — the exact amount will be left up to each school district and could include merit and incentive pay, they said.

“I said we will do what no one thought possible: We will finally fix school finance in Texas,” Abbott said. “And today, I’m proud to tell you, we are announcing that we have done just that.”

Patrick added, “We said we were on the five-yard line about a month ago. Now we have a touch down, we have had the Super Bowl of legislative sessions in the history of the state.”

Attempts to ease skyrocketing property taxes and improve school funding have vexed the Legislature for years, leading to a meltdown in the Capitol in 2017 and several lawsuits making the issues even more difficult to solve.

The legislation still needs the approval of the Republican-led House and Senate before the legislative session ends Monday.

Roughly $2 billion of the $4.5 billion for education would be earmarked for boosting compensation for teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas_legislature/article/Texas-lawmakers-cut-deal-on-4-5B-boost-in-13882959.php

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