Border Security continues to be a priority issue for most Texans. That’s why Dr. Stucky worked on the budget-writing committee to provide a historic $5.1 billion for border security efforts.

This funding supports the continued border wall construction, more barriers, marine barriers, and boots on the ground. It also funds the largest law enforcement effort in the country to capture and detail criminals caught illegally crossing the border.

To help these jail facilities, Dr. Stucky wrote a bill to restore recruiting tools for county sheriffs. Texas continues to see a shortage in our county jails and HB 2183 ensured that sheriffs can keep and recruit more jailers.

In previous sessions, he devoted $27.8 million for human and child sex trafficking investigative squads, anti-gang squads, and regional human trafficking investigative squads at the Department of Public Safety. $5.5 million more is set aside for anti-human trafficking enforcement at the T.A.B.C., and $3.4 million for the expansion of the Human Trafficking Prevention section at the Office of the Attorney General.

During the summer 2023 special session, Dr. Lynn Stucky successfully helped pass an $18 billion property tax relief package that includes the following provisions:

• Increases the homestead exemption from $40K to $100K

• Increases the compression rate for local school taxes to 10.7 cents

• Creates a new program to bring property tax relief to small businesses and rental properties

• Reduces or completely eliminates franchise taxes for small businesses

• Adds 3 new elected positions on appraisal boards in counties with a population of 75,000 or higher.

In addition to the most recent victories, Dr. Lynn Stucky has a record of delivering property tax relief, transparency, and reform policies for Texas. Here’s a few of the big-ticket bills he’s helped pass since become a State Representative:

HB 2 (No-new-revenue - rollback tax rate-2019) which gave us the revenue caps for local governments.

HB 3 (2019) began the school tax compression initiative.

HB 492 (2019) was disaster relief legislation that offered property owners who experienced property damage or loss, an exemption for the tax period of their property appraisal up to 100% of the value in the event the Governor declared an area a disaster resulting from a Hurricane, Tornado, Flood or Fire.

HB 998 (2021) began the process of offering taxpayers relief through a grievance process at the county appraisal district.

HB 1285 (2023) expanded that grievance process with increased duties and responsibilities of the taxpayer liaison officer.

In the wake of the 2020 election, Dr. Stucky worked with fellow lawmakers to make changes that ensure it is “Easy to vote and hard to cheat” in Texas elections. The results were several key changes to the authority of local elections administrators. Key reforms include:

• Creating Consistency & Uniformity across all 254 counties

• Ensure voting by mail is simple & secure, while also strengthening ballot integrity

• Ban “vote harvesting”

• Eliminate the ability of public officials to distribute unsolicited ballots or applications to vote by mail

• Restored the felony penalty for illegal voting

• Criminalized the intentional miscounting of votes and bans the unlawful alteration of local election procedures

• Preserved the role of poll watchers in Texas elections by codifying the right to observe the process and report irregularities or fraud.

In the aftermath of the tragic kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand, Dr. Stucky took the lead on writing bills to prevent future tragedies like this. The end result was HB 3556, which creates regional Amber Alerts that focus on the area where the child was last seen.

In the 2023 session, Dr. Stucky fought to Denton County to expand its pool of talented and educated workers. The end result was a bill that authorizes the construction of a new Texas State Technical College campus in Denton County.

This investment in our local economy will provide North Texas with a pipeline of skilled trade workers, such as electricians, HVAC specialists, plumbers, airline pilots, welders, and more.

As a former school board president, Dr. Stucky knows first-hand that the worst form of education imaginable is a top-down approach, so he went to Austin to ensure our schools were adequately funded and then to fight for decisions about those funds to be made at the local level.

In 2019, House Bill 3 devoted $4.5 billion to education reforms, $2 billion for dynamic teacher pay raises, and will reduce "Robin Hood" recapture by $3.6 billion.

Furthermore, Dr. Stucky co-authored House Bill 21 in the 85th legislature's special session which created a Texas Commission on Public School Finance. This is the first step towards finally ending the Robin Hood school finance system entirely and changing the way public schools are funded. Property owners have shouldered far too much of the cost for far too long, and it's time to create a more equitable system.

In 2017, high-quality pre-kindergarten received $236 million in funding during Dr. Stucky's first session in the legislature. And school safety legislation was passed that will add security personnel, make building security upgrades, and implement new technologies to better protect Texas school children.

Additionally, the legislature has helped shore up the health care system for retired teachers. During the 85th regular session of the legislature, $350 million was earmarked in the budget to increase the contribution rate and address the shortfall in TRS-Care. In the 2017 special session, another $212 million was added to further buy down premiums, and in 2019, $589 million more was allocated to provide retired teachers with a "13th check".

Dr. Stucky was a co-author of this legislation and believes it is critical that we live up to the promises we have made to our retired teachers.

In the 2023 session, Dr. Stucky successfully helped authorize a new endowment to support the University of North Texas and three other major state universities. The Texas University Fund (TUF) will also allow Texas Women’s University to be eligible for the fund in the future.

As a member of the House budget-writing committee, he helped secure funding for programs that will enhance student success at TWU and continue to grow the nation’s first university system for women.

Previous Victories

As Vice-Chair of the Higher Education Committee in 2019, Dr. Stucky helped move bills through the legislature which will lower the cost of textbooks, create a more seamless process for transferring credits between schools, and empower and support victims of sexual assault on campuses across the state.

Denton County will see further higher education investment with $10 million allocated for the Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing (CAAAM) at the University of North Texas, and $10 million more for the Center for Women’s Leadership on Business, Politics, and Public Policy at Texas Woman’s University.

Additionally, both UNT and TWU have been fully-funded for the first time in either school's history.

Governor Abbott made it known in January of 2017 that improving Child Protective Services and Texas’ foster care program was one of his top priorities, and Dr. Stucky agreed. The program is designed to protect our most at-risk Texans, and it had been underperforming for years because of an inefficient state bureaucracy.

In an effort to overhaul the entire system, the legislature passed House Bill 4, House Bill 5 and Senate Bill 11 (Dr. Stucky co-authored the two House bills) which provided additional support for “kinship care”, where families take in abused children, establishes the Department of Family and Protective Services as its own agency rather than being under the umbrella of the Health and Human Services Commission, and expanded community-based foster care.

The 2017-2019 budget also added $508 million for child protection. This included funds to hire almost 600 new CPS caseworkers, to enhance foster care provider rates, and to provide additional support for kinship care.

Dr. Stucky also helped pass SB 1264 to protect consumers from surprise medical billing, also known as “balance billing.” This occurs when consumers are led to believe their medical treatment is covered by insurance when it isn't and are left to pay the balance. This bill creates a new system that removes consumers from balance billing disputes, leaving the settlement over reimbursement between the insurer and provider.

2017, 2019, and 2021 were the most pro-life legislative sessions in the history of the Texas Legislature, and Dr. Stucky was on the front lines for these important debates.

In 2021, Dr. Stucky co-authored SB8, the landmark legislation known as the "heartbeat bill" which bans all abortion in Texas once a heartbeat can be detected.

Prior to 2021, Dr. Stucky co-sponsored legislation in 2017 which banned partial-birth abortions in Texas with the single exception of saving the life of the mother. It also banned "dismemberment" abortions, one of the most horrific assaults on innocent life.

Furthermore, in the 2017-2019 budget, $18.3 million was allocated to the state’s Alternatives to Abortion program, and Health and Human Services was authorized to spend up to $20 million for more providers and resources for this program. This is a fantastic program that offers a network of crisis pregnancy centers, adoption centers, and maternity homes across Texas to provide support for women in need.

In 2019, Dr. Stucky co-authored House Bill 16, the Infant Born Alive Protection Act, which protects babies who survive abortions by requiring doctors to provide the highest standard of medical care possible in an attempt to save the life of the baby. He also co-sponsored Senate Bill 22 which ensures taxpayer dollars are never used to subsidize abortions.

On the Appropriations Committee, Dr. Stucky ensured that the state-funded $8 million for a much-needed new driver’s license office in the City of Denton, as well as millions more statewide to reduce wait times and improve customer service. The new office in Denton has 12 service counters and expanded parking.

In his first session as a representative for Wise County, Dr. Stucky delivered a handful of bills to the governor’s desk to promote tourism and the rich cultural history of local communities.

• Re-designated Bridgeport as the Stagecoach Capital of Texas

• Designated Hwy 380 from Decatur to Jacksboro as the “Lost Battalion Memorial Highway” honoring heroes from the area who served in World War II.

• Authorized Wise County to create a HOT Fund to promote tourism, expand the Wise County Fairgrounds, preserve the historic county courthouse, and more.

In addition to celerbating Wise County, Dr. Stucky also passed legislation that would ensure access and federal funding for the Wise County hospital. These were priority bills for the local hospital authority to ensure continuity of service across the region.

Dr. Stucky has been a leading supporter of 2nd Amendment protections. Most notably, he helped pass Constitutional Carry into law in 2021. He also supported bills that prevent local governments from closing firearms businesses in an declared emergency. To cap it off, he also was one of the lawmakers who designed Texas as a 2nd Amendment sanctuary state.