Taking a back seat: This hot debate in Texas may trump marijuana legalization
AUSTIN, Texas Austin and Washington should be far more simpatico under soon-to-be Republican President Donald Trump than the White Houses current occupant, but theres still room for potential policy clashes when Texas GOP-controlled Legislature heads back to work.
Related: Inside story on how Texas advocates are mobilizing for marijuana reform
Immigration, schools, no-longer-so-flush state coffers and fights over which bathrooms transgender Texans can use will likely drive debate, while guns and marijuana policy may take a backseat. The wild card: abortion policy, due to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against Texas 2013 restrictions.
Here are key issues to watch and what might get overshadowed when lawmakers begin their 140-day session on Jan. 10:
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MARIJUANA
Relaxed marijuana laws for legal and medicinal use have even come to more conservative states like Arkansas, but dont count on Texas to follow suit. After the Legislature took the baby step of legalizing cannabis oil to treat epilepsy in 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott declared that the state would go no further, likely dooming bills for broader legalization.
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IMMIGRATION
The Department of Public Safety wants more than $1 billion to help secure the Texas-Mexico border, but Trumps promises to build a towering wall and impose an immigration crackdown could spare the state from spending so much.
Trumps victory also may spur approval of two contentious immigration initiatives that stalled in previous sessions: A would-be ban on sanctuary cities requiring police officers to enforce federal immigration laws and the repeal of a 2001 law offering cheaper in-state tuition at public universities to some high school graduates who came to the U.S. illegally.
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EDUCATION
There are bipartisan calls to spend more on K-12 classrooms but lawmakers wont be compelled to do so because the Texas Supreme Court declared the school finance system constitutional in May, ending a lengthy legal fight.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a tea party favorite who heads the Texas Senate, is again championing school vouchers, which give families public money to pay for private and religious schools. He could have a powerful ally in Betsy DeVos, a school choice advocate tapped to be Trumps education secretary.
But for years, the issues been stymied in the Texas House by Democrats and by rural Republicans wary of hurting public schools that are the lifeblood of their small districts.
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TRANSGENDER BATHROOMS
Texas already led a multistate lawsuit that has temporarily blocked President Barack Obamas directive allowing transgender students to use the public school bathrooms of their choice. Now, Patrick and other top Republicans are backing proposals banning transgender people from doing the same in all Texas bathrooms mimicking a law that North Carolina passed last year to national outcry, boycotts and the loss of lucrative sporting events.
Democrats and business leaders are opposed, as is Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, who says the issue isnt urgent and worries about North Carolina-like backlash.
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STATE BUDGET
Oil prices staying so low for so long have cooled the Texas economy. Lawmakers finished their last session in 2015 with about $4 billion in projected budget surpluses, but much of that may evaporate because projected state tax revenues declined. Oil and natural gas now accounts for about 8.5 percent of Texas overall economic output, according to the comptrollers office.
Theres still $10-plus billion in the rainy day fund money top Republicans have ...
