The Texas Legislature meets once every two years, and this Tuesday is day one of the latest session, with the usual wide variety of priorities, from property tax relief to school vouchers to abortion.
Highest on the agenda at first will be the Texas budget and electing a Speaker of the House. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar is set to release the Biennial Revenue Estimate (an educated guess at how much money the state has to work with this legislative session) and then will estimate how much is left over after the state has paid its bills.
That leftover is the state budget surplus, and this year it's expected to be about $20 billion. It's with that knowledge that senators and representatives will be scurrying to find appropriate ways to spend some of the surplus. Some of that money, though, is expected to go into the Rainy Day Fund, formally known as the Texas Economic Stabilization Fund.
That money, funded in large part by taxes on the oil and gas industry, was created to help the state through hard times, but it's often tapped to pay for special programs or to make up for budget shortfalls when spending by the legislature increases considerably.
As the 89th session of the legislature gets underway, two Republicans are still battling for the position of Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, so electing a new Speaker will be a top priority after the session is convened, but until someone takes the oath of office, Secretary of State Jane Nelson, a former Dallas-area state senator, will preside over the House.
There are 3 candidates in the running to serve as the next Speaker of the Texas House: two Republicans and a Democrat -- Representative Ana-Maria Ramos (D), Representative Dustin Burrows (R, aligned with a faction that includes the former Speaker of the House Dade Phelan) and Representative David Cook (who's aligned with a more conservative faction that includes Governor Greg Abbott).
Both of them say they have the votes needed to become Speaker.
Secretary Nelson has already named Walter Fisher and Sharon Carter to serve as parliamentarians for the opening of the session to make sure the legislative rules are closely followed.
Ms. Nelson is known as an outspoken and savvy conservative Republican who counts a number of legislative achievements in her years at the state Capitol, in health, education and finance -- she worked closely with other leaders in drafting a state budget as chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee.as recently as 2021.
She's since left the Senate and was named Secretary of State by Governor Greg Abbott in 2023.
Once Gov. Abbott announces his high-priority list of legislation that he wants to see passed in the first two months of the session and legislators are sworn in, the 140-day biannual session will be underway.
That's when the fun starts, the tedium sets in, the arguments erupt, and the politics and new state laws begin.
