Texas Republicans clash over property tax relief, showing rift between governor, lieutenant governor.
KERA | By Sarah Asch | Texas Standard, June 5, 2023
“Right now it’s kind of a three-way standoff between the governor, the lieutenant governor and the House speaker,” he said. “The governor’s more aligned with the speaker on this particular issue, and that’s one of the rare occasions where he’s allowing some daylight to come between him and the lieutenant governor, as they both really want to court that same conservative Republican base. It’s always been assumed that Dan Patrick has the tighter grip on it, and the governor has not really wanted to be outside that conservative loop.” John Moritz, USA Today Network
Moritz said historically Dan Patrick has courted the Trump wing of the Republican party while Greg Abbott has worked to maintain a little more distance while still staying popular with that same base. House Speaker Dade Phelan, on the other hand, is more moderate.
“The speaker has been called a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by the former president,” Moritz said. “Because he serves at the pleasure of the House membership, he’s got to be more accommodating to the wide array of political leanings that make up the Texas House.”
Moritz said some at the Capitol criticized the governor for prioritizing property tax cuts without laying out any specifics.
“Abbott made it clear he wanted the property tax cut, but he never really got into the weeds with the details along the way,” he said. “As the special session opened, he finally said, ‘okay, I’m with the House.’ And I think that kind of took a lot of people by surprise, may have even taken the lieutenant governor by surprise, seeing as how they are typically aligned on policy.”
Patrick fired back at the governor on Twitter:
Governor Abbott released a statement this evening where he said, “The Texas House is the only chamber that passed a property tax cut bill that is germane to the special session that I called to provide Texans with property tax relief.”
He seems misinformed about the roles of the executive and legislative branches of government. While the Governor has the sole authority to call the Legislature into Session, the Legislature writes the bills – the courts have been crystal clear on this.
Governor Abbott has finally shown his cards. He chooses to give homeowners 50% less of a tax cut, nearly $700 a year, to give corporations more. This is not what homeowners expected when they voted for him.
Both the House and Senate spend $17.6 billion for property tax relief. After giving lower tax rates to everyone through compression the Senate plan dedicates nearly $6 billion for homestead exemptions. That gives homeowners nearly $700 more than the Abbott plan. I’m shocked Governor Abbott is advocating for taking that additional $700 savings from homeowners and giving it to businesses.
I stand by our bill. It is germane to the call – legal precedent is clear on this point. Something Governor Abbott and Speaker Phelan should remember — for any bill to pass, it must go through both the House AND the Senate.
While the House may have thrown in the towel, the Senate continues to work. The Governor should feel free to expand the call to include other critical issues for our State. #txlege