(CN) — In his State of the State address Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott gave lawmakers the green light to immediately get to work on his legislative priorities, including anti-abortion measures and laws to prevent defunding the police and to protect freedom of religion.
Abbott, a Republican, is in his sixth year leading the nation's second-most populous state. He was the state's attorney general from 2002 through 2014 before he was elected governor.
He also served as Texas Supreme Court justice for five years until he resigned in 2001 to run for higher office.
Thanks to the state's relative lack of regulations on businesses, Abbott said, numerous Fortune 500 companies, including Hewlett Packard, Charles Schwab and Oracle moved their headquarters to Texas in the past year.
"Get this: Texas has been ranked the No. 1 state for business for 16 straight years," Abbott said. "For the past eight years we led nation in economic development and we have led America in exports for 18 straight years."
If Texas were its own country, Abbott continued, it would have the ninth-largest economy in the world.
To help business owners and students who struggle with reliable internet access in the state's rural areas, Abbott said he is making expansion of broadband access an emergency item during this session of the Texas Legislature.
This emergency designation allows lawmakers to pass bills dealing with these wishlist items of the governor ahead of a constitutional rule that bars the Legislature from passing bills within the first 60 days of the session, which started Jan. 12. The Texas Legislature meets for its regular sessions once every two years for 140 days.
In another salve for businesses struggling through the pandemic, Abbott said he wants a measure to protect them from Covid-19 related lawsuits. "I'm asking for legislation to quickly get a bill to my desk that provides civil liability protections for individuals, businesses and health care providers that operated safely during the pandemic," he said.
Abbott typically gives this yearly speech in the afternoon at the Capitol in Austin. But this year he spoke from the offices of Visionary Fiber Technologies, a biodiesel producer in Lockhart, Texas.
A practicing Roman Catholic, Abbott also doled out red meat to his Christian conservative base.
He said he wants a law that prevents government entities from shutting down religious activities in Texas.
"Some government officials across the country shut churches down during the pandemic," he said. "Even in Texas some local officials tried closing churches. That is wrong. We must ensure freedom of worship is forever safeguarded."
Abbott has long supported anti-abortion laws and this year is no different. Without citing his source, the governor said estimates show more than 40 million fetuses were aborted last year.
"That's shocking. It's horrifying. It must end," he said. "This session we need a law that ensures that the life of every child will be spared from the ravages of abortion. We should make explicit what should be obvious: no unborn child should be targeted for abortion on the basis of race, sex or disability."
Abbott's professed preference for small government seemingly does not apply to his home city. He has frequently clashed with Austin's Democratic officials.
Shortly after the Austin City Council unanimously voted in August to divert $150 million from the police department's budget to social and mental health services, Abbott threatened to block cities from increasing property taxes if they defund their police departments.
Though he did not mention any property tax freezes for rogue cities Tuesday, he designated public safety a priority this year, saying Texas has always been a law and order state.
"We aren't going to let cities in Texas follow the lead of cities like Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis by defunding the police. That's crazy," he said. "To discourage cities from going down this dangerous path we must pass laws that prevent cities from defunding the police."