Democratic legislators respond to the 7 legislative priorities of the government Abbott – Kvue.com

Austin, Texas – On Sunday night, governor Greg Abat has exposed the seven emergency objects, which he hopes that legislators will prioritize the transfer of the accounts of this session. Many of them were no surprise to legislators and defenders, as he has been talking about some of these priorities for months, if not for years.

Creating Education Savings (ESA) is something that Abbot has been talking about for several years. He convened three special sessions to try to get Esas.

As one of his main priorities this session again, he told the legislators on Sunday that this was something that “must be accepted”.

The Senate’s version of the ESA bill is the Senate Bill 2. It will create a $ 1 billion ESA program that will allow the Texas families to use public tax dollars for private education. According to the bill, students in the program will receive at least $ 10,000 in their ESA.

Abbott claims that ESA is a true “choice of school”, giving parents the power to decide which schools they want to send their children.

“The bigger part of the Texas choice is supporting the school,” Abbot said. “More than 30 states already have a form of choice at school. We will continue to finance the public schools fully and to raise teachers, while providing parents with the choice they deserve. “

But the ESC opponents strongly disagree, saying that the true power of choice lies in private schools because they can choose who they want to admit. They also call the ESA coupon, saying that $ 10,000 is not even close enough to cover the full price of private school training.

“The wealthy parent, who is already sending her child to a private school for $ 20,000 a year, will receive a $ 10,000 coupon at our expense,” said state-owned representative James Talarico (D-Austin). “The vouchers are well -being for the wealthy and if it goes to Texas, it will be a historical transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.”

Abbott has also announced that raising the pay of teachers as an emergency position, more special by investing $ 750 million in the distribution of a teacher’s stimulus. But home democrats say that this will not give all the teachers.

They said that what was really needed to invest in teachers was raising salaries throughout the board so that they could keep teachers from the first and second year, which is the group that leaves the profession most often.

“In this country, we have a crisis of holding teachers and governor Abat has been aware of it for years, but has done nothing,” said state-owned representative Gina D-Austin.

The Chamber’s Democrats have introduced a bill that will give each Texas teacher an increase of $ 15,000, which they believe will be crucial to resolving the school financing crisis.

Another great priority for ABBOTT is to work on a more warranty reform, urging MPs to adopt a law that requires judges to refuse a guarantee of violence offenders. He also hopes to pass a law to deny a guarantee for people accused of killing a capital or sexual crime of a child.

On Monday, State Senator Joan Huffman of Houston filed a guarantee reform package with five bills, including one that will refuse a texas immigrant guarantee illegally charged with a crime.

“The illegal immigrants who have been arrested should be considered as a risk of flight, denied a guarantee and hand over to ice,” Abbot said. “Activist judges just have too much discretion to release repetitive offenders on warranty just to see them harm more texas.”

ACLU of Texas spoke against ABB’s address on Monday, saying that the Texas Guarantee System is already insufficient as it is based on access to wealth rather than safety.

“ABBOTT comments have ignored both the Constitution and the reality that the Texas Guarantee System already supports tens of thousands of people behind bars not because they are dangerous, but because they are poor,” said Nick Hudson, the strategist of ACLU of Texas ACLU S

The organization also called the governor’s support for automatic warranty warranty.

“Any law or amendment that automatically closes people based only on the fees raised would be obviously unconstitutional,” Hudson said. “This would conclude people before the trial, without allowing a judge to consider their situation, the details of their case, or whether they were likely to return to court.”

Something else Abbot and many legislators continue to emphasize is more investment in the water infrastructure of the state.

Abbot noted that the last session, MPs invest $ 1 billion for water projects and infrastructure. He wants this session to make the deputies even more investment in the water to ensure the water supply of the state over the next 50 years.

Its plan involves allocating $ 1 billion a year for the next 10 years to repair pipes and receive new water supply.

“Some of our water supply is drying,” Abbot said. “Many communities have flowing and broken water lines. Agriculture producers in the Rio Grande and West Texas Valley do not have enough water to grow their crops. “

Many democratic MPs are happy that investing in water infrastructure is recognized as an emergency position, but they hope that the laws that are adopted are also sustainable.

“I was glad to hear that he invests in fixing permeable pipes, but at the same time we have to make sure we use water in an intelligent way, and the oil production plans to use fresh water outside the Pekosa River and the red bluff pool instead of They use recycled water, which is available at the same price, “said State reporter Vicky Gudin (D-Austin).

Texas 2036, a non -profit public policy organization, has completed a study of the needs of Texas water infrastructure. He found that for the next 50 years the state would need about $ 153.8 billion for new water supply and fixing old and broken systems.

Lieutenant Dan Patrick said investing in water infrastructure is also a priority for the Senate. The senate version of the budget includes $ 2.5 billion for water and flood infrastructure.

Other ABBOTT’s emergency positions include more property tax relief, career expansion, and creating the Texas Cyber ​​Command. During the first 60 days of the legislative session, legislators can only accept accounts related to the subjects that the governor has announced for these “emergency positions”.