Texas Senate sends state budget back to the House, continues legislative debates

AUSTIN, Texas (KBTX) - Bills are still going back and forth between both chambers in the Texas Legislature. One major priority was just sent back to the House.

On Friday, the state budget, a bill both houses are legally required to pass, was sent back to the House after the Senate made revised amendments.

Kyle Kacal (R-District 12) said the House will dive into the revised state budget starting on Saturday after voting on Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment.

“As we dive into the budget, my two concerns as it went over and came back, I talked to my colleagues and there was no legislation for teacher pay raises, and the property tax relief so those two things concern me,” said Kacal.

It’s something Rep. Kacal is willing to fight for.

“Those are two things that I made a promise in mind my to bring to home,” said Kacal. “Its the one thing we have to do, pass a budget. We talk about special sessions for different issues but if we don’t get the budget done tomorrow, we’ll be back on Wednesday.”

Along with the state budget, Rep. Kacal, told KBTX there’s a lot left to unpack.

“We’re concurring to Senate amendments to House bills and/or Senate amendments to Senate bills and forming conference committees,” said Kacal. “There’s still a little time where we can send bills to conference committees were we can tweak them. We’ve got a lot of debate left to do.”

Unprecedented times and unanswered bills may call for a special session, according to Kacal.

“It’s just interesting. No two sessions are alike,” said Kacal. “This is session 6. With the expulsion of representative Slayton, to now articles of impeachment on the Attorney General, Ken Paxton. This is not what I thought a session with a budget surplus was going to be like. I truly thought we were going to be debating where we were putting this money all for the economic growth of the state of Texas.”

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