The Texas Legislature is close to concluding its 88th regular session with the prospect of a special session looming. UT Tyler Political Science professor Mark Owens, Ph.D., has the latest poll results by the UT Tyler Center for Opinion Research, including how the legislature’s current work aligns with the public’s priorities.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. A new UT Tyler poll of more than 1,400 registered Texas voters is now complete, and the co-author of that poll is here to discuss the findings. We welcome UT Tyler Political Science professor, Dr. Mark Owens.
Mark Owens: Thanks, Mike.
Mike Landess: These poll results are coming out just as the Texas Legislature is about to formally wrap up the 88th session and could very well be poised for a special session. What are the headlines coming from the latest poll?
Mark Owens: Our biggest idea is what policies folks are interested about now compared to earlier this spring. So, in February there was more interest in inflation, right, and securing the border. Now, we see that the public is about 4% less are actually showing that inflation is their number one issue. That’s being replaced by a 3% increase in securing the border. A third of Texans think that securing the border is the most important thing to do before this summer. And there’s been a 5% increase in attention toward gun control. That would be an issue that needs, that the public wants to see support or movement on here in the last remaining days.
Mike Landess: The Uvalde contingent, which was looking for an age limit on the purchase of automatic weapons, moving it to 21- didn’t get as far as they hoped that it would. It’s essentially dead in the water. But, by the same token, two other elements did move forward. Checking the mental health of someone who is purchasing a weapon and a proposal that would keep someone from buying a weapon for someone who isn’t supposed to have one. Those are still in play at this moment.
Mark Owens: Yeah, this attention is really important because, essentially since last summer, we have continued to see 69% of the people polled say that they’re very concerned about gun violence in their community. So it’s not necessarily what will be done. They just wanna see that an action will take place. And most of the attention has gone toward the minimum age of 17 to 21, trying to increase that. The public supports that 70%. If that’s not on the table, I think the legislators need to come home and tell somebody what was done to alleviate the stress that people have about their violence.
Mike Landess: Let’s talk a little bit about gambling. How did that move forward? Is there still support among the people who were polled concerning gambling and expanding it here in Texas?
Mark Owens: There is. This continues to be just as popular as it was in the beginning of the year. Essentially, about 50% of people have heard a little bit about casino gambling in Texas, but overall there is close to almost 66% of individuals who support allowing some kind of sports betting. So you think in particular Mark Cuban’s wondering what can we do with the Dallas Mavericks games to make it where you could do this in the state? And it receives some attention, but there’s a full 70%, a little bit more, which is focused on allowing legal gambling in a casino. And this has been where the legislature has seen the strongest amount of lobbying with the destination. So a group which Rick Perry can be behind in talking about this sees that the public might be willing to support something where we dabble into the casinos or gambling somewhere in Texas, but not everywhere.
Mike Landess: We mentioned off the top the idea that there very well could be a special session. The arm wrestling continues between the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House concerning how they will do the property tax relief. Are they making any progress at all on that one, or are they just gonna have to go to the special session?
Mark Owens: I think in this case they will go to the special session. The school choice bill did not move through the House, and so that gives you a clear indication that’s gonna be tied a little bit into school funding and finance just as much as the state senator from East Texas, Robert Nichols, has talked about the importance of seeing school finance make it whole, right?
That they aren’t falling behind as school choice gets brought forward. So, I think that’s where two of these could move in tandem. If I’m gonna give total guessing here, I think that the idea of gambling gets somewhat of a second wind on this because throughout the south, things like lotteries or other ways to gain revenue have been often tied toward school financing.
Mike Landess: And so maybe that’s the carrot at the end of the stick.
Mark Owens: It could be this is the biggest hail Mary they could do, but I think collectively the idea of school choice, as we’re seeing some arguments happen here, it’s 6% less popular with the public in May than it was at the end of February.
Mike Landess: Let’s work our way back to the border again. How’s the governor being seen by the people that you poll concerning his stand and his efforts to protect the border, his stated efforts, to protect the border of Texas?
Mark Owens: One thing that’s interesting — we talked to students in political science — the fact is you got an issue that’s really important, and we know this is one of the most salient issues in Texas. The other is about who owns it, and I think by now, for the last couple years, Governor (Greg) Abbott is firmly in control about, if you’re thinking about handling immigration at the Texas-Mexico border, that’s how people see his policies. And 47% of people support what he’s doing. And a clear mirror of 47% of people disapprove of what he’s doing. And 48% like what he’s doing, and 48% don’t like his job.
I think that when we get down into what is he doing, there’s an important part here where those individuals are providing bus travel, which he’s threatened to do again, is 50%.
Mike Landess: Sending people to New York, as a for instance, or Washington or Chicago,
Mark Owens: And it’s easier to do that now in the summer than it was back in December. But the new call for states to send their National Guard or groups to help DPS officers at the border continues to see 60% or three-fifths of Texans support that.
Mike Landess: Yes. And DeSantis is offering to send 1,100 from Florida again.
Mark Owens: Yeah. And if that happens to be a cost to Texans, I think that’s something people are willing to do because that’s gonna help give people rest that they need and additional coverage.
Mike Landess: But we talked about the headlines. Let’s flip onto the second page here. On page two, what kinds of things are still showing up in your poll that are interesting?
Mark Owens: The thought here about handling the electric grid, actually, Republicans are back in favor of this. And this is interesting because we think that a lot of the conversation has been about battery storage or other questions that we’re not used to talking about. But most people now, in this case, 46%, think have some fair amount or great deal of confidence that the Texas energy grid right now will not face blackouts this summer.
Mike Landess: Yay.
Mark Owens: I hope so. Trust us. Happy for that.
Mike Landess: Before we let you go, a quick look at what’s left of the Texas Legislature, these, as we’re down to the last 10 days, and again, it seems pretty clear there’s going to be a special session in these last days.
Do any particular bills stand out to you in terms of where they are, and where they might be going? Those that might make it and those that might not?
Mark Owens: At this time, I think a lot of the bills that we’re gonna see move forward are those that have unanimous sort of support. You could get the work done within a week, and those that need work, the big issues are always used as a lever to make sure that a special session is called again. It doesn’t mean that they need overtime, right? They only started with 140 days to do their work. They always need these extra 30 days. And in years before, we’ve seen one special session, two special sessions, three special sessions. So the legislature is likely to be in Austin throughout most of the summer.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been UT Tyler Political Science professor, Dr. Mark Owens. For a link to the latest UT Tyler poll, or to hear this interview again or share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
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