Texas Legislature’s First Special Session to Focus on Border Security, Slashing Property Taxes

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on March 15, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on May 29 unveiled a long list of agenda items for the state Legislature’s upcoming special sessions, including bolstering security at the U.S.-Mexico border and slashing property taxes in the state.

The Republican governor called an immediate special session the night of May 29, just hours after the state House and Senate adjourned from the 88th legislative session without passing a number of key bills following tense negotiations.

In a statement, Abbott said the first of many special sessions would officially begin at 9 p.m. and would be focused on legislation to cut property taxes by reducing the maximum compressed tax rate for state public school districts in order to “provide lasting property-tax relief for Texas taxpayers.”

Lawmakers have been divided over the issue of tax cuts, particularly when it comes to a proposal to significantly raise the state’s homestead exemption on public school taxes, a legal provision dictating the portion of a home’s value that can’t be taxed by school districts, according to The Texas Tribune.

“We must cut property taxes. During the regular session, we added $17.6 billion to cut property taxes,” said Abbott, who has made tax cuts a priority. The property tax relief would be covered by the state’s nearly $33 billion budget surplus.

“However, the legislature could not agree on how to allocate funds to accomplish this goal. Texans want and need a path towards eliminating property taxes. The best way to do that is to direct property tax reduction dollars to cut school property tax rates,” Abbott said.

Texas National Guard troops watch over illegal immigrants tin El Paso, Texas, on May 10, 2023. Andres Leighton/AP Photo

Border Security, Human Smuggling

The first session would also be focused on border security, specifically legislation aimed at increasing or enhancing the penalties for certain criminal conduct involving human smuggling and operating stash houses amid the ongoing border crisis, Abbott said.

Abbott noted that while lawmakers in the state have reached “major achievements,” several special sessions will be required as many critical items remain on the agenda that the Legislature failed to pass measures on, and “more must be done for the people of Texas.”

Other special sessions, according to Abbott, will address a string of issues that will help advance the state and the “future of all Texans.”

They could last up to 30 days, according to The Houston Chronicle. Dates and times for those sessions have not yet been announced.

Issues to be addressed at those sessions include ending COVID restrictions and mandates, designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, prosecuting fentanyl deaths as murder, protecting women’s sports, protecting children from gaining access to potentially life-altering “gender-affirming care” and requiring armed security at all schools following a number of mass shootings.

Other issues to be addressed in the upcoming special sessions include bolstering electric power generation to secure the state’s power grid; providing more than $5.1 billion to secure the border and fund the Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the border wall; and holding “rogue” district attorneys accountable.

Illegal immigrants board vans after waiting along the border wall to surrender to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents for immigration and asylum claim processing upon crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States on the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on May 11, 2023. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

‘Rogue’ District Attorneys

Abbott’s announcement came after the Texas Legislature passed a bill paving the way for locally elected prosecutors to be removed from office if they fail to enforce certain laws.

House Bill 17 passed in a 20–11 vote on May 28 after passing both legislative houses in April and now heads to Abbott’s desk to be signed into law.

The measure would allow Texas residents who have lived in a county for at least six months to file a petition against a prosecuting attorney accusing them of misconduct if the top local prosecutor fails to “prosecute a class or type of criminal offense under state law,” or if they instruct law enforcement to “refuse to arrest individuals suspected of committing a class or type of offense under state law.”

If the prosecuting attorney is found guilty, a judge may order their removal, after which Abbott can appoint a prosecutor’s successor until the next election.

The measure was introduced after a number of attorneys nationwide, including five from Texas, signaled that they would refuse to prosecute any cases that criminalize abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and would not pursue charges of low-level thefts or first-time marijuana offenses.

Democrats have raised concerns that the measure is unconstitutional and is a violation of the state’s separation of powers.

However, Republican state Sen. Joan Huffman, who introduced the bill earlier this year, has accused Texas prosecutors of adopting “internal policies” and “refusing to prosecute particular laws” which she and other Republican lawmakers believe sets a “dangerous precedent” that undermines the authority of the Legislature.