Overview:
The 89th Texas Legislative Session is nearing its end, with Governor Abbott having less than seven days to sign or veto bills before the session ends on June 2. Several bills, including SB 3, which would ban or regulate THC, and SB 5, which would establish a $3 billion dementia research fund, are still awaiting review. Other notable bills include SB 12, which would exclude consideration of race, gender identity, ethnicity, or sexual identity in school district hiring practices, and HB 9, which could potentially cut property taxes for Texas homeowners.
The 89th Texas Legislative Session will come to a close on June 2. Ahead of the grand finale, many representatives and senators across Texas, especially in North Texas, are trying to make a last minute push to get their proposed legislature out of committee and on to Abbott’s desk.
The 90th Regular Texas Legislative session will begin on January 12, 2027 and end on May 31 of that year.
Worried that Lone Star State lawmakers may need more time to debate all the proposed legislature they’ve seen? Fret not, special sessions for the Texas Legislature can still occur.
Governor Abbott has the power to call special sessions between regular sessions. These sessions can only last 30 days and are only for specific topics designated by Abbott.
The last special legislative session lasted the full 30 days in 2023. The two topics for debate: cutting property taxes for Texas by reducing the compressed tax rate for schools and increased penalties for crimes involving smuggling persons or stashing.
Keeping up with what’s happening in Austin matters—especially when some North Texas lawmakers don’t always vote in ways that reflect the needs of their communities. For Black residents in South Dallas, knowing what bills are being pushed—and who’s behind them—is one of the strongest ways to hold elected officials accountable and make sure our voices are heard where it counts.
Drama Over DART Dollars
Of the newest bills to come on the senate floor is another attempt from mainly Republican lawmakers to dismantle DART’s current funding structure.
SB 3075, filed on May 22, 2025, by Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, hasn’t been referred yet, but could be soon sent to State Affairs.
DART officials have already warned that legislation like Paxton’s proposal could lead to “full on dismantling of the DART system.”
SB 3075 still has to be advanced out of the Senate committee, be voted on by the full Senate, then moved to the Texas House before reaching Governor Abbot’s desk. And remember, this all has to happen before June 2.
Out of the 3,106 Senate bills and 5,792 House bills filed since this current legislative session began on January 1, SB 3075 is not unique in nature. It is close cousins with HB 3187, another large threat to DART’s current funding structure, filed by Matt Shaheen, R-Plano on February 21, 2025.
Related: They’re Coming for Our Commute: Lawmakers Threaten to Gut DART
Dallas Lawmakers In The Lead
Representative Venton Jones, D-Dallas, kicked off this legislative session with a bang, authoring HB 1738, which seeks to repeal state code penalties for “homosexual conduct.” Its companions, HB 903 and SB 2723 are still in the committee process, but Jones’ HB 1738 has passed the House for now.
Senator Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, is behind SB 2835, which encourages an increased number of single-staircase apartment buildings in favor of “gentle” density that reduces the project’s environmental footprint. Johnson’s single staircase bill was filed on March 13, 2025, has since passed the Senate and is currently on the house floor.
SB 960 is another one of Johnson’s bills, first filed closer to the start of the legislative session on January 28, 2025. This bill is aimed at giving developers incentives to build more housing for their workers, helping individuals who cannot afford the rental rate, but earn too much for subsidies. Johnson’s workforce housing bill is still in committee.
Senator Royce West, D-Dallas, has also been busy during this 89th legislative session. West’s SB 583 would force the City of Dallas to consider using more of its nearly 3,000 parcels of land for workforce housing.
West also has another proposal, SB 1527, that would give Dallas more control over how they fund its public safety pension. Following a near complete collapse of the pension in 2017, West and supporters of this bill want to see the pension get back on track before it can ask for a cost-of-living increase for retirees. SB 1527 is in committee and has since passed in the Senate.
Most notable of the bills related to Dallas from this session is perhaps that of Representative Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas HB 3097. Anchia’s HB 3097 aims to move Dallas’s sparsely-attended May elections to November. Dallas struggles with low voter turnout in May elections, and citizens already voted on Proposition D last fall, which would eliminate the restriction to spring elections. West and Johnson collaborated on a twin bill for Anchia’s House bill in the Senate: SB 1494. West and Johnson’s version has since passed in the Senate.
How It All Works
Bills go through a variety of legislative steps before they become Texas law. Two of the more hotly contested bills that have already achieved law status during this legislative session are SB 2, Creating education savings accounts and SB 326, an Antisemitism bill.
May 27, 2025, marked the final day for Senate bills to have their second reading in the House of Representatives. If a Senate bill has not passed this stage at this point, it will not have a chance of becoming law in this session.
Conversely, the deadline for House bills to have their final reading in the Senate is May 28, 2025.
After bills are sent to the Governor, Abbott then has ten days (excluding Sundays) to sign or veto a bill. Unsigned bills that are not vetoed can become law. Abbott has extra time to sign or veto any bills sent in the last 10 days of “crunch time” in the legislative session. Exactly 20 calendar days sine die (meaning “after adjournment”) are given to Abbott to act on these measures.
What’s On Deck
Governor Abbott has less than seven days to sign any more bills into law for the 89th Texas Legislative session. Here’s a few of the bills that Texans have a close eye on.
SB 3: A bill to ban or regulate THC, sent to Abbott on May 25. Lt. Governor Patrick and the Texas Senate are seeking a full THC ban, while the House simply wants tighter regulation.
RELATED: Dan Patrick’s Hemp Ban Deserves Backlash and a Veto
SB 31: Exceptions for abortions in case of emergency, even under Texas’ near-total ban. The bill is sponsored by Fort Worth Representative Charlie Green who wants the existing law to be “clear, consistent, fair and understandable.”
SB 5: Establishing a $3 billion dementia research fund: the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Texas voters will have the final say on this bipartisan-supposed, Lt. Gov Patrick-backed measure in November.
HB 33: Called the “Uvalde Bill,” this measure requires law enforcement to make crisis response policies. Representative Don McLaughlin, former Uvalde mayor, proposed the bill in response to a mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in 2022 that left 19 children deceased.
SB 12: Sen. Brandon Creighton authored this bill to exclude consideration of race, gender identity, ethnicity, or sexual identity in school district hiring practices. Moreover, SB 12 aims to omit the practice of diversity, equity and inclusion policies from the public education sphere in general.
HB 9: Could potentially cut property taxes for Texas homeowners. Those who own $300,000 homes would save roughly $200 per year.
SB 293: Gives state judges a pay raise from $140,000 to $175,000 annual salary.
The Eyes Of Texas Are Upon Austin
The most pertinent issues coming up in Austin that have an effect on Dallas are related to housing, DART funding and public transport, and education funding/school vouchers. However, a mountain of “prioritized” bills have still not yet crossed Abbott’s desk.
With four days remaining in the 89th Texas Legislature, a special session may be needed to continue discussion of some pertinent issues.
Given that Abbott held four special legislative sessions following the 88th Texas Legislature in 2023, it may not be unusual to see another special session this summer.