SAN ANTONIO – State senators called the passage of House Bill 3 from the chamber a historic day in school finance and property tax reform.
The bill would overhaul how the state gets and spends money meant to fund public schools.
The 300-page bill passed 26-2 in the Senate with amendments back to the House chamber for a vote.
State Sen. Jose Menendez said lawmakers are not putting a bandage on the problem and are moving forward with meaningful legislation without having to face the threat of a lawsuit.
“The bill is not a perfect bill. I’m glad the sales tax component, a regressing component, was taken out of it,” he said. “For now, we're moving forward with a bill that improves and takes care of making school funding issues better without a regressing sales tax, and it provides for some property tax relief, as well.”
Weaved into the bill is funding for special programs, teacher pay and increasing funding per student. The bill is so complex and still so controversial that local leaders say they are not sure how it will impact schools and districts once and if it passes.
Northside Independent School District Superintendent and President-elect for Texas Association of School Administrators Dr. Brian Woods said the House and Senate want very different things from this bill, which make it difficult to predict what the final version will end up including.
“The two chambers disagree really dramatically on how it ought to look, so that's what you are seeing today, a bill that started really as a school funding bill that now has become more of property tax relief bill," Woods said.
Woods said his district is moving forward with budget plans for next year without taking into account any change from Austin.
“The most conservative way to budget is to budget based on the resources we have. You never count on resources that are not the bank, so to speak, so we are building a conservative budget,” Woods said.
The bill will likely be heard in the House on Tuesday, where it is most likely to be sent to a conference committee. The committee is selected by the lieutenant governor and is made up of five House and five Senate representatives who will hash out an agreement on the final bill.
The committee must have a version that is approved by three signatures from its members from each side. The version will then return to both chambers for approval before it goes to the governor for a signature. Lawmakers have about three weeks to pass a bill.