Legislative Services

The Senate Finance Committee got off to a fast start this week on the state budget, beginning hearings on Monday. The Senate's baseline budget, Senate Bill 1 by Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), proposes a $332.9 billion allocation in All Funds and $151.6 billion in General Revenue Funds for the 2026-27 biennium.

Compared to 2024-25 spending levels, the All Funds total reflects a minimal decrease of 0.02%, while the General Revenue Fund total represents a 6.3% increase.

Major Funding Items in SB 1

Property tax relief: SB 1 provides $51 billion for new tax relief and to maintain tax relief provided since 2019. New relief for 2026-27 includes $3 billion in additional compression of school district property tax rates, $3 billion in additional property tax relief by raising the homestead exemption by $40,000 (contingent on the passage of enabling legislation) and $500 million in tax relief for businesses.

Public education: SB 1 fully funds requirements in current law and projected enrollment growth ($1.7 billion), $4.85 billion for increased funding (contingent on the passage of enabling legislation), $1 billion for an education savings account (contingent on the passage of enabling legislation) and $400 for the school safety allotment.

Border security: SB 1 includes $6.5 billion to maintain current border security operations across 13 state agencies.

Funding Items of Interest to Counties in SB 1

Several provisions in SB 1 are particularly relevant to counties, including:

• $192.3 million for the Texas A&M Forest Service to address the backlog of volunteer fire department grants.
• An intent rider that would appropriate $194 million for wildfire suppression aircraft. The intent rider is for the supplemental appropriations bill for the current budget. This bill is adopted every session and adjusts the current budget to reflect cost savings and overruns.
• $100 million for another round of courthouse preservation grants is also listed in the intent rider.
• $145.1 million for the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, although additional funding requests remain unaddressed, including $19.7 million to offset shortfalls in the indigent defense funding account, $8.9 million to reduce rural attorney shortages, $47.5 million to fund family protection representation and $35 million to expand public defense offices.
• $19 million for assistance to cities and counties to offset the impact of property tax relief provided for disabled veterans. The Senate Finance Committee discussed this item at a recent hearing along with Comptroller Glenn Hegar's funding request for $50 million above the baseline amounts.

TAC staff members are still reviewing both the House and Senate baseline budgets to identify and monitor county-related items. Here is a link to our worksheet listing items of interest to counties in both HB 1, the baseline bill introduced in the House, and SB 1.

For more information about this article, please contact Zelma Smith. To review selected Senate Finance Committee hearing materials from the past week, go here.