ccar: in the know

Written by: Kendall Crawford, CCAR Content and Social Media Specialist

Once a bill has been approved and passed by the House and the Senate, it then goes on to the Governor who will either sign the bill into law, allow the bill to be approved without a signature, or they can veto the bill. That veto, however, can be overridden if the bill receives a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate.

The Current Session: As mentioned above, we are currently in our 88th legislative session which began on Tuesday, January 10 and will run until Monday, May 29. Currently, the Republicans control both chambers. This session, the State must consider how to spend the $32.7 billion budget surplus, an obvious hot topic. Some (but not all) of the other topics being discussed this session include inflation, immigration & border security, gun control, abortion rights, public education budget, and property taxes—a topic that Governor Greg Abbott himself is very passionate about. Since public schools in the state are largely funded by property taxes, many republican leaders want to use the surplus to take some of that pressure off homeowners.

House Bill 32, from State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, (R) would place limits on how much appraisal districts can raise a single-family home’s value.

State Rep. Diego Bernal, (D) filed a bill requiring appraisers to value a home based on the value of neighboring homes, this is aimed at preventing displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods.

House Bill 379 by State Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. (R) would direct the state comptroller to automatically put half of any budget surplus at the end of each session into the Texas Education Agency to again help take the burden off homeowners and their property taxes.

The Texas REALTORS® Advocacy team in Austin reviews every bill as they come forward to determine if it will affect property rights, homeownership, and the real estate profession. If a bill could affect one of these areas, then TR determines if they should lobby for or against a bill.

The Texas Legislature is always a great reminder of why it is so important to get involved and that starts at the local level. It is your local representatives who will fight and advocate for your best interest to those at the state and national levels. We invite all CCAR members to join us at our Government Affairs monthly committee meetings where we discuss real estate issues like the ones above with our local leaders. Please email Government Affairs Director Jason Petrie at jason@ ccar.net for more information.

*To get the most recent legislative updates, visit https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/14/texas-bill-filing-legislation-session-2023/