Gov. Abbott blesses Texas with a July 18 special session. Anti-union, Anti-abortion, and BR bills.

[TexasTowelie]

AUSTIN—Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revived a failed "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people Tuesday while also resurrecting anti-abortion proposals, anti-union efforts and more as an encore to a rancorous legislative session that ended with Republicans feuding and one GOP lawmaker threatening to pull a gun on a Democratic colleague.

A lengthy special session agenda set by Abbott—nearly 20 issues in all—now threatens to rekindle those hostilities at the Texas Capitol through summer and was announced just a week after lawmakers had returned home and began cooling off.

Legislators won't return to work until July 18, but already Democrats and some outside groups are fuming, particularly over a North Carolina-style "bathroom bill" that big business opponents including Amazon, IBM and the NFL called discriminatory and hoped had been extinguished for good. Before lawmakers adjourned last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a letter reiterating their opposition and called the proposal bad for business.

"At a minimum, we need a law that protects the privacy of our children in our public schools," Abbott said.

Read more: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texas/story/2017/jun/07/texas-gov-abbott-revives-bathroom-bill-special-session/677061/

[They_Live]

1. Is everyone going to have

their own private bathroom and shower now?

[LeftInTX]

2. Texas Tribune has the details:

Most of it is a bunch of stuff that will bankrupt local governments. I don't trust school finance reform. I think they will strip schools even further.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/06/abbott-special-session-announcement/

Here are the 20 items on the special session call, as described by Abbott's office:

"Sunset" legislation, which would keep several crucial state agencies alive
A teacher pay raise of $1,000
Giving school administrators flexibility in teacher hiring and retention
School finance reform
School choice for special needs students
Rollback elections for property tax increases
Caps on state and local spending
Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land
Preventing local governments from changing rules midway through construction projects
Speeding up local government permitting processes
Municipal annexation reform
Preventing local entities from passing their own texting-while-driving bans
Restrictions on school bathroom use for transgender students
Prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to collect union dues
Prohibiting the use of taxpayer funding to subsidize health providers that also perform abortion
Requiring women to get separate insurance policies to cover non-emergency abortions
Increasing existing reporting requirements when complications arise during abortions
Strengthening patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders
Cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud
Extending the state's maternal mortality task force

[ananda]

3. Mainly it's to take hegemony away from cities.

And Abbott and the Reeps particularly hate Austin.