Last Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) delivered his 2015 State of the State address to a joint session of the Texas House and Senate. In his remarks, Governor Abbott laid out his legislative priorities and detailed a roadmap to achieve his agenda. The Governor also announced five emergency items: early education, higher education research initiatives, transportation funding, border security funding, and ethics reform. Governor Abbott specifically expressed support for additional funding for schools that adopt high quality Pre-K programs; world class literacy and math teacher training; and greater investments in STEM teachers and in teachers who serve disadvantaged students.
Abbott called on the legislature to make the Texas Enterprise Fund more efficient, more effective, and more transparent to help grow jobs in Texas; permanently reduce the business franchise as well as property taxes; and a constitutional amendment that limits the growth of the state budget to population growth plus inflation. Finally, Abbott asked lawmakers to dedicate this legislative session to ethics and transparency in government operations.
Full text of the Governor's State of the State can be view here.
For more information, contact Sarah Matz at sarah.matz@techamerica.org.
