Abbott vetoes bills in public feud with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over property tax relief
Niki Griswold
Austin American-Statesman
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/pol...paign=statesman

Gov. Greg Abbott has vetoed more than 45 bills ahead of a key legislative deadline in an unusually public escalation of his clash with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over how to deliver property tax relief to Texans.

Sunday is the last day Abbott can sign or veto bills passed by both chambers during the regular legislative session that ended May 29; bills he doesn’t sign become law as well if he doesn't veto them. But last week Abbott threatened that many of the bills still awaiting his signature might face vetoes if the House and Senate are unable to reach a compromise on the property tax cuts that were Abbott’s top campaign promise.

“As we get closer and closer to this Sunday, all of these bills that have yet to be signed face the possibility if not the probability that they're going to be vetoed,” Abbott said during a bill signing ceremony last week. “I can't assure that any bill that has not yet been signed, is going to be signed … until the Texas Senate and Texas House get together and come up with an agreement about how we are going to implement $17.6 billion in cutting property taxes.”

The Legislature is nearly three weeks into a special session Abbott called specifically to address property tax relief after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a plan during the regular legislative session. While the House’s plan focused on increasing appraisal caps, how much the value of a property can increase per year, the Senate’s version centered on raising the homestead exemption, the amount of a homestead’s value that is exempt from taxation. Abbott, who had largely opted against weighing in publicly on which strategy he preferred, came out with a separate tactic at the start of the special session that pushed for compression – sending state money to school districts solely to decrease property taxes.

While the House promptly passed a bill that complied with the governor’s demands and then adjourned, Patrick has dug in on also raising the homestead exemption.

Of the bills Abbott has vetoed as of Saturday, more than 70% are Senate bills, including several by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, Patrick’s top lieutenant in crafting property tax policy in the Senate. Patrick fired back on Twitter after the governor’s remarks last week.

“In a ploy to apparently get his way, Governor Abbott suggests he is threatening to destroy the work of the entire 88th Legislative Session – hundreds of thousands of hours by lawmakers doing the work the people sent us to do,” Patrick wrote in a tweet Wednesday. “The Governor’s suggested threat today to veto a large number of Senate bills is an affront to the legislative process and the people of Texas. He has now made his position clear – he doesn’t want homeowners to get the $100,000 homestead exemption that is the hallmark of the Senate Plan.”

Political analysts say that while it is not new for there to be tension among the members of the ‘Big Three’ – the governor, lieutenant governor and the House speaker – as Abbott and Patrick continue to trade barbs in press conferences and via social media, the unusually public nature of the conflict is indicative of the broader power and political struggle between two of the top Republicans in the state. Spokespeople for Abbott, Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan did not reply to a request for comment.

“I think the political dynamic between the governor and the lieutenant governor is about as frayed as I've seen it during their tenure in office together,” said Mark Jones, a Rice University political science fellow. “I think it's a breakdown in communication, but that now has become, effectively, a power play. That is the governor intent on imposing his will and the lieutenant governor intent on imposing his will and the speaker intent on imposing his will. So it's moved beyond just discussion on property tax relief and has morphed into a broader institutional battle regarding which of the three institutions will yield.”

Both Patrick and Abbott have significant leverage. The lieutenant governor has tight control over the Senate, where no bills can make it through the chamber without his approval. But outside of a regular legislative session, the governor has increased power as the only official who can call lawmakers back for a special session, where they can only address issues the governor specifies on the call.-- excerpt, rest at link above --