Changes made in the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday increase total education reform spending to $9 billion with little dedicated to property tax relief.
As the Senate Finance Committee comes close to finalizing their version of the states budget new tweaks made today would increase the chambers amount of spending on what they refer to as public education reform."
As filed the Senates version of the budget barely fell within the confines of the Conservative Texas Budget coalitions recommendation. With $6 billion set aside for school finance reform the Senate originally planned on dedicating $3.7 billion for increased teacher pay with a mere $2.3 billion for property tax relief.
Changes proposed by State Sen. Larry Taylor (RFriendswood) and supported unanimously by the committee ups the total number to $9 billion.
Still however taxpayers would likely not see the majority of that amount.
The Senates across-the-board $5000 pay raise for teachers was adjusted to $4 billion due in part to additional TRS funding necessitated by the pay raise as well as the decision made by senators to include librarians in the proposal.
Of the remaining $5 billion $2.7 billion is tagged for property tax relief and the remaining $2.3 billion for other school finance reform-related spending though details on how exactly the money would be spent are sparse as the Senates school finance reform was filed largely incomplete on details.
By raising state spending on public education without shifting meaningful money to property tax relief the Senates version would end up more closely mirroring the Houses budget.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to pass its version of the budget next week before it being taken up by the full Senate body.
This article first appeared on Texas Scorecard https://texasscorecard.com/state/senate-committee-revises-budget-matches-house-on-education-spending/
