7: The Texas Legislature

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 129125

$ \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } $ $ \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} $$\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}$ $ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$ $ \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}$ $ \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}$ $ \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}$ $ \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}$ $ \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}$ $ \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}$ $ \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}$ $ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$ $\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}$ $ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$ $ \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}$ $ \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}$ $ \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}$ $ \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}$ $ \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}$ $ \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}$ $ \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}$ $ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$$\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}$

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

Describe the structure of the Texas legislature.
Explain the effect of limitations on the legislature due to its brief and infrequent sessions.
Assess some of the issues surrounding the demographic composition of the Texas legislature.
Trace how legislation is considered and enacted.
Evaluate the issues and controversies around how electoral districts are drawn.

Key Terms and Concepts: bicameral; supermajority; biennial; regular session; special session; single-member district; citizen legislature; constituents; constituent services; bill; joint resolution; concurrent resolution; simple resolution; standing committee; joint committee; interim committee; conference committee; impeachment; speaker of the House; lieutenant governor; chair appointments; floor recognition; pigeonholing; filibuster; veto; line-item veto; apportionment; one person, one vote standard; redistricting; gerrymandering

Each August, Texas has a “tax-free weekend.” School supplies, clothes and shoes can be purchased for a few days without the addition of Texas’s 6.25 percent sales tax—which is really 8.25 percent in cities like Houston that add an additional percentage point for city government and one for the local transit authority (Figure 7.1).

截屏2021-09-26 下午9.18.10.png — Figure 7.1 On back-to-school weekends in August, facemasks as well as other school-related purchases are exempt from state and local sales taxes. SOURCE: https://gov.texas.gov/first-lady/pos...x-free-weekend.

What about college textbooks? How much are you spending on books this semester? Some of our students are required to buy engineering and science books that retail for $300 or more each semester.

Representative Terry Canales, a Democrat from Edinburg, wants to give Texas college students a break, too. In the 2019 session of the Texas legislature, Representative Canales filed House Bill 21, which would have established two tax-free weeks for college textbooks—one in August, the other in January—right before the beginning of each long semester.¹ The bill was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles all tax legislation, where it died quietly. Why wouldn’t legislators want to let college students save on textbooks?

The Texas legislature operates very differently from the United States Congress in several ways. One of the most important is that the Texas Constitution requires the state to have a balanced budget. Accordingly, every bill considered by Texas lawmakers comes with a price tag called a “fiscal note”—the Legislative Budget Board’s best estimate of that bill’s impact on the state treasury. As it turns out, exempting college textbooks from the sales tax during the weeks most of them are purchased would cost the state more than thirty million dollars a year, and would have cost local governments another nine million dollars.² Bills that cost the state and local governments money have a tough time getting votes because legislators know that lost revenue means either reducing government services or finding another source of funding to replace that lost revenue.

Representative Canales remains undeterred, however, having filed the same proposal as H.B. 174 for the Texas legislature’s 2021 session.

1. H.B. 21 by Canales, https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup...=86R&Bill=HB21

2. Fiscal Note for H.B. 21, https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86...l/HB00021I.htm)