Tuesday marked the first day state legislators can file bills for the upcoming legislative session and Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, is racing out of the gate with his first package of proposed legislation.
Retired teachers should take note because in a news release, Canales said he wants to enact a cost of living adjustment to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
“We cannot hope to recruit and keep our best teachers unless we ensure a suitable retirement,” Canales said in his statement. “Investing in these school employees is investing in our children.”
Canales said retired Texas teachers have not received a cost of living adjustment since 2004, which he said means they have lost a 38% value in their benefits to inflation over the last 18 years.
“In 2019 and 2021, the Texas Legislature provided a 13th monthly check to retirees, but these payments were not nearly enough to make up for the loss of benefits over the past two decades,” Canales said. “We must ask ourselves, if we don’t support our retired teachers, what does that say about our support for students and the overall Texas education system?”
Canales also filed a resolution that would constitutionally set a minimum amount that the state must contribute to the Texas Retirement System of Texas and the Employees Retirement System of Texas.
“In the past, the legislature has often balanced the state’s budget by slashing investments in our retired state employees,” the news release said.
Canales also filed four other bills, including one that would direct the Texas Department of Public Safety to create a digital Texas Driver License. A similar bill during the last Legislative session never came to fruition.
He also filed a bill to bring a law school to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Last year, a proposal to create a law school at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley never made it out of committee.
During this session, Canales is proposing creating a distance learning law school at UTRGV. A copy of the proposal said that any student admitted to the University of Texas School of Law could participate in their first year of classes remotely from UTRGV.
The proposed legislation, if passed, would require that at least five students here be allowed to participate in the program during each academic year.
Canales also filed a bill that would bring the penalty for marijuana concentrates in line with those for marijuana, and another that would create a sales tax exemption for college textbooks. Efforts at creating these laws were not successful during the last legislative session.
Texas’ 88th Legislative session begins Jan. 10 and will last 140 days with thousands of bills being filed throughout the session.
