WACO, Texas — We've got about six weeks until the gavel drops in Austin on the next legislative session.
Already some 900 bills have been filed. One expert we spoke with today says most of the bills have just a slim chance of making it to a committee.
It’s a long list of bills that Texas legislators will have to work through. Most of the bills will not even be heard, political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus with the University of Houston said pressing issues like Texas surplus and how it can help property owners that saw property taxes go up is one pressing issue.
“The biggest thing the legislature is going to do is decide how to spend about $29 billion in surplus the likely scenario is that this is going to go to tax cuts,” said Brandon Rottinghaus political science professor with the University of Houston.
Another pressing issue is abortion, Rottinghaus said Texas Republicans won a slight majority of females in the last election.
“They don’t want that to slip any further than it has so I think that you’re going to see some legislation on abortion, but it might be more towards refining exactly what it means to receive an abortion and the specific kinds of procedures,” Rottinghaus said.
Sports betting in Texas is another bill that has the potential to make it to the floor.
One of the most pressing issues is the Texas electric grid system and what is being done to improve the system.
"Considering the population boom in Texas and considering how many businesses are relocating here the state has to be absolutely sure that the grid is going to hold so you’re going to see some legislation to try and make some fixes," Rottinghaus said.
We went to Facebook to ask viewers what some of the concerns they would like to talk about in the upcoming session.
In a Facebook post, Linda Woods said "power grid, we should not be worried that our electricity might be turned off, fix this problem."
Others like Jason Richard said, “property taxes, it’s getting out of control.”
Over 60 people voiced their concerns, but there’s still time before the session starts.
The legislative session only runs 140 days from January 10 to May 29 and Rottinghaus said that not a lot of time to get through each one of the bills.
