AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Texas Senate’s proposed $106.3 billion state budget is now set for a floor vote next week - but it’s already being blasted by the Republican head of the House.
Adopted Wednesday by the Senate Finance Committee, the budget features no extra funding for public schools but continues spending $800 million on border security.
The oil slump has lawmakers looking to lower costs. The House supports tapping Texas’ rainy day fund to spare spending cuts.
The Senate avoided that, though, using accounting tricks involving $2.5 billion earmarked for transportation.
That made House Speaker Joe Straus immediately bristle, likening the move to “cooking the books” and starkly underscoring how hard it may be for both chambers to reconcile their separate budget proposals.
Meanwhile, even Gov. Greg Abbott is having difficulty finding funding for his pre-kindergarten initiative.
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SENATE OKS PLAN BARRING MANY INSURANCE PLANS FROM COVERING ABORTIONS
The Texas Senate has preliminarily approved a bill prohibiting coverage of abortion by some health insurance plans in Texas - despite similar efforts stalling previously.
Wednesday’s 19-10 vote leaves Sen. Larry Taylor’s bill a final, largely ceremonial vote away from heading to the House.
It bars health insurance plans offered through the Obama administration’s health care law from covering the cost of abortions unless policyholders purchase supplemental coverage. Texas never established health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, but state policies are offered via federal exchanges.
Twenty-five states already restrict abortion coverage in plans purchased through Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Taylor, a Friendswood Republican, says Texas is behind other conservative locales on the issue - though a bill doing the same thing stalled in the GOP-controlled Legislature last session.
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LANDOWNER PROTECTIONS FROM ROCK CLIMBING INJURY LAWSUITS CLEARS SENATE
The Texas Senate has approved a bill protecting property owners statewide from liability for injuries incurred by people rock climbing on their land.
The proposal by Republican Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock now heads to the state House.
It immunizes landowners of liability when allowing rock climbing on their property, just as they currently are protected when permitting other activities like hunting and fishing.
Perry argues that Texas has “world-class rock climbing resources” but many landowners block access to people wishing to use them because of fears they could be sued for any injuries sustained.
He says limiting landowner liability on rock climbing injuries would allow Texas landowners to exploit a “new revenue streams” on their property.
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ON DECK
The House reconvenes at 10 a.m. Thursday but only plans to take final votes on five relatively minor bills. The Senate is off until Monday afternoon.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This is the Texas Legislature, we are not Enron. I’m not interested in cooking the books just to avoid a vote on the Rainy Day Fund,” - House Speaker Joe Straus reacting to the Senate’s proposed budget’s calling for temporarily diverting state money already earmarked for highways to cover the costs of other services.
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