My five cents...

My five cents…
stuIs e
A weekly column from Sen. Robert Nichols
by Sen. Robert Nichols, Senate District 3
For immediate release Contact: Shelby Vestal
January 16, 2025 Tel: 512-463-0103
word count: 760
This week session began! It will be an exciting and fast-paced 140 days. We will do our best to
keep East Texans informed about the goings on in Austin.
Here are five things happening around your state:
1. 89th Legislative Session begins
On January 14, 2025, the 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature began at noon. On the
Senate side, members who successfully won in the general election were sworn in. There are
three brand new members of the Senate: Senators Molly Cook, Adam Hinojosa, and Brent
Hagenbuch. I look forward to getting to know my new colleagues and working with them on
their priorities this session. In the House, all 150 members were sworn in on Tuesday, including
31 freshman members. Then, House members had to vote for the Speaker of the House.
Representative Dustin Burrows won the Speaker election on the second ballot. Congratulations
to Speaker Burrows, I look forwarding to working with him and all of our partners in the House
this session.
Here are some important dates to know as we move through the session:
• Friday, March 14, 2025 – 60th day; deadline for the unrestricted filing of bills and joint
resolutions, other than local bills, emergency appropriations, and emergency matters
submitted by the governor.
• Monday, June 2, 2025 – 140th day; last day of the 89th Regular Session, also known as
Sine Die (Latin for “without days”).
2. Comptroller releases Biennial Revenue Estimate
Comptroller Glenn Hegar released the Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE) which he does before
every regular legislative session. It projects the revenue that lawmakers have available to spend
through the upcoming biennium. Because the Legislature meets every other year, lawmakers
create budgets on a two year, or biennial, basis. The 89th Legislature will have a surplus from the
2024-2025 biennium of $23.76 billion. For the upcoming 2026-2027 biennium, the Comptroller
estimates the Legislature will have $194.6 billion in total revenue available for general purpose

spending. However, several years ago a constitutional amendment passed to limit the state’s
spending to ensure fiscal responsibility. The Legislative Budget Board determines the
constitutional tax spending limits before each session. That formula is a combination of the rate
of growth of the Texas economy, the growth in population, and the level of appropriations from
the previous biennium. This year, the LBB announced the amount of appropriation that can be
made without a special concurrent resolution is just under $147 billion.
3. New laws in effect on January 1
Though most bills passed in the 88th Legislative Session went into effect in September 2023, a
few had effective dates on January 1, 2025. Here are a few that went into effect this month:
- House Bill 3297 – Authored by Representative Cody Harris, this bill eliminates the
requirement for annual vehicle inspections for personal vehicles. However, some counties
have adopted vehicle emissions standards and will require vehicles registered in those
counties to undergo an emissions inspection.
- House Bill 4 – This bill enhancing Texas consumer data protections and allow online
users to have control over opting out of certain advertisements, business profiling, and
digital sales.
- Senate Bill 2 – A section of this bill goes into effect this month. The section makes
property tax compression and homestead exemption benefits permanent for elderly and
disabled homeowners.
4. Changes to Social Security may allow expanded pool to receive benefits
This month, President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law. The bill eliminates
the reduction of Social Security benefits for certain populations, including some Teacher
Retirement System (TRS) retirees. Two provisions were repealed: the Windfall Elimination
Provision (WEP) reduced benefits for individuals who also received a pension or disability
benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes (like many Texas school
districts) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) which reduced benefits for spouses,
widows, and widowers who also received government pensions of their own. This will benefit
TRS retirees who were subject to these reductions. Monthly benefits will increase on average by
$360 per month and impact 2.8 million recipients nationwide.
5. New leadership at Texas Department of Public Safety
Toward the end of the last year, a new director of the Texas Department of Public Safety was
sworn in by Gov. Abbott. Director Freeman Martin began at DPS as a highway patrolman in
1990 and has held various law enforcement positions since then, including becoming a Texas
Ranger and serving as a deputy director of DPS since 2018. He takes over for Director Steve
McCraw, who led the agency for 15 years and announced his retirement in August.