Here we go again - Texas 85th Legislative Session Begins

The Texas legislature has returned to Austin, which means TMHA’s reports from the state political front lines returns as well with our From the 85th series. We will provide all the current information from what’s happening in Austin and assess how the legislature will impact our manufactured and modular home industries.

The legislature typically starts slow and ends fast. The Texas legislature is considered a part time legislature only meeting every other year (in odd numbered years) for 140 days. Time becomes even more compressed considering it typically takes about two months before committees are formed and bills start working through the process. Like starting out on a long run, coming out of the gates is a slow start, knowing that coming down the final stretch it will end in an all-out sprint.

There are a few things we do know at the start. First, Speaker Joe Straus (R – San Antonio) was reelected by his House peers to serve his third term as the Speaker of the House. This reelection was fairly predictable, but what we are all waiting for now are those committee membership assignments that Speaker Straus will hand down.

We also know that while the partisan makeup of the Texas Senate is the same as it was last session, the Republican majority in the Senate trends slightly more conservative than in 2015. We also know that Lt Gov. Dan Patrick has nearly three dozen bills he expects to make it out of his Senate.

Both leaders have indicated immediate action will occur in reforms to Child Protective Services and Speaker Straus wants to undo budget cuts to programs that provide in home therapy for disabled kids.

We also know that the legislature will have less money at their disposal than they did in 2015. Comptroller Glen Hegar announced yesterday that the state budget estimate is $104.87 billion of state funds. In 2013 the estimate was $113 billion. Current estimates are that $109 billion is about what is needed to fund current programs and agencies, meaning cuts are certainly on the horizon.

Those law makers seeking an early start have pre-filed as of Monday 1,236 bills already. We anticipate somewhere in the ballpark of 6,000 – 7,000 bills. And yes, we review every single one. We are already tracking 13 of those pre-filed bills. Every morning until the bill filing deadline the email hits our inbox with all of the bills filed the previous day. A strong cup of coffee and our legislative tracking software will be the start of our days for the next few months.

We will be back with another post following Gov. Abbots State of the State speech, which we anticipate the governor will lay out his legislative goals and any emergency items.

As for TMHA, we have been preparing and planning for a much different session than the one we had two years ago. In 2015 we focused on defense, preserving many favorable status quos and advocated for the passage of a simple multifamily modular housing bill to increase the maximum height a building can be built from three to four stories. This session we have a much fuller list of goals.

We are working on a large reform bill related to manufactured housing which will span from changing the name of our titles to taking deposits to abandoned home policies. This omnibus bill will be the main priority this session. We are also working on several specific measures related to MH communities to try and preserve existing communities that fall into nonconforming zoning situations as well as provide community owners a right to cure minor errors in lease contracts.

In addition to our priorities, we will of course play defense on any adverse bills that are filed and work on at least a dozen bills that span multiple industry and trade groups in conjunction with our other legislative industry partners.

As they always are, this session will be busy, but we have been eagerly waiting for the starters pistol to fire. Now that it officially has, we are off to the races.