The second special session of the Texas Legislature is well underway, and Gov. Greg Abbott has already signed Texas' new congressional maps into law.
With the redistricting fight behind them, lawmakers are turning to other issues this week, including property taxes. The bills on the table this week are on top of property tax relief that passed in the regular session this year, according to Texas Newsroom statehouse reporter Blaise Gainey.
"They're actually looking at lowering the amount that local taxing entities can increase taxes without going to voters first," he said. "So this is just another way to try to either cut down on taxes or just make sure people are aware that their taxes will be increasing."
Questions also remain about whether Republican state leaders will come to a consensus over THC regulation. The first special session this year was originally called to address THC legislation, before flood relief and redistricting took center stage.
"We've sort of come to a butting of heads between the governor and lieutenant governor," Gainey said. "The lieutenant governor still wants the full ban. In fact, the Senate passed the full THC ban in the first special session, and they have now again, this session, passed a full THC ban.
"They sent it over to the House, and it's just sat on the Public Health Committee calendar, essentially. They haven't brought it up for a hearing."
» MORE: Texas to ban sales of THC vapes starting today
There's been no movement on the bill for about two weeks now, Gainey said.
"They only have about two weeks left in this session, so if they want to do something on that bill, they should get started soon, or else we could come to the end of a second special session without any legislation to address THC," he said. "Essentially, this [would leave] an unregulated market, and that's something that the governor and lieutenant governor don't want."
There are also a few bills on the agenda this week that were previously vetoed by Abbott. Gainey said lawmakers sometimes reintroduce vetoed bills with some small changes in the hopes of getting those laws across the finish line the second time around.
"This actually happened just like last week: The governor added same-day voter registration to the special session call," he said. "There was a bill that passed during the regular session in June that would have allowed for, if people that already are registered to vote in the state, if they have a change of address within the same county, they could re-register at that address on the same day of an election…They wanna get rid of that loophole that the bill created.
"It was just what they called an honest mistake and they didn't realize that they created the loopholes, so they want to make sure they close it."
Among the other bills Gainey is watching this week: an abortion pill crackdown and the STAAR test legislation.
"The state is once again trying to get rid of the STAAR test. That's the state standardized test that all students take. They're gonna replace it with three different tests that students will take throughout the year," he said. "And then also the abortion pill bill, which would stop people from being able to receive and send abortion pills throughout the state."
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