by Sen. Robert Nichols, Senate District 3
This week the Texas Senate welcomed DJ Daniel to the chamber. DJ is a 13 year old from the Houston area who is battling terminal brain and spine cancer. His dream is to become a police officer and he has set a goal to be sworn in by 1,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, which would be a record. This week, he moved one step closer to that goal when he was sworn into as an officer with the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Here are five things happening around your state:
1. Senate passes bill to increase business personal property tax exemption
This week, the Senate passed Senate Bill 32 by Senator Paul Bettencourt. This bill increases the business personal property tax exemption from $2,500 to $25,000. This will alleviate the tax burden on small businesses around the state. The bill also changes the exemption from a de minimis exemption to a universal exemption, meaning all businesses with business personal property can claim the exemption. The bill also provides a 20 percent inventory tax credit to reduce a business’s franchise tax liability. The total amount of credits that can be issued in a fiscal year is $500 million. Supporting small businesses by alleviating their tax burden is why Texas is one of the best places to start a business in the country.
2. House unanimously passes Trey’s Law, protecting sex abuse victims from non-disclosure agreements
The Texas House passed House Bill 748, also known as Trey’s Law, by Representative Jeff Leach this week. This bill would ban the use of non-disclosure agreements in civil settlements related to sexual abuse and sex trafficking cases. When cases are settled out of court, abusers have used confidentiality agreements to ensure that victims are forced to stay silent about what happened to them. The bill would subject all agreements, even those already in existence, to the provisions of the law. The bill is named after Trey Carlock, a Texas resident who died by suicide in 2019 after years of sexual abuse at a Christian summer camp. He signed an NDA as part of civil settlement, which led to the feeling he had to “suffer in silence,” as his sister said at the House hearing on the bill. The bill passed the House unanimously and now moves to the Senate for consideration.
3. Texas DOGE bill goes to Governor
The very first bill to make it through both chambers is on its way to the Governor this week. Senate Bill 14 is a measure that seeks to improve government efficiency by creating the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office within the Governor’s Office to identify rules and regulations at state agencies that are no longer necessary or useful and provide changes to rules that can reduce costs or improve effectiveness. The bill also codifies a Supreme Court decision related to federal regulations. The principle of Chevron deference required courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of an otherwise ambiguous statute. Recently, that standard was overturned at the federal level. This bill would codify the same principle at the state level that courts are not required to defer to agencies’ legal determinations.
4. Appeals court rules TEA can release A-F ratings
This week a judge ruled that the Texas Education Agency can move forward with releasing A-F school accountability ratings from the 2023 school year. The grades were delayed by a lawsuit filed by more than 100 districts after the agency changed the grading system mid-year. Under the new methods, districts would have had to reach higher benchmarks to get desirable ratings. The ratings are based on a number of factors including percentage of students who are college, career, or military-ready, graduation rates, and STAAR test scores. TEA announced it intends to release the ratings on April 24. A separate lawsuit over the 2024 ratings is still in litigation and is waiting on a decision.
5. East Texas non-profit places 400 foster children in homes
Almost a decade ago, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 11, which create Community Base Care model for foster care. It took the responsibility of placing foster children in homes from Child Protective Services to local contractors, like Texas Family Care Network (TFCN). TFCN started case management in the Deep East Texas Region a little over a year ago. Since then, the community-based network has removed more than 400 children from the foster care system and placed them in homes. I applaud the good, hard work Texas Family Care Network is doing in our community to help these children find a home.
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