On June 22, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will convene a special session of the Legislature on July 8.

Agenda items for the special session have not been released yet but will be available prior to its start. Among the list of topics, Gov. Abbott promised to address is election integrity.

Last week, Abbott vetoed a portion of the state budget that funds the Texas Legislature. The move came weeks after House Democrats walked off the state House floor, leaving majority Republicans without the quorum they needed to approve the bill, SB 7, before a midnight regular legislative session deadline.

Republicans in Texas have sought to join states such as Florida and Georgia that have adopted restrictions making it harder for some residents to vote.

It is not clear whether Republicans will enter the special session set on approving SB 7 as it’s currently drafted or will seek to make further changes.

The measure would have made mail-in voting more difficult by requiring voters to supply more information, prohibiting local elections officials from sending out absentee ballot applications to anyone who has not requested one or from working with get-out-the-vote groups that are encouraging Texans to vote by mail.

The Texas Legislature adjourned sine die May 31 after 140 days in session.

Talk of a special session and questions about how soon one may happen or what additional issues Gov. Greg Abbott could task legislators with has largely defined the last weekend of the legislative session.

In the final days of the session, House Democrats staged a walkout and broke quorum, making it impossible to give final approval to Senate Bill 7, a massive voting bill that would tighten the state’s election laws, before the midnight deadline.

Gov. Abbott quickly made clear that the bill, along with another other priority legislation that would have made it harder for people arrested to bond out of jail without cash, still must pass and that the two issues will be added to the special session agenda.

Before lawmakers adjourned, Gov. Abbott made clear he intends to reprimand the Legislature over its unfinished business by vetoing the section of the state budget that funds the legislative branch.

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an emergency special election on September 29 for Texas State Senate District 30.

The emergency order will elect a state senator to serve out the unexpired term of Pat Fallon, who announced his plans to resign from the seat effective January 4, 2021.

Additionally, Fallon announced his plans to run for election to the U.S. House to represent the 4^th Congressional District of Texas.

This move allowed Gov. Abbott to call the special election ahead of the vacancy.

The Texas Legislature ended its special legislative session abruptly Tuesday night without a resolution on Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority of property tax reform.

The House adjourned earlier in the day leaving the Senate to accept their version of the property tax reform bill or not pass one. The Senate did not accept the House version and the session ended without fanfare.

Some Senators are calling for Gov. Abbott to call a second special session solely for the issue.

About half of the session’s 20-item agenda was accomplished, including the passage of several sunset bills.

The Texas Legislature convened a special legislative session July 18, 2017. Property tax was a topic Gov. Greg Abbott immediately put on the agenda for the session.

House Bill 4 and Senate Bill 1 both, among other things, require a special election be called if any municipality plans to increase property taxes on land and buildings by more than 4 or 5 percent. Senate Bill 1 was passed by the Senate this week.

City and county leaders have stated such automatic election requirements would limit their budget for basic services and force them to hold costly elections.

The special session can run for up to 30 days.

Texas adjourned the 85th legislative session sine die Monday May 29, 2017.

Just hours before the House adjourned, Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would be making a decision later this week about whether to call the Legislature back into a special legislative session this summer, largely because lawmakers failed to pass a bill to keep the Texas Medical Board and related agencies open.

A special session could be avoided if the governor uses an executive order to extend the life of agencies involved in health and safety issues.

The Texas Legislature is not scheduled to convene until the 2019 regular session.

However, the Legislature was immediately called into special session by Governor Rick Perry due to the failed effort to finalize the state budget.

The special session is set to begin Tuesday, May 31, and cannot last longer than 30 days.

Other items are expected to be added to the special session’s agenda.

Photo of the Texas State Capitol by Kumar Appaiah on Wikipedia.