Abbott's top priorities avoid hot-button themes

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gov.-elect Greg Abbott said Monday that his administration's top priorities will be bolstering early education, securing the Texas-Mexico border, cutting taxes and pumping $4 billion annually into the state's overloaded road and water infrastructure networks — goals that may be more exciting to policy wonks than his conservative base.

Abbott, who takes office Jan. 20, met with the media to discuss his primary agenda but offered little beyond campaign promises. Perhaps most surprising was what Abbott left off his top to-do list: divisive issues such as abortion and his past calls for open carry of handguns.

Following his predecessor Rick Perry's lead, Abbott has said that he'd like a "continuous surge" of security along the nearly 2,000-mile Texas-Mexico border, including hiring 500 new Department of Public Safety troopers. He offered no new details, declaring only that while border security is a federal responsibility, "Texas is not going to stand idly by and wait for Washington."

Abbott has been attorney general since 2002 and is leading a coalition of 20 states that have sued the Obama administration over the president's recently announced executive action on immigration.

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