State lawmakers Brooks Landgraf and Kevin Sparks joined the District 18 Texas Retired Teachers Association Fall Conference Tuesday to give updates and encourage everyone to get out and vote Nov. 5.
The gathering, which included educators from all over the region, was held at the Region 18 Education Service Center.
Landgraf noted his appreciation for teachers and retired teachers and said they have a lot of people fighting for them in the Texas Capitol.
“You all have fought for us, and now it’s our turn to repay the favor. Y’all heard me talk before about how the state of Texas made promises to you when you decided to enter the teaching profession, and we have to make good on those promises. … Those are promises that have to be kept, and you’ve heard me say we do it for two reasons. One, it’s the right thing to do. You’ve earned that; you deserve that. You kept your word, and we have a responsibility as a state to keep ours.
“The second reason is that if we want to continue to attract teachers to the profession and have teachers who are as talented as you all were, how can we look them in the eye and say, come take a job in our public schools. We might not pay you as much as you would make in other professions, but we’re going to make sure that you have a healthy pension when you retire and then you have good health insurance benefits. But if they see us not keeping that promise to you all, why are they going to believe us?” Landgraf said.
“If we want to keep public education going and if we want to continue to attract the best and the brightest, then we have to do that,” he added.
The cost of living increase passed by voters in the last election happened because the retired teachers voted and encouraged their friends, family and neighbors to do the same.
One of the educators said the state contributions to the Teacher Retirement System dropped from 8 percent to 6 percent between 1996 and 2007 and the pension fund suffered because of that. She asked if there was a chance to use some of the rainy day fund to buy back that liability and it would be better for the taxpayers in the long run.
“We’re always looking for ways to make sure that fund is actually sound. I think, from a legislators’ perspectives, we don’t want to have to have a crisis every couple of years on making sure that’s the case. Depending on the investments in the pension fund, we know that those can fluctuate.
“One reason why we were able to get the cost of living adjustment, as you all know, is there was political will to do so. And then second, we were also sitting on a $33 billion budget surplus during the last legislative session, and even an Aggie like me can figure out that’s a lot of money. That was also a kind of a one-off in terms of a budget surplus being that big. A lot of that was driven by high inflation, which led to much higher sales tax receipts, in combination with a lot of population growth and economic activity in Texas.
“It was a good situation for a budget surplus … We can’t ever count on having one that big again. It could happen, but it would take another confluence of Perfect Storm type factors. That being said, we are expected to have … I talked to the comptroller on Saturday about this, we’re expecting to have another robust budget surplus, not in the $33 billion neighborhood, but probably somewhere closer to $15 or $18 billion which would, except for that $33 billion surplus in 2023, what we’re looking at now would be a record,” Landgraf said.
The rainy day fund, technically known as the Economic Stabilization Fund, all comes from the Permian Basin — from oil and gas severance taxes. Landgraf said it was created by a constitutional amendment.
“That severance tax currently has three destinations. … One, it goes to the Foundation Schools Program, which helps fund public education all over the state, which is fantastic. We’re happy to provide that service to the school children in Texas. Second is the state highway fund, which is also another worthwhile investment. That money goes to help fund highway construction and maintenance all over Texas. Third is the rainy day fund,” Landgraf said.
The rainy day fund requires a two-thirds vote of the legislature to tap into it.
“It’s not just a majority up or down vote, and so getting two thirds to agree to tap into that fund, that’s a pretty tough thing to do,” he said.
Landgraf said he is working on a proposal called the Texas Strong Defense Fund, which would divert money into a fourth fund of oil and gas severance taxes.
“That fourth fund would be dedicated to reinvest in the energy producing areas that generate all of that money to begin with. We would (use) that to help provide teachers with salaries, because we all know that here in the Permian Basin, it’s hard for us to hire and keep teachers, because you can make so much more money in the oil field,” he added.
The same principle applies to police officers, public sector healthcare workers and other public sector employees who need a competitive bump in their wages to work in the Permian Basin, Landgraf said.
“Of course, like everything else, this would fluctuate. There would be some ups and downs depending on oil and gas production, but it could be a source that is not currently being used, that could be and that would be something that would have statewide benefit,” he added.
Landgraf also talked about his position on vouchers, which he has been against historically. Gov. Greg Abbott called four special sessions to get a voucher bill passed, but it didn’t succeed.
“There was a voucher component that was limited to $500 million. It basically prioritized low-income students. The way that I described this is it really was designed to benefit students in inner-city Houston, particularly in the Houston Independent School District, who literally have no other place to go. They’re stuck in a failing school district and don’t really have any options.
“Those students are designed to get the priority for this $500 million voucher. There are also some special needs components that go along with that. That was the voucher bill. It wasn’t a universal school choice bill. It really didn’t favor wealthy kids, or subsidize wealthy private schools. If you had to vote for a voucher bill, that one was probably okay.
“There’s an argument to be said for the camel’s nose getting under the tent and creating the slippery slope, and I’m sensitive to that argument. However, this was complicated more by the fact that this voucher section was also embedded into another bill that had $6.5 billion for public schools to increase the basic allotment and to provide much-needed teacher pay raises for every public school teacher in the state of Texas. I thought that was pressing. There were also some STAAR reforms in that same bill that I was fighting for that I think are much needed for our standardized testing regime. So, long story short, I voted for the voucher bill to stay in this whole bill that would provide increased funding for public education and provide teacher pay raises for public school teachers all across the state. It was designed to be a tough choice like that … Now, as I think you all know, that amendment was pulled out for vouchers. There were not enough votes on the floor to pass the voucher piece, but that meant that the entire bill died. That’s why we have school districts all over the state of Texas that last year and this year are operating with very significant deficit budgets, which I think is also a bad situation,” Landgraf said.
He added that everything was thrown in together, but that was the situation he was faced with. He doesn’t get to pick the votes he has to take, but he has to make the best decision based on what they have.
When the legislature reconvenes in 2025, Landgraf expects lawmakers to be in the same situation because the $6.5 billion set aside for teachers and schools is still sitting in an account in the comptroller’s office. It can’t be distributed to school districts and teachers without legislative action.
He said the surplus has been projected downward because inflation has slowed from 9 percent to about 2.5 percent and the state budget is mainly made up of sales tax revenue. With lower inflation, sales tax will likely be lower.
On the Texas Strong Defense Fund, Landgraf said it was passed overwhelmingly in the House during the last session.
“We just need to make sure that it gets a vote in the Senate. It never got a vote. I think if it gets an up or down vote, there will be a lot of support for it because it’s good policy for Texas. That’s going to be the objective. We’re starting all over again, of course, because it’s a new session, but I think the support is there,” Landgraf said.
Sparks, R-Midland, said during the last legislative session, the state had a record $32 billion surplus. This time around, the comptroller is saying it will probably be closer to $20 billion.
Sparks said the people who came decades before put money into infrastructure, roads and bridges, which helped develop commerce across the state. As 1,200 to 1,300 people a day move to Texas, those issues have not gone away.
“We still need dollars in roads. We were successful out here with Rep. Landgraf and Rep. (Tom) Craddick, R-Midland. We were successful in securing significant additional dollars for roads out here in the Permian Basin to try and help increase safety,” Sparks said.
He added that the state is still behind on infrastructure and electric grid reliability.
“Though we took some steps last session, we are still, in my opinion, way behind on the reliability side,” Sparks said.
Most of that comes from the billions the federal government is putting into green energy.
“The Inflation Reduction Act put more than $100 billion into federal subsidies for green energy projects, and a lot of those dollars are trying to find their home here in Texas, which will further complicate reliability for the grid.
“The next thing is probably water. Realistically, Texas is going to be water poor. There’s probably only one small region in East Texas that has enough water for the foreseeable future. Senator (Charles) Perry, from up in Lubbock, has put together a comprehensive state water plan, so we’re going to be looking at that.
Sparks said the water plan includes infrastructure piping so water can be moved around the state and the other is developing new water sources, which will come primarily from desalinization of brackish water.
“The idea behind it is going to be to create these new water sources, clean them up for municipalities so that we can leave our precious groundwater for our ag industries,” he said.
Sparks encouraged people to go out and vote for the policies of the candidates, not the personalities.
