Gov. Abbott lays out seven emergency actions for lawmakers in State of the State address

Gov. Greg Abbott, in a State of the State address given to an invitation-only audience Thursday night at a private business headquarters 35 miles south of the Capitol, laid out his seven top priorities for this legislative session, which included a promised property tax reduction.

The 25-minute speech in an auditorium at Noveon Magnetics Inc., a high-tech rare earth magnets manufacturing facility in San Marcos, amplified themes he hammered during his 2022 reelection campaign, including his $4 billion border initiative, reining in what he called activist judges and giving parents a larger say in how their children are educated.

The 65-year-old Republican governor, who began his third term last month, touted the state's vibrant economy that has given state leaders a $33 billion surplus as they pick up the pace in crafting the budget for the next two years during this legislative session, which began Jan. 10 and is slated to end May 29.

"With the help of businesses like Noveon, Texas is No. 1 in the United States for new jobs. In fact, since I became governor, Texas has added more than 1.9 million new jobs," Abbott said to an audience of about 500 that did not include reporters or photographers except for the TV crew that broadcasted the event.

"We’re also No. 1 for economic development, No. 1 for exports, and No. 1 for Fortune 500 headquarters," he said. "Our $2 trillion economy makes Texas the ninth-largest economy in the world."

More:Lt. Gov. Patrick releases 30 Texas legislative priorities. Here's what he hopes to pass in 2023.

Texas Democrats, anchored by the party's caucus leader in the House, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, and several other elected leaders and everyday residents, used their 10-minute rebuttal to fault Abbott for failing to take action to curtail the availability of military-style rifles despite a spate of mass shootings in recent years. They featured ordinary Texans who said state Republican leaders have done too little to shore up state infrastructure and improve access to health care.

In announcing his legislative emergencies, Abbott cleared the way for bills on those topics to be fast-tracked in both the House and Senate and bypass constitutional rules meant to keep lawmakers from ramming through measures in the early weeks of a legislative session.

'Money belongs to the taxpayers'

Abbott drew hearty applause from his audience when he said that $15 billion of the surplus should be used to cut property taxes.

"As I travel across Texas, there’s one thing I hear loud and clear: Property taxes are suffocatingTexans. We must fix that this session," he said. "Hardworking Texans produced the largest budget surplus in Texas history. That money belongs to the taxpayers. We should return it to you with the largest property tax cut in the history of Texas.”

Ending COVID restrictions

Even though Abbott in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped Texas and much of the world ordered businesses to suspend trade, hospitals to curtail elective medical procedures and schools to shift to online learning, he vowed to "end COVID restrictions forever" in his address given in prime time.

"We must prohibit any government from imposing COVID mask mandates, COVID vaccine mandates, and from closing any business or school because of COVID," Abbott said. "These actions will help Texas close the door on COVID restrictions."

School choice, but no mention of vouchers

Abbott called for allowing parents more say in where and how their children should be educated. He avoided using the politically divisive term "vouchers," but said his plan would involve the use of public money to fund education at private schools. He rebranded the initiative as "education freedom."

"Let’s be clear: Schools are for education, not indoctrination. Schools should not push woke agendas, period," Abbott said. "The way to do that is with school choice through state-funded education savings accounts. We’ve seen them work in other states."

Democrats, whose rebuttal was recorded in the style of a fast-paced infomercial, called Abbott's proposal a voucher plan that would turn the taxes paid to fund public schools over to profit-driven private companies.

More:Texas State Board of Education expels its opposition to school vouchers from state wish list

School safety, but no gun-limiting legislation

While Abbott made no mention of the May 24 mass school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, or any other of the deadly armed attacks in Texas, Democrats led with that in their response and used Uvalde victims' families to tell the story. In quick succession, they said Abbott rebuffed their calls to raise the minimum age to buy military-style rifles from 18 to 21 and to impose stricter background checks for firearm purchases.

Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, whose district includes Uvalde and who has filed several measures aimed at reducing gun violence, said in the video Thursday that the issue should be a top priority for Abbott and state lawmakers.

"Now, as we started another legislative session, we're once again begging Gov. Abbott, please listen to these voices," Gutierrez said. "It's too late for these families. But maybe if you show some political courage, you can save the next family from having to endure this kind of heartache."

Survey:80% of Texans would support legislation to raise the minimum purchase age

Abbott announced school safety as a legislative emergency, but was more general than specific and proposed nothing on the availability of guns.

"We must establish the safest standards, and then use the newly created chief of school safety to mandate compliance with those standards, and we must provide more mental health professionals in our schools," Abbott said. "We cannot let another school year go by without making our schools safer."

Just over four months after the Uvalde shooting left 19 students and two teachers dead, Abbott named John P. Scott as the new chief of school safety and security for the Texas Education Agency. The chief is charged with ensuring schools are implementing school safety policies passed by the Legislature and making sure schools are using best practices to safeguard against school shootings or other dangers.

On Thursday, instead of seeking new measures to add layers of security to purchasing and owning guns, as Uvalde victims' families have pleaded for, Abbott proposed an emergency item to make using a firearm in the commission of a crime an offense punishable with a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence.

Getting tough on bail

Abbott singled out Harris County when he called for more accountability from judges who allow people suspected of committing violent crimes to leave jail after posting bail only to see them reoffend.

"Last September, a law enforcement officer in Harris County was murdered by a criminal let out on bail from a prior murder charge," Abbott said. "Harris County’s revolving-door bail practice is literally killing people. In just two years, more than 100 people were murdered in Houston by criminals who were let out on multiple felony bonds."

More:Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan names committee chairs. Here's who'll lead the panels.

Billions for border security

Abbott also proposed a minimum 10-year sentence for anyone convicted of smuggling immigrants into Texas from the southern border. That was part of his emergency item on border control.

He called for spending $4.6 million on the border initiative he calls Operation Lone Star that includes thousands of National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers for extended deployments to South Texas.

In 2021, lawmakers allocated $4 billion for the operation.

Texas Legislature:Border security, tax relief among top priorities in Texas House, Senate budget proposals

Taming the fentanyl crisis

Abbott, who has been sounding the alarm on the dangers of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, invited to the venue a mother whose daughter died from ingesting a pill that she did not know contained the drug.

He called attention to Veronica Kaprosy of San Antonio. He called her daughter, Danica, "a bright, young woman lost in her prime" because she took a pill she did not know was laced with fentanyl.

"Mexican drug cartels make fentanyl look like legitimate medicine — even candy," Abbott said. "But that one pill can kill. To end cartel killings of Texans, we must do two things: call fentanyl deaths what they are — poisonings — and prosecute them as murders. We must also increase the supply of lifesaving Narcan, so we can save more Texans who are ambushed by fentanyl."

In non-emergency items, Abbott urged lawmakers to enact a $100 billion infrastructure initiative and to boost state support for community colleges.

Democrats, meanwhile, sought to steal back some Republican issues by affirming support for oil exploration in Texas and for local police and sheriffs.

More:Texas lawmakers want to address the fentanyl overdose crisis. Here's what they propose.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Texas Legislature: Tax cuts, border security among Abbott's priorities