Democrats chart ambitious course as bill filing begins for a divided Texas Legislature
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune. 
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Democrats chart ambitious course as bill filing begins for a divided Texas Legislature
Riding high after their success in last week’s election, Democrats in the Texas Legislature unveiled an aggressive agenda Monday as bill filing opened for the 2027 session: Expand Medicaid. Boost the minimum wage. End tax breaks for data centers. Ban Flock cameras. Legalize marijuana.
Other ideas included undoing a state law that requires sheriffs to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and forbidding border wall construction at state parks.
Democrats also filed proposals to end the state’s year-old school voucher program and boost per-pupil funding for public schools. They also eye building high-speed rail stretching from Dallas to San Antonio.
The 90th session of the Texas Legislature will convene Jan. 12 in a new era under a Democratic governor and divided Texas Legislature.
The opening of the bill-filing period marks the unofficial opening of the next legislative session. As of 5 p.m. Monday, more than 1,260 bills had been filed, with much more to come before bill filing ends March 12.
Most legislation will fall short of the governor’s desk, but Monday’s flurry offered an early glimpse of lawmakers’ priorities.
Democrats took majority control of the Texas House, but many of their proposals can expect heavy resistance in the Senate, where Republicans still hold the majority after last week’s midterm elections. And while Republicans took a drubbing in last week’s voting, bills filed Monday signaled they haven’t abandoned their priorities.
Republican lawmakers filed bills aimed at getting rid of property taxes, forbidding local governments from hiring lobbyists and making English the official language of the state of Texas.
There also were signs of common ground, particularly when it comes to tangling with data centers, wrangling property tax bills and enacting term limits for statewide officials.
Health care, abortion
First out of the gate Monday morning were House and Senate bills to expand access to Medicaid. Under Republicans, Texas has long held out on expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act — which would send the state up to $10 billion a year and cover an additional 1 million Texans. Texas is the most populous state to not allow Medicaid expansion.
State Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin, filed a bill that would direct the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to file a federal plan to expand Medicaid. State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, filed a companion bill in the Senate.
Bucy acknowledged that any move to expand Medicaid health insurance coverage would face pushback from the Texas Senate, where Republicans continue to hold a majority.
“We do think there’s going to be a lot of room to find compromise,” he said. “The House and the Senate need to find compromise to get things done for the people of Texas.
Medicaid in Texas mostly covers low-income children, new moms and older adults. It does not cover working-age adults who either earn too little to afford health insurance on their own or work for an employer that offers health insurance.
Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, filed a bill to require school officials to notify parents when there is not a full-time nurse or equivalent working on a public school campus during normal school hours. Currently, Texas does not require each public school to have a school nurse on campus.
On reproductive health, state Rep. Donna Howard filed an omnibus bill to repeal the state’s abortion ban and related statutes.
“The purpose here was to say, OK, we’ve had over a decade of restrictions on access to abortion healthcare, now we need to look at a reset,” Howard said. “Take it out. Let’s reset. Let’s talk about what can we do here that we can find some common ground on that makes more sense now that allows women to get the healthcare that they need.”
Howard’s bill would also repeal a 2023 state law passed that bans gender affirming healthcare for minors.
State Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, filed several consumer-related healthcare bills, including one targeting penalties many Texans have complained about when they try to get medical treatment after getting a referral from a physician who is not in their insurance network.
Scrutiny on data centers
Democrats and Republicans took aim at data center construction, signaling that tighter regulations will be central to next year’s efforts after the data center boom became a dominant campaign issue.
Proposals were filed to require data centers to share more information about their water usage, to bar data centers from receiving tax incentives and to give government entities more direct regulation over data center development.
The bills tackle key points of friction in communities worried that the facilities will drain local water resources and cause electricity rates to increase. State efforts to survey the facilities on their water use have seen low participation rates.
A bill by Zaffirini would require large data centers to share information about their water usage with the state Water Development Board.
The industry has also faced criticism for pursuing tax incentives. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed interest in repealing a state sales tax exemption for data centers, which The Texas Tribune reported in April has ballooned to more than $1 billion in annual revenue foregone by the state.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers filed a handful of bills to repeal the sales and use tax exemption for data centers.
A murkier subset of exemptions offered by local governments in the form of Chapter 380, 381 and 312 agreements allow data centers to negotiate tax abatements, rebates and direct infrastructure work from cities and counties seeking to lure economic development.
Zaffirini’s bill would bar data centers from pursuing those local tax incentives and prevent cities and counties from renewing those already in place.
Immigration enforcement, Flock, criminal justice
Democrats also took aim at the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement and border wall construction.
A bill by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, would repeal a 2025 law that requires sheriffs who run or contract out operations of a jail to take part in a 287(g) partnership, which allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deputize state and local law enforcement officers with certain immigration enforcement authorities. Sen. José Menéndez, another San Antonio Democrat, filed a similar bill.
The bills would let sheriffs terminate their agreements with ICE and would stop the comptroller’s office from awarding grants for these partnerships. The proposal would also dismiss any action from the attorney general’s office that sought to enforce the 2025 law.
There were 565 partnerships under the 287(g) program in Texas as of Nov. 4, ICE data shows.
A bill by state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass would aim to bar the feds from building a border wall on state park property. Another by Morales would make it illegal for ICE agents to wear face coverings.
Martinez Fischer also proposed a state audit of Operation Lone Star, the state’s $11 billion border enforcement effort.
Lawmakers filed at least three bills seeking to rein in use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers, including legislation from Bucy that would ban the devices outright. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, who filed bills in two prior sessions seeking to limit the devices’ use, also filed a bill limiting how police can use them.
Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned against the spread of the AI-powered cameras, and told The Texas Tribune in September she supported a ban.
Lawmakers filed at least a dozen bills seeking to change how Texas — historically the country’s most prolific executioner — can use the death penalty. While most of the bills seek to limit or remove death sentences as an option in certain cases, three seek to expand charges that qualify for the death penalty, including in cases of sexual assault of minors and for politically motivated killings.
And the state would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana under bills filed by Bucy and Moody.
Kindergarten to college
Democrats also made moves on the education front, filing several bills aimed at repealing the state’s $1 billion school voucher program — an idea likely to be met with significant opposition from Republican senators.
The voucher program — championed by outgoing Republicans Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — launched this year and provides participating students with publicly funded vouchers for private schools or home schooling.
Meanwhile, bills from multiple Democrats aim to increase state funding for public schools. Last session, lawmakers approved an influx of dollars to schools that many education advocates said didn’t cover the cost of inflation since the last school finance overhaul in 2019.
Howard filed a long-sought proposal to raise the base amount of per-student funding the state provides to public schools, known as the basic allotment, and tying future increases in that base funding to inflation. Howard seeks to bump up the allotment of $6,215 per student to $7,500.
Other ideas would tweak how the state funds public schools. A proposal by Bucy would fund schools based on student enrollment, not average daily attendance. Only six states fund districts based on attendance, and the current attendance-based funding system leads Texas schools to lose out on money if kids aren’t showing up to class.
Bucy and Zaffirini filed identical bills that would require school districts to provide free full-day pre-K for all 4-year-olds. The state currently mandates free pre-K for 4-year-olds only if their families meet certain criteria, including if they are homeless, do not speak English, or have parents who are firefighters, first responders, teachers or members of the military.
When it comes to higher education, Democrats are again pushing to repeal Texas’ ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities. One narrow proposal would exempt programs funded by private donations or federal money from the DEI ban.
Other bills focus on affordability, such as creating grants to help recent Texas high school graduates pay for community college or those from households earning less than $150,000 cover tuition and fees at four-year universities.
Other measures aim at making it easier to transfer more college courses so students could avoid repeating classes. Another would eliminate sales taxes on college textbooks for one week each in January and August.
Republicans, meanwhile, filed bills that would require public colleges and universities to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that students cheated or plagiarized before disciplining them, bar misconduct investigations without a sworn complaint and require universities to display class averages alongside students’ grades on transcripts.
Another proposal would let state lawmakers file complaints against universities with the state’s new higher education ombudsman office, a power currently reserved for students, faculty and staff.
Minimum wage, online voter registration
Democrats also filed bills to raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, the rate set by the federal government. A pair of proposals from state Reps. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos of Richardson and Armando Walle of Houston would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, while a proposal from Martinez Fischer would raise it to $17 an hour.
Texas is one of eight states that don’t allow residents to register to vote online, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. A bill by Bucy would direct the Texas secretary of state to work with the Texas Department of Public Safety and Department of Information Resources to figure out a way to allow online voter registration.
Democrats will also seek to restrict who can purchase semi-automatic rifles. A bill by state Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso would raise the minimum age to buy certain semi-automatic rifles in Texas to 21.
And as Texans complain about worsening traffic congestion on the state’s highways, Democrats have signaled they’re looking at other ways to get around the state.
A Bucy bill would direct the Texas Department of Transportation to kickstart a high-speed rail line connecting Dallas, Waco, Austin and San Antonio along the congested Interstate 35 corridor. The state agency would have to enter a comprehensive development agreement with a private company to build, maintain and operate the line, which would have to reach speeds of at least 110 miles per hour. At the same time, the GOP’s Harrison filed a bill seeking to hamper high-speed rail construction.
Meanwhile, a proposal by Walle would dedicate state funds to public transportation, bike lanes and sidewalks — though voters would have to sign off because it would require amending the state constitution.
Texans have complained about the rising cost of homeowner and auto insurance. Under a proposal from Martinez Fischer, state insurance regulators would have to sign off on any rate increases that exceed 5%.
In an out-of-left-field swing, Democrats took aim at the amount of parking cities require homes and businesses to provide.
Homebuilders and housing experts have long argued that such requirements drive up the cost of housing, in part by forcing builders to construct parking where they may otherwise put more housing. Defenders of the requirements argue they prevent parking from spilling over onto neighboring streets.
Texas would get rid of all cities' parking requirements under a proposal from state Sen. José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat. A separate bill from Walle would prevent cities from requiring bars to provide a certain amount of parking, a requirement critics have said encourages drunken driving.
Property taxes, gambling
Republicans remain in majority control of the Senate as Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin, a Democrat, prepares to take office as part of a Democratic sweep of statewide offices in last week’s election.
Republican lawmakers, and some Democrats, offered a slew of proposals aimed at reining in property tax bills. Harrison of Waxahachie filed a longshot bill to abolish property taxes and create a joint committee on the abolishment of property taxes. Harrison and state Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, each proposed constitutional amendments to get rid of property taxes.
House Republicans have long sought to tighten the state’s appraisal cap, which limits how fast a home’s taxable value can rise each year. That cap stands at 10%. Under a bill by state Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, the cap would decrease to 3%. Tax policy experts on both sides of the aisle have warned that tightening the state’s appraisal cap wouldn’t result in lower tax bills and would have nasty side effects.
Democrats have their own property tax proposals. Texas gives direct property tax relief to homeowners, but doesn’t do so for the state’s renters. A proposal by state Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Euless Democrat, would change that.
Republicans in past sessions have unsuccessfully sought to forbid local governments from hiring lobbyists, a practice referred to as “taxpayer-funded lobbying.” That push faces an even tougher climb in a divided Legislature. Still, state Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Fort Worth, filed a bill to do just that.
Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, filed a House joint resolution that would allow voters to decide whether to legalize both casino gaming and sports wagering in Texas. Resolutions require two-thirds support in the House and Senate before voters can weigh in.
While a similar resolution passed the House in 2023, it failed in the Senate, where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has for years blocked efforts to expand gambling in Texas. While it is unclear what appetite the Republican-controlled Senate will have for legal wagering, Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin voted for the failed 2023 measure when she served as a state representative.
Efforts to set time limits on how long some statewide elected officials, including the governor and lieutenant governor, can serve saw bipartisan support, while several Republican bills also seek to limit the time of service in the Texas Legislature. Those proposals call for enshrining the limits in the Texas Constitution, which would require voter approval.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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