Success –  Texas Conservative Coalition Cheers Governor Abbott’s Special Session Call

For Immediate Release
 
Contact:  JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America –
(903) 360-2858
 
Grassroots America Cheers Governor Abbott’s Special Session Call
 
Austin, Texas — Today, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a robust list of nineteen special session items he says should pass in a legislative special session, which will convene on July 18; however, he also stated that the Medical Board Sunset Bill must past the Senate before he issues the official call on the nineteen priorities.
 
The Governor’s list of Special Session legislative priorities: 

1. Teacher pay increase of $1,000 paid for by the State
2. Administrative flexibility in teacher hiring and retention practices
3. School Finance Reform Commission
4. School Choice (Educational Freedom) for special needs students
5. Property tax reform; passage of SB 2 or “better”
6. Caps on state and local spending
7. Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land
8. Preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects
9. Speeding up local government permitting process
10. Municipal annexation reform – private property rights
11. Talking/Texting while driving local government preemption
12. Privacy Act
13. Prohibition of the use of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues
14. Prohibition of taxpayer funding for abortion providers
15. Pro-life insurance reform
16. Strengthening abortion reporting requirements when health complications arise
17. Strengthening patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders
18. Cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud
19. Extending maternal mortality task force

  
JoAnn Fleming said a broad coalition of conservative grassroots groups from across the state hand-delivered a letter to Governor Abbott on Wednesday, May 31, requesting the Governor call a special session to take care of the People’s “Unfinished Business.” 
 
The letter (seen here) asked the Governor to call a special session to address property tax reform, the Privacy Act, and ballot security/election integrity.
 
The Coalition hand-delivered subsequent letters to Governor Abbott, asking him to include annexation reform and grid security on a special session call. 
 
The only Grassroots Coalition priority missing from the Governor’s list today was grid security, which Fleming says they expect Lt. Governor Patrick to include on his list of senate interim studies due to US Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s recent address to the state senate concerning the urgency of grid security.
 
Fleming says her concern in the special session will be the same as it was in the regular session, that Republican House leadership would once again try to run out the clock and thwart the governor’s conservative agenda.
 
“We aren’t worried in the least about Lt. Governor Patrick moving the conservative agenda in the Senate. As usual, the problem is with the House Speaker and his committee chairs.”
 
“We hope the Legislature will be in session all day, every day to get this done,” Fleming said. “They don’t need to be sauntering in at 2 o’clock in the afternoon to start working. They should get started early, get busy, and work until the People’s work is done.”
 
Fleming concluded, “If they don’t get it done in 30 days, Governor Abbott should bring them back for as many special sessions as needed to get his whole agenda passed. The Texas Grassroots Coalition is going to work hard all during the special session to get our priorities passed. We’ll issue report cards when it’s over. The 2018 Primary Election season is just around the bend.”