Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Texas House Rejects Scaled-Back Property Tax Bill

• By a vote of 60-71, the Texas House rejected the conference committee report for Senate Bill 10, halting a measure that was pitched as property tax relief but stopped far short of what many lawmakers and taxpayers have demanded. Brandon Waltens has the details.
     
• The legislation was originally designed to lower the maximum annual property tax increase local governments can levy without voter approval from 3.5 percent to 2.5 percent starting in 2026. The measure would have impacted only cities with a population of 75,000 or more.
       
• Last week, the Texas House significantly improved the measure by adopting amendments by State Reps. Brent Money (R-Greenville), Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), and Andy Hopper (R-Decatur). Taken together, the measure would have applied to all local governments and reduced the cap to 1 percent.
      
• All of those changes were removed by the House-Senate conference committee.
       
• The dispute underscores how far the legislation has fallen from Gov. Greg Abbott’s own call earlier this year. In February, Abbott urged lawmakers to require a two-thirds vote of local taxpayers for any property tax increase, a standard much stricter than the legislature ever approached.
       
• Even though the clock on the special session does not expire until Sept. 13, lawmakers have been hoping to adjourn today. It is unclear whether work on the issue will continue this week, the measure will be punted to another special session, or held until the next regular session in 2027. 

OTHER HOUSE NEWS

• An amendment by State Rep. Mitch Little (R-Lewisville) expanded the scope of the prohibition to include legislative caucuses. That move came after the House Democrat Caucus reportedly benefited from outside fundraising assistance—including from Robert “Beto” O’Rourke’s PAC—during their two-week quorum break earlier this summer over congressional redistricting.

Texas Senate Cracks Down on Abortion-Inducing Drugs

• Cracking down on the manufacture and provision of abortion-inducing drugs, the Texas Senate has approved the “Women and Child Protection Act.” While abortion is already illegal in Texas, Sydnie Henry reports that the new law will prohibit the manufacture, distribution, and provision of abortion-inducing drugs in Texas.
     
• It creates civil liability for manufacturers and distributors who ship abortion-inducing drugs into Texas for non-permitted uses. The bill leverages the state’s “long arm” statute, allowing Texas to assert jurisdiction over out-of-state entities whose products end up in Texas.
      
• If approved by Gov. Greg Abbott, the law will be enforced exclusively through private civil actions rather than by state or local government officials.

UT's Risky Connections With China

• A security specialist has identified potential research security risks within the UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center, including a collaboration with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. As Robert Montoya reports, this analysis comes following the arrest of a Chinese national who was caught trying to smuggle the institution's cancer-related research out of the country.
      
• According to Allen Phelps of IPTalons, the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center has had more than 70 Chinese entities actively targeting the center’s researchers over just 18 months.
      
• Phelps has cautioned that universities in Texas and around the country are not taking enough preventive measures to secure their research.
       
• A new state law, which took effect on Monday, creates the Texas Higher Education Research Security Council, which is supposed to supervise the protection of sensitive data in the university systems.

Paxton Encourages School Districts to Put Prayer in the Classroom

• Attorney General Ken Paxton is encouraging school districts to take action on a law that took effect Monday recognizing the right of students to pray and read the Bible in government school classrooms. Addie Hovland reports that the attorney general's office is charged with developing best practices for the implementation of the law.
      
• Under the new law, all school boards are required to take a record vote on whether or not to adopt a policy setting aside time for prayer and the reading of the Bible or other religious texts at school.
      
• The law also requires the attorney general to defend school districts or charter schools if they adopt the practice and face legal challenges.
      
• Parental consent will be required for the involvement of students, and the time set aside for prayer and the reading of scripture cannot conflict with or replace any instructional time.

Killeen School Employees On Leave Over ‘Inappropriate’ Conduct With Students

• Two unnamed Killeen Independent School District employees are on administrative leave while officials investigate allegations of "unprofessional conduct" with students. Erin Anderson has the story.
      
• Families with students attending Aycock Middle School were notified late last week that the two employees had engaged in "inappropriate conversations" but that additional details were not being made available "due to employee privacy laws."
     
• At least three other Killeen ISD teachers have been accused of misconduct with students in the past two years.

OTHER EDUCATION NEWS

Quote-Unquote

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."

– John Adams​

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