Gutierrez Files a $17 Billion Bill to Send $1,500 to Qualified Texas Households
Senate Bill 297, filed Monday, would appropriate $17 billion from the rainy day fund for one-time $1,500 payments. It needs a two-thirds vote in each house and is not law.
Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, filed Senate Bill 297 on Monday, a $17 billion proposal to send a one-time $1,500 payment to each qualified Texas household from the state's economic stabilization fund, the rainy day fund.
The introduced text, posted on the Legislature's bill text page, calls the payments "emergency household economic relief" in response to a "statewide household affordability emergency." It is a filed bill, not a law, and it has not been referred to a committee. No Texan is owed a check because of this filing. The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday evening that the bill is meant to carry out a campaign pledge by Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa. FOX 7 Austin also reviewed the filing.
What the bill actually says
A "qualified household" would be a household with a usual place of residence in Texas on Jan. 1, 2027, represented by a person at least 18 years old on that date, or an emancipated minor, that meets verification rules the comptroller would write. A household means one or more people sharing a dwelling as their usual residence, related or not, including a person who lives alone. The payment would be $1,500 per household, not per person, would not increase with additional members, and could be made only once for a household.
Eligibility "may not be conditioned on the household's income, homeownership, property-tax liability, employment, receipt of public benefits, or whether its members filed a state or federal income tax return." The introduced bill does not list U.S. citizenship or immigration status as a condition. The payment "does not create an entitlement to recurring benefits," is not a loan, and could be required to be repaid only in cases of fraud or a duplicate payment.
The comptroller would have to decide eligibility and pay by electronic funds transfer, check, or another secure method the recipient chooses. The office could use "information lawfully available to the comptroller or another state agency," but could not deny a household solely because it is missing from an existing government database. People could apply by mail, in person, or electronically, and prove residence with a lease, a utility or school record, government correspondence, a sworn declaration, "or other reasonably reliable evidence." Rules would have to address people experiencing homelessness, residents of group quarters, and households without a conventional street address.
The bill directs "reasonable efforts" to issue payments to verified households by Dec. 31, 2027, and would accept applications through Dec. 31, 2028, subject to the appropriation. Emergency rules and an application method would be due within 30 days after the effective date. Rules could not impose an income limit or reduce the $1,500 amount.
The rainy day fund and the two-thirds votes
Section 2 would appropriate $17 billion from the economic stabilization fund to the comptroller for the fiscal biennium ending Aug. 31, 2029. Up to 1 percent of that money, or $170 million, could be used for administration. The bill says the appropriation is made pursuant to Section 49-g(m), Article III, of the Texas Constitution, "and is contingent on approval by a vote of two-thirds of the members present in each house of the legislature."
It also declares the affordability emergency a "public calamity" for purposes of Section 51, Article III, the provision the bill cites as the basis for temporary aid to individuals. Whether a court would accept a general cost-of-living problem as a constitutional "public calamity" is not decided by a bill filing. Dock Line is not offering a legal ruling.
If the bill does not receive a two-thirds vote of all members elected to each house, it would not take immediate effect and would instead take effect Sept. 1, 2027, Section 5 says. That is a different two-thirds rule from the rainy-day appropriation. Republicans will still hold 19 of the Senate's 31 seats. The Tribune said Democrats would need to "peel off nine Republicans" in the Senate, a figure that assumes a full chamber. The bill requires two-thirds of those present, not a fixed number of names.
The Tribune described the rainy day fund as sitting "north of $27 billion." FOX 7 said it "currently holds around $27 billion." Dock Line has not confirmed a current official balance.
A shortfall the bill already contemplates
The Tribune, counting about 11.6 million Texas households, wrote that $17 billion would leave a shortfall of at least $400 million once administrative costs are included. That arithmetic is the newspaper's. The bill itself tells the comptroller to report any estimated shortfall to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker and Legislative Budget Board, and it does not authorize spending more than the appropriation.
John Diamond of Rice University's Baker Institute told the Tribune that $17 billion is "not a massive amount" relative to the state's economy, "but it's still enough to create some pricing pressures." Hinojosa, in an August interview, disputed that and said economists who vetted the idea believe a state-level payment would not have the same effects as federal stimulus checks, the Tribune reported. Dock Line has not reviewed those economists' work.
Bill filing opened Monday. We covered the first day's stack in Day One of Texas Bill Filing: Medicaid and Voucher Repeal on One Side, English and Kids' Social Media on the Other.
A filing is not a refund
Housing, electricity, food and insurance are not imaginary burdens. A uniform $1,500 with no income test would go to a paid-off household and a household behind on rent alike, if both qualified. That is what the bill says.
The rainy day fund is the state's savings. Spending $17 billion of it by declaring a "public calamity" is a choice lawmakers will have to defend as stewardship, or as a way around limits on handing public money to individuals.
1 Corinthians 4:2 says, "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." A campaign promise is not a check. The test is whether lawmakers will tell the truth about the cost, the legal theory and who would be paid — and then vote in the daylight.
