House, Senate State Budget Conferees Roll Up Sleeves

By ED STERLING
Texas Press Association
AUSTIN — With barely more than a month left in the regular session of the Texas Legislature, it’s time for the House and Senate to do whatever can be done to reach an all-points agreement on House Bill 1, the state budget for fiscal years 2016 and 2017. A widely reported sticky area in the estimated $211 billion budget is over which taxes to cut and how much to cut. House and Senate conferees will meet this week. From both ends of the Capitol, the budget has a ways-and-means inertia to it, with House leaders pushing for cuts in the state sales tax rate and the state franchise tax. Senate leaders favor more emphasis on cutting homeowners’ property tax rates, a job traditionally in line with the normal functions of local governmental bodies.

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