Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Outlines Legislative Priorities In 'State Of The State' Address

AUSTIN, TX — Gov. Greg Abbott outlined his emergency items and priorities for the 85th session of the Texas Legislature in his "State of the State" address on Tuesday, with highlights including a ban on so-called sanctuary cities, reforms to Child Protective Services, protection of the unborn and implementation of a hiring freeze toward budget savings.

"I'm honored to join you today as we build an even broader path to prosperity for all Texans," Abbott told lawmakers during a joint legislative session. "Today, I'm proud to report the State of Texas is exceptional."

But in the next breath following the superlative, Abbott acknowledged a softening of the Texas economy that began on his watch after being elected governor in 2015 as he referenced a sustained, yet recent, drop in oil process in an oil-producing state: "Sure, we had a downturn in the oil patch like we have almost every decade. And like every other time, Texas has come roaring back. Last year when oil hit bottom, Texas still added more than 200,000 jobs."

Despite the drop in value of the commodity, Abbott noted oft-repeated statistics attesting to the economy's strength, positing it as the 10 largest in the world: "Our economy is larger than Australia, Canada and even Russia," Abbott noted.

In spite of such robustness, the state economy could use some diversification as Abbott noted to protect from economic downturns in the oil and gas market.

"We all know that Texas leads the nation in areas like oil and gas," Abbott said. "Importantly though, Texas is in the middle of an innovation renaissance that weans our economy off of energy. Biotech. Defense tech. Wearable tech. Clean tech. Technologies developed in Texas are changing the world in which we live."

He pointed to Dallas, Houston and Austin as areas he said are now known as three of the world’s premiere “knowledge capitals" in making his argument for economic diversification.

"And get this," he added. "Midland beats the San Francisco area in the percentage of jobs created by startups. And, we continue to cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators."

As an example, he cited the abundance of public high schools ranked in the top 100 nationally: "We have the fourth highest high school graduation rate in America," Abbott claimed. "We are second among Hispanic and African-American students, and first among economically disadvantaged students. And the No. 1 public high school in America is in Dallas Independent School District."

He pointed to past successes from the last Legislative session to buttress his point: A "record amount" of funding aimed at easing traffic congestion; fortified security along the southern border with Mexico; a healthy savings account.

Toward the aim of trimming the budget, Abbott called for a hiring freeze through August as the Legislature contends with a tight budget. The move, he said, is expected to save about $200 million. Earlier this month, the Texas Comptroller warned of a tightened budget, pointing to $104.9 billion in revenue available for general-purpose spending for next biennium as representing a drop of nearly 3 percent from last cycle — a decrease partially attributable to the drop in oil prices.

Following the speech, the Office of the Governor released a web video highlighting his key legislative priorities.

"In short, we made Texas freer, stronger, safer and smarter," he said. "This session, we have new challenges to solve and old challenges that need new solutions."

The governor then launched into some of his pet priorities in the coming year.

• Reforming Child Protective Services. "You will cast thousands of votes this session," Abbott told lawmakers. "Few will involve life or death decisions. Your vote on CPS is one of them. Last year, more than 100 children died in our Child Protective System. You can vote to end that. We can reform the system so that no more children die in it. We were right to inject emergency funding. But that’s not a lasting solution. We need more workers, with better training, smarter strategies and real accountability to safeguard our children."

That said, a priority should be placed on keeping children with their natural parents, the governor noted. "While improving child safety in CPS, we must also remain vigilant in protecting parental rights. We must remember that the best place for a child, if at all possible, is with their parents."

He touted the Network of Nurture initiative championed by his wife, Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott, that seeks to provide support to adoptive and foster parents caring for children under state stewardship. But reforming the state's protective services agency will require robust funding allotments, he said.

"Do not underfund this rickety system only to have it come back and haunt you," he admonished lawmakers. "Do it right. If ever we’ve had an emergency item, this is it. And I’m declaring CPS reform my first emergency item. If you do nothing else this session, cast a vote to save the life of a child."

• School Safety. In light of rising incidents of sexual assaults on students by teachers, the state has recently gained the dubious distinction of leading the nation in that scourge. Abbott outlined a series of steps that must be taken to diminish the trend.

"Texas schools are filled with some of the best teachers in America who are called to their profession," he began. "Unfortunately, a small number of teachers have given Texas an unwanted ranking. Texas reportedly leads the nation in teacher-student sexual assaults. Some of those teachers are not prosecuted. And worse, some are shuffled off to other schools.

"We are the ones with the duty to do something about it. Teachers who assault students should lose their license and go to jail. I want legislation that imposes real consequences for those teachers. We must also penalize administrators who turn a blind eye to such abuse.

• Border security. Abbott has been vocal in his calls to safeguard the southern border with Mexico throughout his political career, predating his election as governor. The Texas-Mexico border contains some 1,250 miles of the entire 1,900-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, an expanse stretching delineated by the Rio Grande from El Paso in the West to Brownsville in the Southeast. His calls for robust border safeguarding has lately gained more currency given the Trump Administration's crackdown on immigration and proposal to build a physical wall separating the U.S. from Mexico.

"As elected officials, it's our responsibility to protect all Texans," he told the gathering. "It is our burden to deal with the consequences of the federal government not securing the border. Let’s be clear: We all support legal immigration; it’s what built America. What must be stopped is illegal immigration—and worse, the criminals who conspire with cartels to enter the U.S. illegally."

While Texas is unable to change federal immigration laws, state lawmakers can enact policy aimed at enforcement, he noted a single example of a homicidal undocumented resident in a state where the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 1.68 million undocumented immigrants among the population.

"That is unacceptable," the governor said after providing the example of Juan Rios, accused of killing two people and kidnapping a third. "Elected officials don't get to pick and choose which laws they obey. To protect Texans from deadly danger, we must insist that laws be followed. Sen. Perry, this is the session we will ban sanctuary cities. I’m declaring this an emergency item."

On this issue, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez was a thinly veiled reference. Elected in November, she has vowed not to cooperate fully with federal immigration officials in deporting undocumented immigrants across the board, instead focusing on the criminal element among the undocumented population (those suspected of murder, aggravated sexual assault or human trafficking).

The sheriff's nuanced stance is at odds with Abbott's call for mass deportation and cooperation among law enforcement agencies in honoring ICE detainers that hold a person suspected of being undocumented until a border patrol agent can retrieved the arrested person to begin deportation proceedings. (For more on Abbott's feud with theTravis County sheriff, click here.) The governor's preferred mode of enforcement makes no allowances for the level of severity of suspected crimes, instead focused on mass deportation of anyone who is undocumented and living in Texas.

Abbott said he would meet on Wednesday with new U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to discuss ways of strengthening the southern border with Mexico. He noted his budget calls for more funding for Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and the National Guard aimed at protecting the border.

• Hate crime status for police officer killings. Abbott said he wants to make cop killings a hate crime, reciting a list of recent killings of police officers — including the ambush-style killings of five officers in Dallas by a gunman last year.

"Texas will not tolerate attacks on law enforcement officers," Abbott said. "We will rise up as a state in support our law enforcement. I want legislation that increases penalties and makes it a hate crime for criminals who target peace officers simply because of their uniform."

• Protection of the unborn. Abbott, like most conservatives, has made opposition to abortion a key plank of his political platform. Recently, he's gained more attention to his commitment on cracking down on abortions by championing mulled rules that would require fetal remains in Texas caused by abortions or stillbirths to be buried as part of his broader Life Initiative effort. Traditionally, fetal remains have been disposed of in sanitary landfills.

Critics of the stringent proposal have viewed it as nothing more than shaming women who undergo abortions in a deeply conservative state where many shun the procedure. The cost associated with burial or cremation of fetal tissue — up to $10,000 — is pointed to as evidence the proposed rules are meant as a punitive measure acting as deterrent against women considering abortions.

Last week, a federal judge extended an injunction preventing the rules from taking effect. The move sets the stage for a court hearing on whether the fetal remains rules meet the rigors of the U.S. Constitution.

At Tuesday's talk with lawmakers, Abbott made clear he will continue to push in his efforts to protect fetuses. He invited Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as a guest in the legislative chamber to buttress his point.

"Protecting Texans also means protecting the most vulnerable—the unborn," Abbott said. "I welcome any legislation that protects unborn children and promotes a culture of life in Texas."

He lauded DiNardo for offering to bury fetuses at no cost in light of the schedule of fees associated with cremation or burial: "Your Eminence, I commend your commitment to protecting the unborn. Thanks to you and the bishops of Texas for showing respect for the unborn by offering to bury fetal remains at no cost. It demonstrates the dignity and reverence that every child’s life deserves."

To lessen the level of abortions, he said he would work to promote adoptions: "We must also do more to help the children that mothers bring into this world," Abbott said. "That’s why I’m committed to advancing adoption services and developing programs to support mothers who embrace the blessing of a child's life."

• Improving education. "We must provide our children with the tools they need to succeed," Abbott said. "We do that through education." He then called for enhanced Pre-K education to accomplish that goal.

"Eighty percent of all voters agree: Texas should fund optional high-quality Pre-K education," the governor said. "They want our children on the path to reading and doing math at grade level by the time they finish third grade. Do your constituents know that each session you vote to spend about $1.5 billion on unaccountable Pre-K? The purpose of high-quality Pre-K is to set high standards, evaluate them and eliminate what doesn’t work. It’s to ensure that Pre-K works rather than wastes taxpayer money. Let’s do this right. Or don’t do it at all."

• Diversifying the economy. "Every man and every woman in this state should have greater opportunity for economic advancement," Abbott said. "To promote that goal, we need to further diversify our economy by attracting jobs to Texas from outside the energy sector. The Enterprise Fund has been doing just that. In the past two years, the Fund has attracted more than a half a billion dollars in capital investment and added thousands of new jobs."

He also called for cutting taxes and regulations on business toward his goal of economic diversification. "As far as I'm concerned, the only good tax is a dead tax," he said. He also called for relief from soaring property rates: "No government should be able to tax people out of their homes," he said. "No government should be able to disregard the private property rights of its citizens."

• Tort reform. "One reason Texas attracts so many jobs is because of the strides we’ve made on tort reform. But our work is not done. Hail-storm litigation is the newest form of lawsuit abuse. To reduce the economic havoc, I want legislation on my desk that limits abusive hail-storm litigation."

As part of "cleaning up government," Abbott also called for an end to the practice of government deducting union dues from the paychecks of employees. "Taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to support the collection of union dues," he said.

In closing, he invoked the memory of Texas heroes during the Battle of San Jacinto — an 18-minute fight led by Gen. Sam Houston against the Mexican forces of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna that proved a decisive conflict of the Texas Revolution.

"Texas is the Lone Star State for a reason: We stand apart as a model for the rest of the nation," Abbott said. "It’s of no small significance that we unite today under the San Jacinto Battle flag. One of the most decisive battles of the world, it changed the course of history and brought liberty to Texas. It’s our privilege, our duty to preserve that cause of liberty. Courageous heroes died so Texas could be free.

"Let’s use this session to build a Texas worthy of their sacrifice. Let’s keep Texas the most exceptional state in America. May God bless us in our efforts, and may God forever bless the great state of Texas."

>>> Above, official State of Texas photo of Gov. Greg Abbott