AUSTIN — District 45 Texas State Rep. Erin Zwiener provided updates on discussions occurring at the capital during the Kyle Area Chamber of Commerce Legislative Update Luncheon March 25.
Zwiener was unable to attend in-person, as the legislative session is ongoing at the capitol, so a prepared video was presented to attendees.
“[I wanted] to give you all a quick update about what is going on in the legislative session. I think the first big thing to know is that we have a $24 billion budget surplus and the budget is the one document we have to pass every single legislative session,” said Zwiener. “The budget is a statement of our values, a statement of what is important for us to invest in.”
According to the representative, some of the biggest conversations are revolving around vouchers and school funding.
As previously reported by the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 2, which provided $1 billion in funding from the state’s surplus general revenue, beginning fiscal year 2026-27, to launch a school choice program or the voucher program.
Zwiener noted that currently House Bill (H.B.) 3 has been proposed to pass a private school voucher program, which she is not in support of: “I believe it will take our taxpayer dollars diverted out of our public school systems and into less accountable private schools and keep many of our kids from getting the best education possible … I believe this bill has a real chance of leaving behind hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of Texas students behind by pulling money out of our schools, making it harder for them to keep and/or hire and retain great educators.”
Along with this conversation is general school funding. Though many may believe that school funding is dictated through property taxes, it is actually decided through a predetermined amount set aside for each student. The formula, continued the representative, states that each student will award the school $6,160 — determined in 2019 — with caveats for those who may require more funding to educate, such as those in special education or English language learners. There are also modifiers for some districts, where costs are more expensive, said Zwiener. For example, rural districts may receive more for transportation, as they have to travel further to educate students.
This amount of money is pulled from the percentage of property taxes to fund schools and if the total does not reach the predetermined amount based on student enrollment, the state will fill in the gap, while, vice versa, if there is too much funding, the districts must send the state money back.
“For the school districts to get more money, we at the state have to change the formula, so the most important thing we can do is increase that base number per student. We call it the basic allotment. It’s about $6,100 right now. We believe it should go up between $1,000 to $1,500, just to keep up with inflation,” said Zwiener.
According to the bill text, proposed H.B. 2 increases the allotment by $220 for a total of $6,380 per student.
“The Senate has said they don’t want to touch the basic allotment at all, but we in the House are pushing hard because that’s the easiest way to get funding into our schools and give them the flexibility they need to put it where they need it,” emphasized Zwiener.
Educational funding is not only at-risk in grade school, but also in higher educational institutions, she said. She noted that a bill in 2023 stated that faculty and staff cannot be engaged in any entity that is designed in reference to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Despite Zwiener believing that universities have over-complied, there are some representatives that feel as though schools have not complied enough. This is why that although the bill does not specifically include "DEI-adjacent" courses in its language, some universities, such as Texas A&M University, The University of Texas and, now, Texas State University, removed previously offered courses. Because of this, there are currently “hundreds of millions of institutional enhancement dollars currently being held because some legislators believe that the universities are teaching diversity too much.”
The next topic in discussion is water infrastructure, with the potential to make a large investment, including bringing water in from out of state to the IH-35 corridor, said Zwiener.
“I’m optimistic that we will get something over the finish line that will probably be a constitutional amendment to create a dedicated fund for water projects and then, devil will be in the details [on] exactly how we decide that money can be spent,” she said.
“We have actually had four different apartment complexes bought in just the last few months by a housing finance corporation out of Pleasanton, Texas, and the goal of these housing finance corporations is to try and provide affordable housing. That’s why we enable them, but we’re seeing them move into some areas, where they can effectively claim they’re offering affordable housing, but offer market-rate housing and still get 100% property tax abatement, which gets passed on to all of us. So, we are working on legislation to try and close some loopholes.”
Finally, the Senate has proposed raising the Homestead Exemption — or the part of an owner’s home value that cannot be taxed — to $140,000. In 2023, the exemption was raised from $40,000 to $100,000.
Zwiener encouraged community members to discuss bills that they care about with their local senator or representative:
• State Sen. District 21 Judith Zaffirini
• State Sen. District 25 Donna Campbell
• State Rep. District 45 Erin Zwiener
• State Rep. District 73 Carrie Isaac
Community members can locate their state senator and representative by visiting wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home. To follow bills, visit www.capitol.texas.gov.
Zwiener will host a town hall for residents at Kyle City Hall, located at 100 W. Center St., at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 6.
