With the state budget’s funding plans passed to the governor, Lake Travis and Westlake’s delegation in the Texas House of Representatives said the surprise special session has been an overall success. But what caught the most attention were two prominent Republican priorities—arguments that became more fueled as deadline after deadline continued to pass.

The Lege’s highest priority, said freshman Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, was to balance the state budget without raising taxes. The Legislature did that, but it took longer than expected; a Spartan budget plan was passed in May along party lines, but it took an impromptu special session to solidify funding mechanisms determining how funding for health care and public education would be divided. Of special note is a bill granting more fiscal flexibility to local school districts, which will be allowed to reduce pay of teachers and administrators or institute furloughs instead of layoffs.

“All of those things, I think, were important to complete the entire package for the budget and get us on firm footing for the coming biennium,” Workman said. “We’ve got some issues we’ll have to deal with next time, there’s no question about it, and I think that the theme of the next biennium will be different than the theme this time.”

What was left undone were conservative initiatives on so-called “sanctuary cities,” or municipalities with lax enforcement policies concerning undocumented immigrants, as well as a bill banning invasive pat-downs by Transportation Security Administration officials at airports. Supporters called the pat-downs akin to groping. Both disintegrated in the final days and hours as Republican leaders in the House and Senate could not agree on dueling versions and conflicting amendments which had been added to each bill.

Republicans were united on the sanctuary cities bill in principle but had different minds concerning the TSA bill. A week before the session ended, House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, publicly called the bill a publicity stunt after the House failed to reach a quorum to discuss it; on the final day, Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, gave a highly critical speech of House leadership and the failure of the TSA bill. Both bills were added midway through the special session by Gov. Rick Perry; originally, only the funding mechanisms had been mentioned.

Many Democrats said both bills were a distraction. A Democratic filibuster in the Senate forced a special session, and Democrats had hoped to use the special session to secure additional funding for public schools and public education. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said she was disappointed in the Lege’s special session direction.

“In my opinion, we could’ve done a better job using this time to actually improve what we’re doing for public education,” Howard said. “I’m on record as saying these additional bills are political posturing. These are strictly emergency issues in terms of creating campaign fodder for the Governor’s potential national campaign. They have nothing to do with any emergency in terms of our state government.”