If bills now being considered pass, lawmakers will be left with $3.3 billion to take care of unforeseen costs over the next two years. Some experts worry that Texas can’t sustain its massive spending on the border and public education.

Abbott’s spending proposals also include spending $750 million on school safety and mental health services and expanding postpartum Medicaid to a year.

Texas homeowners have some of the highest property tax bills in the nation, a byproduct of the state’s reliance on such taxes to help pay for public schools and the state’s lack of an income tax.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had asked House leaders to support his push for arming school police officers with bulletproof shields after the Uvalde shooting. House Speaker Dade Phelan is also asking for more money for mental health and school safety programs.

The state’s highest civil court has been asked to decide if Gov. Greg Abbott has the power to cut off funding for legislative staff, a move Abbott hoped would keep Democratic lawmakers from leaving the state and shutting down a special legislative session.

The House Appropriations Committee voted on Friday 21-0 to move forward a bill that would reinstate the funding after Abbott vetoed it to punish House Democrats who broke quorum in the final days of the session to kill two of his priority bills.

Austin Price for The Texas TribuneLong headless, the Legislative Budget Board has a new director: Jerry McGinty of Huntsville, the CFO of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. McGinty has worked at TDCJ for nearly three decades, serving also as budget director and in human resources and communications roles, according to an announcement Thursday from Lt. Gov. “Jerry has the management skills and the extensive experience needed to fulfill the LBB’s core mission of serving and advising lawmakers on prudent fiscal options for our state,” Patrick said in a statement. Jerry McGinty has been named the new director of the Legislative Budget Board. TDCJSome lawmakers, particularly in the Texas House, praise the agency’s work as crucial.