Time flies when you’re making laws.

There’s two weeks left in the 140-day Texas legislative session, where lawmakers are only required to develop a balanced budget, but produce much more.

This session’s centerpiece legislation is the plan to allocate $1 billion annually that families can use to help pay for their children to attend private schools. The new law gives Gov. Greg Abbott a hard-fought victory and capped two years of Texas GOP acrimony over school choice.

Compared with the 2023 session, this one has been pretty calm. Consider that at the end of the previous session the House impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton on corruption allegations. Later that year, the Senate acquitted Paxton after a high-profile trial.

This session the state’s trio of power players – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Abbott – had a working relationship and cohesion on their top issues.

Burrows was elected speaker in January, replacing GOP Rep. Dade Phelan who notably clashed with Paxton and other conservative Republican leaders. To this point, Burrows has more easily navigated the Capitol’s choppy political waters.

The Legislature’s work is not done, as several important issues that will affect North Texas are still unresolved.

Here are a few.

Education funding

Lawmakers are considering a nearly $8 billion school finance plan that’s considered by many as companion legislation to the new school choice law.

House and Senate leaders agree the increased school funding should include teacher pay raises, though have disparate ways to get there.

The House wants to increase per-student funding by $395, which is much more than the $55 the Senate is proposing.

Some lawmakers have tried to heavily influence the state’s role in how education dollars should be spent, instead of letting local school districts make those decisions.

The Senate’s lower increase in per-student funding would mean school districts would determine how to spend only about 10% – or $800 million– of the new funding. The majority of the remaining $7.2 billion would be dedicated to a number of education programs, including $4.4 billion in funding for teacher pay raises.

The House’s $7.7 billion plan would dedicate 40% of the increase to teacher pay, but district leaders could largely choose how to spend the rest.

Democrats and school district officials point out that the increased funding in both plans does not keep up with inflation. Over the years, inflation and unfunded mandates have caused some districts to cut programs or close schools.

The funding bills are a continuation of long-standing education fights that don’t appear to be ending, but intensifying.

Bail reform

Here’s another policy item pushed by Abbott and Patrick.

Lawmakers are considering proposals that would prevent some people accused of serious crimes from getting out of jail until a case is adjudicated.

The package of bills include constitutional amendments that have to be approved by Texas voters.

Opponents contend the proposals undermine due process, would increase jail population and discriminate against the state’s poorest offenders. ers of the bills say the state’s bail system has run amok and threatens public safety.

Bail policy is an issue where Democrats could determine the outcome. Constitutional amendments need 100 votes for age. With 88 Republicans in the chamber, at least 12 House Democrats would have to vote for the package for it to move forward. In previous sessions, bail policy changes have died in the House.

Crime and public safety are complicated issues that often shape public perception of elected officials, so the merits of the bill will be critical to its chances of ing.

Texas Lottery

Lawmakers will decide whether to let the lottery die or extend it under new management.

The Senate last week unanimously approved a bill that would preserve the lottery, but abolished the commission that oversees it.

The bill would move oversight and control of the lottery and charitable Bingo to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and a new lottery advisory committee. The lottery would be subject to strict review over the next two years.

The legislation is headed to the House, where there is no companion bill. House can either approve the Senate bill authored by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, or leave the lottery under its existing management – the embattled Texas Lottery Commission.

The Lottery Commission is under its 12-year systematic evaluation and will expire Aug. 31 without reauthorization from the Legislature. The evaluation started last year with the Sunset Advisory Commission, which made recommendations on how lottery oversight could be improved.

Under the lottery’s existing set-up, lawmakers would have to approve legislation to extend the lottery or it will expire. Without age of Hall’s bill, it’s unlikely Texas senators–many of whom have been vocal about the lottery’s problems–will vote to keep the agency alive.

Even if it survives, the lottery will have to pay a price for recent controversies.

Abbott, Paxton and Patrick have ordered investigations of potential crimes related to two multimillion-dollar jackpots and the operation of the Lottery Commission.

Dallas Elections

Dallas officials want to move city elections from May to November in odd years.

Voters in November approved a proposition that would allow the City Council to make such a change, but state approval is also needed.

Legislation that would enable the City Council to move the election is stalled in the House Elections Committee, where chairman Matt Shaheen, R-Prosper, says it doesn’t have the votes to advance.

Proponents of moving Dallas elections from May to November in odd years to improve voter turnout will have to find a way to get the bill out of committee or risk not being able to move the election in 2027, when the mayor and city council are on the ballot.

Texas senators unanimously approved an identical bill in April.

The hemp market

Patrick and the Senate want a total ban on Texas’ booming consumable hemp market.

That would mean banning gummies, vapes, drinks and other retail products made with hemp-derived synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol–or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

The popular products are sold through more than 8,500 license holders throughout Texas, and became legal through a loophole in the 2019 farm bill.

A House proposal would spare the consumable hemp market from a total ban–while reducing it to edibles and nonsynthetic, smokeable low-dose flower buds grown only in Texas.

Counties could opt out and elect to go entirely “dry” with no hemp sales at all through elections similar to those related to alcohol sales. The entire hemp program also would be moved from state health officials’ purview and under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, under the proposal.

The Senate ed SB 3 as a total ban in early March on a 24-7 vote, one day after a video surfaced of Patrick going into a THC shop near a middle school in South Austin. It is part of a series of personal investigations Patrick has broadcast this session. The bill would criminalize the possession and manufacture of intoxicating products that are currently sold legally in smoke shops, convenience stores, breweries, coffee shops and through online retailers.

To this point Patrick and Burrows have had a good relationship, so a compromise is likely.