House Backs Patrick Movie Bill that Could
Be $200 Million Less than Senate Approved
Capitol Inside
May 25, 2025
The Texas House gave its tentative blessings on Sunday night to a film incentives measure that could have a price tag that's substantially lower than a $500 million figure tag that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick used to sell the bill in the face of searing criticism from conservatives.
Senate Bill 22 scored an initial nod on a 105-34 vote that the House cast after GOP State Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi told colleagues that the ultimate cost of the legislation could be closer to $300 million - a 40 percent slash in the total that Patrick promoted and the Legislative Budget Board cited in the fiscal note.
After accepting a friendly amendment from a Democratic ally on the bill, Hunter said that the amount the state would spent on efforts aimed at luring movie and television producers back to Texas was still up in the air in a conference committee working a state budget for the next two years.
But the fate of the movie industry revival plan in SB 22 was never in doubt as a proposal that Patrick conceived and pushed with the help of movie stars from Texas including Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid and Rene Zellweger.
Unlike the lion's share of Patrick priorities that the House advanced in recent days on party line votes without resistance from Republicans, SB 22 had all but one of the chamber's Democrats on board and Republicans divided with nearly three dozen GOP members in the dissent. State Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos was the minority party's only member who cast a vote against the bill.
Rookie Republican State Rep. David Lowe of Fort Worth delivered a fiery condemnation of SB 22 - portraying the film incentives as a slap in the face of limited government and fiscal responsibility. Lowe said SB 22 would reward the same industry that viewed Harvey Weinstein as a hero, trashed President Donald Trump, shunned the unborn and ripped Republicans for opposing gender transition.
"Lets's stop the Hollywood handouts," Lowe said.
Having bowed to the Senate president's demands on a THC prohibition that would strangle an booming industry that he helped create in 2019, the House voted 88-47 for another high-level Patrick priority with an initial OK for Senate Bill 12 that would ban educators at public schools from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion - the dreaded GOP nemesis that's known as DEI.
The House granted tentative approval of 110-29 for a lower-rated Patrick priority that would abolish the Texas Lottery Commission and shift the administration of the agency to the state Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The House has votes set for Monday and Tuesday on the final unresolved pieces of the Patrick agenda with a proposal to give parents more control over books in school libraries and a bill that would ban drag time story hour at municipal libraries in the latest shot at transgender Texans.
more to come ...
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