The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - April 2, 2025

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

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Howdy folks, today is Wednesday, April 2nd and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lauschis and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, Texas Democratic lawmakers released a joint statement explaining their reasoning for linking arms with Republican colleagues to pass legislation clarifying the state's abortion laws, citing it as a necessary step in a long-term fight. The author of Texas' current law banning abortion, Senator Brian Hughes, filed the

long-anticipated Life of the Mother Act, or Senate Bill 31, to which one Democratic member, Senator Carol Alvarado, signed on as a co-author. Alvarado, the chair of the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus, acknowledged in the joint statement that she understands that, quote, there's some confusion as to what Senate Bill 31 does. Similar to Alvarado, the statements put forward by other Democratic supporters of the Life of the Mother Act centered on a common theme,the desire for more pro-choice legislation, but the acknowledgement that Democrats are not in the position to do so with their current numbers. They also shared the belief that these bills are the necessary next step to protect women's

lives from uneducated medical professionals in light of Texas' abortion restrictions. Next, the Texas House gave initial approval to its priority property tax plan on Wednesday, which would increase an exemption for businesses from $2,500 to $250,000. Business personal property is any inventory or property that isn't the land on or the building in which a business sits, and House Joint Resolution 1 and House Bill 9 would multiply the current tax exemption on that by 100. The fiscal note associated with it is $566 million, as during the next biennium the state would no longer collect that amount in tax.

State Representative Morgan Meyer, the author of the proposals, said that the exemption, if passed, would be the second highest in the nation and that it's primarily aimed at small businesses. The Senate and the House are in agreement on the amount of money for these business tax breaks in their draft budgets, but the mechanisms differ. The Senate's version would increase this exemption to $25,000 and apply a 20% inventory tax credit, effectively a rebate to the House's front-end appraisal reduction. Stay tuned for more news updates after

this short message. Data centers fuel 364,000 Texas jobs, generate 3.5 billion dollars in state and local taxes, and power essential services like banking, healthcare, and video calls. With 21 connected devices per household and soaring data demands, these hubs drive Texas's booming economy, shape its technological future, and keep your data here in the US. To learn more, visit centerofyourdigitalworld.org. slash Texas. Now returning to your daily Texas news.

In other news, state lawmakers are scrutinizing a program that offers full property tax exemptions in exchange for designating some units for low or moderate income residents, with more than 100 Texas House members now backing a reform bill that has stalled in committee. Representative Gary Gates has proposed reforms to housing finance corporations that include more stringent requirements for properties awarded the tax exemptions and mandating compliance audits in his House Bill 21. In February, Representative Rafael Anchia introduced House Bill 2937 to eliminate so-called traveling HFCs without any other changes to the requirements, but the bill has not received a hearing.

Then, on March 14th, Intergovernmental Affairs Committee Chair Cecil Bell introduced HB 1585, a duplicate of Enchia's bill. Enchia is the co-founder of Civitas Capital Group, which negotiates, owns, and manages tax-exempt properties throughout Texas. The group has obtained five HFC properties authorized through the Houston Housing Authority since 2023 with an estimated value of $136 million. That removes an estimated $2.9 million in tax revenue

that would be paid to local jurisdictions. On March 18th, Gates's House Bill 21 was considered in a public hearing, but left pending in committee. Last but not least, over 160 independent school districts in Texas will pay about three billion dollars in recapture this year to try and equalize public school funding across the state. This Robin Hood school funding system was created in the early 1990s and upheld by the Texas Supreme Court. The system, which has been revised multiple times over the years,

takes tax revenue from property-wealthy school districts and redistributes it to less wealthy ones. Carroll Independent School District, a property-wealthy district in northeast Tarrant County is subject to recapture. For fiscal year 2025, Carroll ISD expects to pay nearly $25.4 million in recapture payments, about 19% of its overall budget. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.