Final days: Texas House, Senate locked up over school finance, property taxes Special session set to end in Austin on Wednesday

﻿Gov. Greg Abbott, front, and ﻿Speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio. ﻿ ﻿Gov. Greg Abbott, front, and ﻿Speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio. ﻿ Photo: Eric Gay, STF Photo: Eric Gay, STF Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Final days: Texas House, Senate locked up over school finance, property taxes 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN -- With just three days left before the lights go out on the current special legislative session, bills on school-finance and property-tax reform remain the final sticking points in a simmering fight that threatens to derail other issues.

Bottom line: The Senate is holding up passage of a key school-finance bill until the House passes its high-priority property tax overhaul, which the House is delaying until the school bill passes.

House leaders are concerned that the Senate might tack a bathroom-bill amendment onto the school bill, House Bill 21, a change they say will kill the measure in the House. Even though Senate Education Committee Chairman Larry Taylor has said he will oppose any such amendment, House members are wary.

Senate leaders want a a 4 percent-trigger for rollback elections in the property-tax bill, Senate Bill 1, and the House wants to stick with 6 percent.

The House delayed its vote on that bill from Sunday until Monday afternoon, and the Senate held off on voting out the school bill -- mostly because negotiations over how much funding should be approved to pay for the measure.

The House wanted $1.9 billion, the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday voted only $311 million -- setting off an intense back-and-forth behind closed doors over a final number. Leaders in both legislative chambers said they were optimistic the difference can be resolved by Wednesday.

At mid-morning on Monday, leaders in both chambers predicted here's how the final days of the session may play out: The school finance number will be agreed to, and the bill will then be approved by the Senate without the bathroom bill.

Feeling better about the Senate, the House will then vote on the property tax bill at the 6 percent rollback rate -- queuing up negotiations between the two legislative chambers on a final version.

The one-two-three progression between the two chambers that don't much trust each other would happen much like the state budget was passed in the last days of the regular session that ended in May, according to lawmakers involved in the talks in both chambers.

At the same time, other bills such as ones on maternal mortality and end-of-life decisions will then start being voted on, perhaps later Monday, that could result in up to at least four additional bills being approved during the special.

Abbott wanted bills on 20 priority issues approved. By Monday, five approved bills were on their way to his desk.