AUSTIN — Over social conservatives’ objections, the House, divided against itself, did stand down a special-session “privacy” bill that would have controlled transgender peoples’ restroom use.

That loss, coupled with a failure to push through property tax legislation, helped dash Gov. Greg Abbott’s hopes of a “20 for 20” agenda win and prompted him to say simply that “this special session has produced a far better Texas than before.”

Lawmakers passed about half of Abbott’s agenda, despite a stalemate over the so-called “bathroom bill,” which was strongly opposed by business interests who projected costly negative economic impacts if it took effect.

“The business community said, ‘we don’t even want to know what the bill is,’” state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, said. “This is the one where the speaker pulls his leadership card out and says ‘I’m not gonna go forward.’”

But Abbott was not the only player who lost battles, which in a number of cases pitted a GOP-dominated Legislature against big cities, where voters tend to pick Democrats.

The called session was triggered by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who during the regular session bottled up crucial sunset legislation needed to reauthorize state agencies.

For the Texas Municipal League, which represents cities from across the state, “seeing eight of 20,” items on the agenda, including the bathroom bill, “come after us was alarming,” said Bennett Sandlin, the league’s executive director.

Six of the items to which Sandlin referred — revenue caps, spending caps, permit super vesting, expedited permitting, cellphone pre-emption and the bathroom/privacy bill — died.

But the league lost a big one in the fight over efforts to restrict cities’ powers to annex property without elections.

Local leaders statewide argued that they needed the authority to deal with property owners who move to areas outside city limits, then benefit from their proximity without helping foot the bill. 

Annexation opponents argued that they were chipping in: for instance, sales taxes paid during visits to cities.

Calling the practice an infringement on property rights, Abbott said that once annexed, cities can then impose new regulations, higher taxes and make property owners responsible for debt they didn’t approve.

Springer said cities, some of which sprawl over multiple counties, were operating what is “almost a Ponzi scheme,” and selectively annexing gated communities “with the McMansions,” while avoiding areas with lower property values. 

Sandlin said that in the long run, the bill will hurt cities in an increasingly urban state.

“Some legislators feel the larger urban areas of the state don’t jibe with their own politics, so it’s easy to single them out while protecting cities in the less populous regions,” according to TML.org. “There’s no other way to analyze what happened …”

For another big issue, school finance there was a mixed outcome, with $351 million going toward public-school system instead of the $1.8 billion the House proposed. 

Lawmakers also approved a commission to scrutinize school-finance and recommend improvements for the 2019 legislative session. 

Retired teachers also received $212 million to help with health-insurance premiums. 

Tim Lee, Texas Retired Teachers Association executive director, urged the school-finance commission to consider adding the overburdened insurance scheme for retired teachers to its agenda.

“We’re not pre-funding health care,” for teachers who retire, Lee said. “School finance should begin to cover the cost of post-employment health-care benefits.”

Among measures that died in the special session: restrictions on texting while driving, elimination of paycheck deduction for association dues for teachers and a $1,000 teacher raise.

In the win category: a bipartisan maternal mortality task force and a bill limiting cities’ tree ordinances.

As for whether it was worth the estimated cost to taxpayers of $1 million for reimbursing lawmakers, plus staffing and other overhead, to debate for a second time many of the issues they’d already tackled in the regular session — the bathroom bill, for example — Springer said it depends.

“If you’re a retired teacher, it was worth us coming back,” he said. “It’s ‘what’s your big issue?’” 

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com.