Abbott kills more than 70 bills sent to his desk by Texas lawmakers

AUSTIN, Texas - Gov. Greg Abbott made good on his threat to veto dozens of bills passed by the Texas Legislature in an effort to force a compromise on property tax relief. 

So far, the move has not delivered a deal in the ongoing special session, and appears to have only escalated the feud between Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

"The governor is using all the bullets in his gun and he may have run out of leverage this weekend," said Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report.

In just the past week, Abbott has killed more than 70 bills sent to his desk by Texas lawmakers. Nearly 30 vetoes came on Sunday alone, the deadline for the governor to sign or veto bills from the regular session. 

However, Abbott did sign the $321.3 billion state budget for the next two years.

"Those bills are becoming collateral damage," said Braddock. "His strategy is one of using his veto pen like a stick to try to whack legislators to do other things that he would like them to do."

Abbott has made no bones about what that thing is, writing this in several veto proclamations: "At this time, the legislature must concentrate on delivering property tax cuts to Texans."

"I’ll call special session after special session after special session until a solution is reached," Abbott said at a press conference on June 13.

The governor also wants a deal on his other priority, school choice vouchers.

"The same people whose work he just killed, he’s now going to want them to come back into session and deal with his big issues. He didn't make a lot of friends in vetoing so many bills," said Dr. Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward’s University.

Patrick has slammed Abbott’s strategy of vetoing bills to gain political leverage.

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"It’s not a very good image to veto bills for no reason other than he didn’t get the property tax bill he wants," Patrick said at a press conference on June 15.

What Abbott wants is $17.6 billion for an across-the-board property tax cap known as "compression", a plan which the Texas House of Representatives approved. But Patrick says he’s not budging from the Texas Senate plan to spend just 70% on compression, and 30% on upping the homestead exemption.

"The compromise will have to be something where everybody can say ‘we all won’ and there isn't a clear loser. And that's going to be very difficult simply because of the distance between all the factions," said Smith.

As for whether Abbott’s veto frenzy will increase that distance or force a deal, remains to be seen. The only Texas governor to issue more vetoes in a single session was Rick Perry in 2001.

"I’ve been talking to veterans of the legislative process over the last 72 hours or so and said, ‘have you ever seen this before?’ Where the governor in the proclamation for the veto says that this bill can only be considered after different bill passes? And of course, all of them laughed and said, ‘no, this has never been done before’. So as far as a strategy, it's untested," said Braddock.

In theory, the governor could call another special session to "re-pass" the bills he vetoed, but that may be easier said than done.

"Passing legislation is not an easy process. And what the governor's done is he's ruined, in essence, a lot of people's hard work all spring," said Smith.

Patrick said last week that there were back channel conversations happening between the House and Senate on the issue of property taxes, but it’s unclear whether those are still happening.