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The Blast: I’ve got a budget. You’ve got a budget. [1]

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Date: 2023-04 

TIME TO BALANCE THE BOOKS

The Senate has approved its $308 billion budget proposal for the 2023 session, setting up both chambers of the Legislature for the biennial budget dance.



Senators did not amend their budget proposal on the floor, leaving in place the package the Senate Finance Committee advanced last week.



The Senate version of House Bill 1, the budget bill, includes $10 billion in funding for the grid. Meanwhile, the House’s $302.6 billion version includes $1 billion for state colleges and universities to freeze their tuition the next two years, which they call the “affordability package.”



While there were numerous House floor amendments — including a ban on school vouchers that lawmakers are expected to strip from the final product during the budget conference — senators halted the one notable Senate amendment, which would have stripped the budget’s anti-DEI language. Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, proposed the measure to remove the DEI ban, arguing it would harm research grants, but the Senate opposed him by a count of 19-12.



Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick didn’t have much to say to senators regarding the record budget proposal beyond congratulations. But as he suggested to reporters last week, perhaps the biggest difference the House and Senate will need to reconcile is on property taxes, specifically Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan’s disagreement over the merit of appraisal caps. While the property tax cuts aren’t directly part of the budget proposals, each chamber’s proposals account for the billions in proposed revenue cuts.



“If we don’t pass a property tax cut, the budget’s done,” Patrick said. “We can’t leave with $16 billion sitting on the side that we were going to give property tax relief that the House and Senate don’t agree on.”

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