As the Texas House of Representatives tackles some school voucher bills today during hearings, Odessa’s State Rep. Brooks Landgraf said he will evaluate each of those bills on its merits when they come to the full House for a vote in the coming weeks.
Landgraf via phone on said Monday he has an obligation to uphold the Texas Constitution, which in Article 7 puts the duty on lawmakers “to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”
Landgraf specifically addressed recent social media posts on a vote last week that he called little more than symbolic.
“There were 444 amendments offered to the budget proposal and almost none of them will become part of the final biennial budget. One in particular received a great deal of attention—and has been hyped up by both sides—proposed that no state funds in this budget should be used for pay for private schools. I voted for the amendment because I wanted to show support for the hardworking public school teachers and students in West Texas, which I have fought hard to increase funding for.”
He said the Texas House passed a fiscally conservative, two-year budget that makes a number of critical investments to meet the needs of a rapidly-growing Texas.
“This proposed budget stays well below three key fiscally conservative caps: the state’s constitutional pay-as-you-go limit, the constitutional tax spending limit, and a new consolidated general revenue limit,” Landgraf said.
Landgraf said this budget proposal gives taxpayers $17.3 billion in property tax relief, while “increasing our commitment to Texas children and educators by increasing the state’s share of public education to more than 50% for the first time in years. It also funnels additional dollars toward school safety measures and supports retired teachers through a long-awaited cost-of-living adjustment.”
He said the House budget proposal also funds the expansion of mental health resources, funds foster care programs, supports institutions of higher education (including UT Permian Basin, Odessa College and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center of the Permian Basin) and supplies funds for critical infrastructure projects across West Texas and the state.
“Monumentally, our proposed budget more than quadruples state support for our border security efforts and fights against fentanyl smugglers and human traffickers,” he said.
