Schaefer: Special Session a Mixed Bag

TYLER — With the special legislative session now history, Tyler State Representative Matt Schaefer says, “We had some good, bad, and ugly.” Among the pluses, the District 6 Republican points to pro-life bills and health care funding for retired teachers. But Schaefer says, “We failed on spending limits, and we had a really ugly end on property tax reform when the House quit before we were supposed to.” As to where things go from here, Schaefer tells KTBB, “That’s up to the governor. There’s a lot of unfinished business for some conservative priorities, so it’s gonna be up to Governor Abbott to determine whether we can accomplish more.”

Regarding the privacy act, or “bathroom bill,” which he supports, Schaefer says it “passed out of the Senate, and Byron Cook of Corsicana made sure the bill could not even get a hearing in the House, which was really unprecedented. So that issue is not going away; it’s certainly still alive, and more to come on that.”