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Budget battles and federal aid
The Texas Senate unanimously passed its budget bill, Senate Bill 1, which maintains the Legislature’s commitment to boost state spending on public schools and property tax relief a top priority in the 2019 session. The budget also commits nearly $800 million to the state’s border security forces, and about $8 billion for mental health programs. Beyond that, the bill includes substantial belt-tightening for other government services and agencies a response to Governor Greg Abbott’s call last year for 5 percent budget cuts for most parts of the state government. Still, the budget largely avoids catastrophic cuts that many feared were coming after the pandemic threw the state’s finances into chaos.
You’re not the capital of Texas | Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick takes shot at Harris Co. leaders, defends Texas voting bill
Senate Bill 7 would limit early voting hours to between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. and get rid of drive-thru voting. Author: Adam Bennett Updated: 6:12 PM CDT April 6, 2021
HOUSTON Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick fired back Tuesday against critics of a controversial voting bill advancing through the Texas Legislature while opponents urged more corporations to follow the lead of American Airlines and Dell and speak up against the measure.
Senate Bill 7 would limit early voting hours to between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. and get rid of drive-thru voting. It would also forbid elections officials from encouraging voters to fill out mail ballot applications.
You’re not the capital of Texas | Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick takes shot at Harris Co. leaders, defends Texas voting bill Adam Bennett
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Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick fired back Tuesday against critics of a controversial voting bill advancing through the Texas Legislature while opponents urged more corporations to follow the lead of American Airlines and Dell and speak up against the measure.
Senate Bill 7 would limit early voting hours to between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. and get rid of drive-thru voting. It would also forbid elections officials from encouraging voters to fill out mail ballot applications.
Illustration by Texas Monthly
For more than seven hours last Wednesday, until shortly before 2 a.m., Texas senators debated legislation that would make it significantly more difficult for Texans to vote, especially minorities and the poor. The seventeen-page bill would, among other things, dissuade voting by mail, limit the number of polling locations (including in areas where voters already typically have to wait in line for hours), ban drive-through voting, and allow partisan poll watchers to shoot video of voters as they cast their ballots.
Despite postponing their bedtime, the senators didn’t deliver much of a debate. Thanks in part to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s ever-shifting rules about what constitutes a majority in the upper chamber, the fate of Senate Bill 7 was never in doubt. The Republicans had the votes to send their proposal to the state House. All Democrats could do was complain and try to create a record of legislative intent to use against the Republicans