Education
House Committee Backs Budget Plan With $9 Billion for School Finance, Property Tax Reform
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The Texas House Appropriations Committee has approved the 2020-21 spending plan, House Bill 1, which moves to the floor of the 150-member House.
Gov & Politics
Texas House Proposes Massive Increase for Public School Funding
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Budget documents show the Texas House has offered up a whopping 17 percent increase in K-12 public education funding if certain reforms are made.
Gov & Politics
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar: More Revenue Available for Next State Budget
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Hegar projected there would be about $119.1 billion in state funds available for the next two-year budget, up from $110.2 in the last two-year budget.
Gov & Politics
At the Texas Capitol, Victims of Sexual Harassment Must Fend for Themselves
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Interviews with current and former lawmakers and legislative aides indicate sexual harassment regularly goes unchecked at the Texas Capitol.
child welfare system
Texas Has Hired Its First-Ever Director of Human Trafficking Prevention
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Earlier this year, the Texas Tribune’s Sold Out series examined how state policies – including a severely underfunded child welfare system – failed to help child sex-trafficking victims. Since then, lawmakers set aside a budget increase of more than $500 million for the foster care system, and the governor’s office approved new funds for trafficking prevention initiatives — which includes the state’s first-ever Director of Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation.
Gov & Politics
Texas Sen. Carlos Uresti Indicted on Fraud Charges
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Uresti, a personal injury attorney, has been entwined in a complicated saga involving FourWinds Logistics, which sold sand used in hydraulic fracturing
Gov & Politics
Senate Budget ‘Unambiguously’ Unconstitutional, House Leadership Says
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At issue is a controversial accounting maneuver intended by the Senate to free up $2.5 billion by strategically delaying a payment to the state’s highway fund.
Gov & Politics
House Lawmakers Take a Stab at Funding for Trafficking Victims
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A Texas House member’s proposal would cut $3 million from Gov. Greg Abbott’s homeland security budget and give it to victims of human trafficking.
Gov & Politics
Texas Senate Accounting Maneuver Finds $2.5B in Budget; Straus Calls it ‘Cooking the Books’
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By delaying a diversion of sales tax money for transportation projects, Texas Senate leaders said they had an extra $2.5 billion to spend on other needs.
Gov & Politics
Citing Sex Trafficking Series, Texas Dem Urges Paxton to Stop Fighting Foster Care Suit
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“If there was ever a call to action for state officials to get serious about reforming foster care, this was it,” State Rep. Chris Turner said.
