There is less than a month left to pass bills in the legislative session. While we have accomplished a great deal this session, there is still much to do, including providing real property tax relief.
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Below is a summary of the information you’ll find in this newsletter.
- Meeting with Governor Abbott
- Retired Teachers COLA Bill
- WHCRWA Inquiry Response Update
- Capitol Recognition: Dr. Tommy Harrison
- In Remembrance of Alan Vera
House Floor during session.
Last Monday, the House unanimously passed legislation to give retired teachers a cost of living adjustment in their pension every year (not just a one time COLA). Senate Bill 10 and House Joint Resolution 2 by Senator Joan Huffman and are it on the way to the Governor’s desk to be signed.
As you probably know, I filed HB 429, which would have given retired teachers a full consumer price index increase every year. While the House didn’t feel we could afford that, we did pass SB 10, which will give a partial increase every year. This won’t make up for all of the increased costs caused by inflation, it will at least go a long way toward keeping our retired educators from falling further behind every year as inflation raises prices while their pension stays stagnant.
Senate Bill 10 and House Joint Resolution 2 would be a huge step closer in resolving this issue by providing an ongoing cost of living adjustment to TRS retirees’ pensions of two or four percent (based on the number of years since a teacher retired) that is contingent on TRS’s investment earnings. The bill would also include a one-time lump-sum payment equal to $5,000 for those over the age of 70, funded in part by Texas’s surplus along with a small increase in contributions from active employees. Lastly, the bill increases both the active member contribution rate and the state contribution rate to nine percent.
I am proud of our Texas legislature for working together to pass legislation that will give Texas teachers a COLA in their pensions for the first time in nineteen years.
This week I met with Governor Greg Abbott to discuss legislative priorities for this last month of session. Of those priorities, we talked in great depth about the steps we are taking to bolster election integrity, provide property tax relief, and assure that Texas remains the number one state in this country for business (with emphasis on securing our energy sector).
Much of our discussion related how all these issues at hand specifically regard Harris County and how proposed legislation would benefit our constituents. Most notably, election integrity was highlighted, as we have seen be a big source of contention for Harris County in the past few elections. There are many noteworthy bills focused on securing our elections that are making their way to the House Floor to improve our current election process and procedures.
As our property taxes continue to skyrocket, the governor and I discussed the importance of the legislature’s prioritizing real property tax relief for all Texans and efforts this 88th Legislative Session to prevent people from being taxes out of their homes. The House and Senate have different approaches, with the House favoring lower appraisal caps to keep your home’s appraisals from sky-rocketing, while the Senate prefers raising the homestead exemption to make the first $70,000 of your home’s value exempt from property taxes. I am confident that we will work out a compromise between these two very different plans to find a solution that creates real property tax relief.
Together, the Texas Legislature will work towards ensuring an even brighter future for every family in Texas.
Governor Greg Abbott and Representative Schofield discussing 88th Legislative Session priorities.
As mentioned in the previous newsletter, the water bills my office received in response to our request for people to send in the fees they are seeing on their monthly bills from the West Harris County Regional Water Authority (WHCRWA) water pipeline project were helpful in putting together my WHCRWA Study bill, House Bill 4659. This bill, which I passed out of the House and which is now in the Senate, aims to find a way to lower the large “impact” fees that many of you are paying for the pipeline project to bring water from Lake Houston to our area.
While the project may be necessary to bring water to our growing area, the impact fees that many people are paying are as high as two to three times their water usage fee for the month. This water pipeline is going to be in the ground for many, many decades, and we need to find a way to spread out paying for it, so our current residents aren’t overburdened paying for a project that will also benefit hundreds of thousands of future residents whose homes and businesses haven’t even been built yet.
Although the pipeline being constructed under the WHCWA will likely be in the ground for centuries, and despite the fact that much of the need for the pipeline is due to future growth that has not yet occurred, the entire brunt of repaying the bonds for the project is being borne by current residents. Current residents deserve a more in depth examination to alternative methods for financing this project yet the West Harris County Regional Water Authority (WHRWA) has shown no interest in finding a way to make the repayment more equitable and more affordable to current residents.
The bill would direct the state’s two agencies with expertise in bonds for public projects, the Texas Water Development Board and the Texas Public Finance Authority, to work together to determine if there is a way to refinance the project so the payment of the construction costs can be spread out in a fiscally responsible manner to avoid crushing our residents under massively high monthly water bills. Local governments in our area will also be invited to participate.
Now that the bill has been passed by the House it will then go through the same process on the Senate side – I am optimistic that we can get this bill signed by the Governor and become law at the end of this session.
I believe that this bill will push the state’s agencies involved to work together and find a feasible solution to relieve the financial burden that has been put on all that have been subjected to this issue. Make sure to keep an eye out for updates as this bill makes its way through the legislative process!
It was my honor to recognize Dr. Tommy Harrison of Katy on the House Floor on Wednesday, May 3rd in honor of his being named named the 2022 Texas Dentist of the Year by the Texas Academy of General Dentistry. This is quite an accomplishment as each year the Texas Academy of General Dentistry selects only one dentist as Texas Dentist of the Year, the organization’s highest honor.
For nearly four decades, Dr. Tommy Harrison owned a private group dental practice in Katy, where he continues to provide exemplary care to his patients. Additionally, he is an assistant professor in the Department of General Practice and Dental Public Health at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Dentistry, and further serves as a member of the Faculty Senate, the Dean’s Admissions Committee, and the Mosaic team.
He has held leadership positions in a number of professional organizations, including serving as president of the Texas Dental Association and of the Greater Houston Dental Society. Among his many accolades are the Texas Dental Association Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Service and three Texas Dentist of the Year nominations.
Through his outstanding commitment to his profession, Tommy Harrison has earned the admiration of his colleagues and patients alike, and he may indeed take pride in his receipt of this well-deserved honor!
Representative Schofield honoring Dr. Tommy Harrison on the House Floor.
I would like to take this time to honor the life of Mr. Alan Vera who sadly passed away this past Thursday morning, May 4th, 2023 at the State of Texas Capitol. Mr. Vera was here devoting his time, much as he did his whole life, advocating and being a beacon of knowledge for election integrity in Texas.
He not only had a prominent presence at the Capitol, working with staff and legislators to ensure fair and effective election integrity legislation, but he more so served the Republican Party of Harris County as a devout grassroot leader and mentor. Mr. Vera served as the Harris County GOP Ballot Security Chairman since June of 2014 until his passing. He was also one of the original founders of True the Vote and was awarded with the True the Vote Bayonet Award for his exemplary service. In 2020, he was selected to serve on the Election Integrity Committee of the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC), in which he replaced their election worker training materials and curriculum with those developed by Mr. Vera for the HCRP Ballot Security Committee.
Throughout his lifetime he was recognized and honored for his exemplary service towards election integrity. He was named “Volunteer of the Year for SD 7” by the State Republican Executive Committee in 2017 for his exemplary work. In 2019, Alan and his wife were honored by Empower Texans with the Conservative Leader award recognizing how they both truly shined in the conservative movement as grassroots leaders. Last year, 2022, he and his wife received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Lincoln Reagan Dinner in honor of their lifelong unwavering activism.
Above all else, Mr. Vera was a beloved friend to many, husband to his loving wife, Colleen Vera, father to seven proud children, and grandfather to six grandchildren. Mr. Vera was an admirable individual who diligently worked to make Texas a strong, better place to live. He will be greatly missed by all.
Mr. Alan Vera.
Contact Me
I am your State Representative, but I am also your neighbor. If there is anything I can do to help you, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
If you’d like to get in contact with our office, please feel free to go onto my webpage and click the “Email” button to fill out the form. The page can be found here: https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=132
You can also call our Capitol office at 512-463-0528 or our Katy district office at 281-492-0684. Our district office is located in the Houston Community College building at 1550 Foxlake Drive. We aren’t there right now, because HCC has closed the campus on Fridays and weekends.
I encourage everyone to stay connected this session on legislation, committee hearings, and floor debates through the following website: https://capitol.texas.gov/
Thank you and God Bless Texas,
