HB 1499 – New Grant Program

HB 1499 sets up a new taxpayer-funded grant program to help certain small concrete companies pay for environmental labeling software. While marketed as helping small businesses reduce emissions, the bill creates a new layer of bureaucracy and opens the door for potentially unlimited spending with no set cost cap. It mandates that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality create and oversee the program, including rulemaking and enforcement, which could expand government staffing and overhead. The bill does not appropriate funds but lays the groundwork for future spending—without knowing how much it will cost or how many businesses will participate. This is an unnecessary expansion of state intervention in private industry and an inefficient use of public resources