Last Week in the Legislature

Off and Running...

By Kenneth Besserman
Director of Government Affairs and Special Counsel

February 21, 2025 | Issue 6

AUSTIN -  The sixth week of the 89th Legislative Session saw some noteworthy movement on the Senate side of the Capitol rotunda. Senate committees have been meeting for a few weeks to hear from state agencies on the proposed state budget and to hear bills on some of the Governor’s priorities and emergency items (school choice, property tax relief and bail reform). But, this week, the Senate Business & Commerce Committee began the long process of the legislature hearing bills and moving bills to floor debate.

One of TXCPA’s priority bills this session – SB 262– creating an additional pathway to licensure – was heard in Senate Business & Commerce Committee on Tuesday, February 18. SB 262 will add an additional pathway to licensure which will require the completion of a bachelor’s degree (with the required accounting concentration), two years of work experience and passage of the Uniform CPA Exam.

TXCPA Chair Mohan Kuruvilla testified in support of SB 262, highlighting the need to provide an alternative pathway to licensure, the need for more individuals to enter the profession and become licensed, and spoke about TXCPA’s work on the CPA pipeline and the leadership that TXCPA has had on addressing licensure and mobility issues in Texas and nationally. You can watch Chair Kuruvilla’s testimony here.

SB 262 was received favorably in the committee and we expect the bill to pass the committee in the coming days or next week and then make its way to the Senate floor in the next week or so. Thanks to our advocates, key persons and all our members for carrying the message of the importance of this legislation to the Senate. Your work laid the proper groundwork to get this bill moving very quickly in the session and will make it much more likely that SB 262 will get to the Governor’s desk. We still have work to do to pass it on the Senate floor then get it moving in the House, but it is looking more favorable every day. We will begin to make progress on SB 522 – individual mobility and practice privileges – in the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned for updates on how you can help advocate for SB 522.

Other big news in the Capitol centers around property tax relief. The Senate passed another significant property tax relief bill and constitutional amendment, which will increase the homestead exemption to $140,000, up from the current exemption of $100,000. The legislation now moves to the House and if passed in the House, will go to the voters in the fall as a constitutional amendment.

Now that committees and committee chairs have been named in the House, the House will begin to start referring bills to committees, followed by the start of House committee hearings. While it might seem late to start the bill hearing process in the House, it is not late. House hearings traditionally start in late February and early March. It is important that TXCPA’s legislation has started to move in the Senate in order to get ahead of the eventual slowdown and speed bumps in the legislative process. The legislative process in Texas has been designed to make it very difficult to pass legislation – from the very short legislative session to significant deadlines to important issues that present themselves that take up members’ attention. Having our issues begin to move early in the legislative process is paramount in advancing our legislative agenda.