‘Twas the night before Sine Die, when all through the capitol
Neither chamber was budging, not even a little.
The judges and prosecutors watched their live feeds with care
In hopes that a pay raise soon would be there ….
Judicial branch pay (SB 293)
As most of you know, last Friday SB 293 was one. vote. away. from going to the Governor’s desk to become law. And then … it wasn’t.
At face value, the impasse between the House and Senate is about whether their retirements should or should not be linked to the judicial pay increase. On the other hand, decisions in the waning days of a grueling session often come down to interconnected “inside baseball” political calculations that make little sense outside the pink dome. However, just because those factors aren’t important (or are incomprehensible) to voters outside the capitol doesn’t mean those considerations are not very, very important to legislators working under that dome. And so, here we are. Two competing sides, dug in and pointing fingers over arcane parliamentary rules that are also a proxy for larger disagreements. As we often remind people, just because there is a good reason for something to happen at the Lege doesn’t mean that is the real reason it happens.
The two chambers only have about 40 bills still in play on this last day of legislative action. Tomorrow’s sine die proceedings are entirely ceremonial under the rules of both chambers, so if something doesn’t get worked out by tonight, the game is likely over. And with the lack of business left to be resolved, either chamber could adjourn this afternoon without resolving the SB 293 issue. Therefore, your action item (if you choose to engage on this topic) is to encourage legislators in both chambers to do whatever it takes to get the judicial pay raise across the line, in whatever form they can work out. Explain to them what you see as the real world consequences to the justice system of not passing a judicial pay raise.
Both chambers are re-convening soon, time is of the essence and there is no tomorrow for this issue.
Our next update will occur as events warrant.
Update (6/1/25 – 7:30pm, 8:20pm)
The Senate and then the House both appointed members to an out-of-time conference committee to hammer out a late compromise. The House adjourned this evening without a conference committee report (CCR) being published, but we believe one is in the works. The Senate continues to work on the floor has also adjourned. Both will return to work Monday morning.
We very intentionally said above that “if something doesn’t get worked out by tonight, the game is likely over” and that “likely” is going to do a lot of work right now. The rule against doing any substantive work on Day 140 (Monday) can be suspended upon a 2/3rds vote, so that may be the plan for getting this done tomorrow (if at all).
Keep checking back for more updates as they happen.
Judicial pay raise passes (update!)
The Senate and the House, after suspending the rules, both voted out the Senate Bill 293 conference committee report (CCR), which authorizes the judicial pay raise along with judicial accountability measures. It was a last-minute conference committee meeting and the vote happened in the very last few minutes of the 89th Texas Legislative Session.
At this time, the official language is not published but we will update soon. The basic premise is that the base judicial pay is $175,000, the legislators’ pensions are no longer linked to judicial pay, and the Texas Ethics Commission will decide legislator pension increases beginning in 2030. Thank you for sticking with us to the very last moments of the Texas Legislative Session. It has been one for the ages.