State
BY HANNAH NORTON
Gov. Greg Abbott outlines top priorities for 2025 legislative session
AI facilities that are coming here. I’ve talked to several, and ... they’ll be tapping into renewables whenever that’s available. They understand they need to provide power facilities to make sure that they’re going to be able to stay on without taking power from the grid [during periods of high demand]. What policies are you considering to help public schools hire and retain certified teachers? There’s three strategies here. One is to make certification easier but also more effective. Two is to attract more teachers to the profession. When this session ends, teacher pay is going to be at an all-time high. … That will hopefully attract and retain more teachers. But if you listen to teacher concerns, they go beyond just things like pay. Some involve school safety or dealing with discipline challenges. We have to empower edu- cators and empower administrators to have better control of discipline-based issues. It’s a safety issue [and] a classroom attention issue. What can Texas do to help communities prepare for and respond to future wildfires? We’re working with the Texas Division of Emer- gency Management as well as specialists at Texas A&M [University] to make sure that we’re clearing debris and removing things that would add to a potential expansion of a fire. One thing that we need, especially for vast areas like the Panhandle, are air tanker planes to help us more quickly extinguish large-scale fires. Third is to help invest more in our local fire departments. In [rural communities], they have so many volunteer fire departments, and they need more resources to be able to fight fires.
This legislative session, Texas needs to reign in property tax increases, attract home insurance providers and continue adding power to the state grid, Gov. Greg Abbott told Community Impact in an interview at the state capitol Feb. 7. What action should lawmakers take on property taxes this session? Home values are going to [continue to] go up, but a law that we passed in 2019 ... says that any property tax revenue for any jurisdiction is capped at 2.5%. If your property value goes up 10%, your property taxes cannot go up 10%. The real fix for this is to stop making it so easy for local taxing jurisdictions to increase property taxes. That’s why [I’m proposing] two-thirds approval by voters before property taxes can be increased. What can the Legislature do to address home insurance affordability? We want to make sure Texas is a state that attracts insurers, because the more providers there are, it will reduce the cost [of coverage]. There are other reforms we are taking a look at to make sure that we will … be able to contain any potential increase in the cost of insurance. Issues range from what’s going on in the [Texas] Panhan- dle versus what’s going on in coastal regions. Officials say Texas must nearly double its power capacity to 150,000 megawatts by 2030. What changes are needed to meet growing demand? Last session, Texas provided incentives to entice the addition of 10,000 more megawatts of power. That’s in the process of being added to the grid. We want to repeat that again this session. One reason for the power demand is because of
MARIE LEONARD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
How much would this cost? [We don’t know yet], but what lawmakers agree on is the need to get it done. In some areas, it may be more personnel; in other areas, it may be certain tools ... [or] another fire truck. So, it’s more like inventory checking, where it’s not going to be one size fits all.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version, visit communityimpact.com .
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