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The Public Opinion Context of Governor Abbott's Legislative Agenda
February 03, 2025 | By: Jim Henson, Joshua Blank

Governor Abbott’s State of the State Address rolled out seven emergency items as well as a host of tone-setting policy signals. The emergency designation enables the legislature to bypass the Constitutional delays on legislative action, without requiring the legislature to follow his lead.

Abbott’s nominal “emergencies” included widely anticipated items, including cutting property taxes and school choice, “an emergency item that must be passed." In an echo of the failed effort to pair school choice with increased teacher pay that collapsed amid acrimony in the last legislative session, the governor also designated increasing teacher pay an emergency item.  “We will continue to fully fund public schools and raise teacher pay,” the governor declared,  “while also giving parents the choice they deserve.” 

The Governor’s declaration came after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last week declared the first 25 bills of a promised 40 priority pieces of legislation in a Texas Senate over which he exercises a historic level of control. So far, the two leading state officials are broadly aligned on four of Abbott’s seven emergency items, though the Lt. Governor has 15 more shots at supporting the Governor’s items when he fills out his Top 40.

Below is a selection of polling results about each of Governor Abbott's emergency items and Lieutenant Governor Patrick's corresponding priority bills. To jump to a section, simply click on the link under "Abbott Emergency Items." To find more results, including results by partisanship, race/ethnicity, education, age, location and much, much more, click on the link at the bottom of each section to go to a currated selection of results from the Texas Politics Project Polling Search. When the Lt. Governor fills out his list, and if/when newly elected House Speaker Dustin Burrows announces House priorities, we'll look at public opinion on those items, too. 

Abbott Emergency Items:

Patrick Priority Bills:

Property Tax Relief Senate Bill 4 – Increasing the Homestead Exemption to $140,000 ($150,000 for seniors);
Water Infrastructure Senate Bill 7 – Increasing Investments in Texas’ Water Supply
Teacher Pay  
Career Training  
School Choice Senate Bill 2 – Providing School Choice; 
Bail Reform Senate Bill 9 – Reforming Bail – Keeping Violent Criminals Off Our Streets
Texas Cyber Command  

 

Property Tax Relief

The governor gave property tax relief pride of place, leading with it when the address turned to the legislative agenda. He expressed no preferences on the means of lowering property tax bills – a  source of hot contention between the Senate and House in 2023 – but did provide a number: "I want at least $10 billion in new property tax relief," he said, pivoting in the address to attacking local taxing authorities rather than expressing a preference on how to deliver. 

For more items addressing Texans' views towards the state's property taxes, click here.

Water Infrastructure

Gov. Abbott was less specific in calling for investment in water infrastructure, but nonetheless signaled a willingness to spend. "Last session, we invested $1 billion in water projects and infrastructure. This session, we will Texas-size that investment," he said, adding after a shout out to bill authors in both chambers, "We will make the largest investment in water in the history of Texas." 

For more items addressing Texans' views towards the state's water supply, click here.

Teacher Pay

Texas Politics Project polling has long shown support for increasing teacher pay. Pairing increasing pay for teachers with school choice appears to be a key component of diluting opposition to vouchers, if not also directly countering arguments that a relentless drive for school choice is a sign of hostility toward public education institutions and teachers among GOP legislators and voucher proponents.

For more items addressing Texans' views towards teacher pay and retention in the state of Texas, click here.

Career Training

The Governor's emphasis on career training follows on major legislation passed in 2023 aimed at aligning k-12 and community college education practices with workforce development. The governor used an invited guest as an example of the recent emphatic push for more "career training" in high school. ("....[H]igh schools must provide more career training programs so students can go from graduation directly into a good paying job," the governor declared.)

School Choice

It was widely assumed that after actively seeking to punish Republican house members who voted against the 2023 school choice bill in the 2024 primary – and largely succeeding in most cases – school choice would be designated an emergency item. The governor did not disappoint these expectations. 

For more items addressing Texans' views towards school choice, ESA, or voucher type programs, click here.

Bail Reform

The evidence continues to mount that the brief interlude of bipartisan criminal justice reform that emerged in the oughts and early 2010s has ended. As recently as a few years ago, the mention of bail reform might be expected to refer to making cash bail less punitive or investing more for diversion of non-violent offenders. Abbott's notion of bail reform was set up in the speech to be emotionally wrenching, with another invited guest – the widow of a Harris County law enforcement officer – present as an example of "Texans...murdered by criminals let out on bail from a prior murder charge." Abbott's policy recommendations called for stronger limits on parole and bail.

For more items addressing Texans' views towards bail practices in Texas, click here.

Texas Cyber Command

By the numbers, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reports that "high-tech" represents about 5% of state GDP and 9% of employment. Culturally, while there are cross-currents, high tech executives and GOP elected officials seem to be having a moment. Taken in conjunction with workforce alignment measures that have also included encouraging technology-focused career paths (in addition to the emphasis on training for less digital trades), the governor's push on creating a "cyber command" blends national security measures with the state's growing embrace of developing and implementing state-level industrial policy.

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