TX House Gives Nod to $337 Billion Budget
as 46 Republicans Try and Fail to Save Lotto
Capitol Inside
April 10, 2025
The Texas House dodged a move to defund the University of Texas in Austin, voted to cancel funding for the lottery and earmarked $1 billion for private education that could have gone to public schools before it approved a $337 billion state budget plan for the next two years.
A modified version of Senate Bill 1 cleared the House on a vote of 118-26 early Friday morning after 18 hours of debate in which members spent substantially more time standing around waiting on rulings than they devoted to discussions over differences in the record spending proposal.
Nineteen Republicans and seven Democrats voted to kill the appropriations bill that's designed to keep state government in business in Texas throughout the 2026-2027 biennium. Eleven GOP members who opposed the spending bill are freshmen lawmakers. All of the Republicans who cast votes against the budget are widely viewed to be among the chamber's most conservative members.
The Republicans in the dissent argued that the legislation would be shortchanging property owners with less than $7 billion in funding for additional relief. The appropriations bill includes a total of $51 billion for the maintenance of property tax relief that the Legislature enacted in the past along with the proposed cuts for the new budget cycle - according to a CBS Austin report on Friday.
“I cannot go back in good conscience go to my constituents and tell them out of $24 billion dollars in surplus money that belongs to them, that I can come back and support a budget that is only going to return $6.5 billion of that," rookie Republican State Rep. Mike Olcott told his colleagues.
The Republicans who voted against the measure included State Reps. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, Brian Harrison of Midlothian, Richard Hayes of Plano, Janis Holt of Silsbee, Andy Hopper of Decatur, Helen Kerwin of Glen Rose, Mitch Little of Lewisville, David Lowe of Fort Worth, J.M. Lozano of Kingsville, Shelley Luther of Tom Bean, Brent Money of Greenville, Matt Morgan of Richmond, Keresa Richardson of McKinney, Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth, Alan Schoolcraft of San Antonio, Tony Tinderholt of Arlington, Steve Toth of Conroe and Wes Virdell of Brady.
Democratic State Reps. John Bryant of Dallas, Vikki Goodwin of Austin, Gina Hinojosa of Austin, Terry Meza of Irving, Penny Morales Shaw of Houston, Ron Reynolds of Missouri City and Ana-Maria Ramos Rodriguez of Dallas cast votes against the proposed spending bill as well.
But the Democrats who opposed the plan argued that it would severely undermine public education by reserving a nine-digit sum for vouchers that would spend taxpayer funds on subsidies for private schools.
Forty-sex Republicans - including the chamber's most conservative members - voted to save funding for the Texas Lottery in a vote against an amendment that 96 members from both parties endorsed. Republicans on the right - ironically - have been a roadblock to casino gambling and sports betting in the Lone Star State. The amendment was sponsored by State Rep. Mary Gonzalez - a Clint Democrat who serves as the Appropriations Committee vice-chair.
SB 1 was sponsored in the House by the budget panel's chairman - GOP State Rep. Greg Bonnen of Friendswood.
The House averted a showdown over an amendment that the freshman Hopper offered in a move that would have cancelled funding for UT-Austin in retaliation for courses and majors that conservatives claims to be woke by promoting transgender lifestyles and DEI.
Hopper's maneuver conjured visions of former Texas Governor James "Pa" Ferguson's decision to veto the entire University of Texas budget in 1917 in retaliation for the school's refusal to fire a faculty member who'd he defeated in the battle for the Democratic nomination three years earlier.
Ferguson underestimated the muscle that UT wielded inside the Capitol corridor - and he paid dearly later that year as the first and only statewide official in Texas to be convicted and removed from office by the state Senate in an impeachment trial based on charges that originated in the House. The Senate declared Ferguson ineligible to ever hold public office again in Texas.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is only the second statewide leader here to be impeached in the House. But the Senate acquitted the state lawyer in September 2023 - and Paxton has used the ordeal as a springboard for a bid to unseat U.S. Senator John Cornyn in the GOP primary election next year.
more to come ...
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