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Speaker Craddick was going to let Rep. Phil King appeal the chair's ruling to uphold a point of order by Rep. Jim Dunnam against the bill.
But after Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, said that might set a bad precedent, Mr. King said he was giving up.
He then had the House pass another "securitization bill" that he said would give electric customers in Houston some rate relief.
One wag called it "the Lazarus bill."
Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, won the two-thirds vote needed to bring back the TXU bill, which would put stronger controls on power utilities and curb electric costs up to 15 percent for those paying the highest rates.
The vote was 105-26. But there are still points of order that haven't been ruled on, so though I'd hope we are just minutes away from sine die, you never know ... and one should never underestimate the House's capacity to go down to the wire.
The chair recognizes transportation writer Jake Batsell for a privileged motion to update the blog on that most contentious of issues, toll roads:
A few dozen opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor came to the Capitol today hoping to commemorate “Moratorium Monday” – that is, Gov. Rick Perry’s signing of SB 792, the high-profile compromise transportation bill that places a partial two-year moratorium on private toll-road deals.But Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody said it is unlikely the governor will sign the bill before the legislative session concludes today. She said Mr. Perry is still working through a backlog of bills that have swamped his office over the past week.
“The governor reviews every piece of legislation carefully,” Ms. Moody said. “This bill is no exception to that.”
The vote was announced as 25-6 but was actually 25-5.
Nays were Mike Jackson, Kyle Janek, Jane Nelson, Dan Patrick and Florence Shapiro.
All Republicans.
"Oh-oh, we're halfway the-re..."
So, the Senate went ahead and passed the session's major water planning bill this evening -- the first in a decade. But this legislation, that nearly crumbled over contentious reservoir sites, still has to come up for debate in the House tonight. It could be rough.
Most of the bill is non-controversial. It sets guidelines for water conservation and for protecting the ecology of the state’s rivers, lakes, bays and estuaries. Here's the beef -- the bill sets aside 19 Texas locations for future reservoirs, and, well, reservoir sites almost ALWAYS cause a brawl.
Two Dallas reservoirs were removed in the House version of the bill. But the conference committee stuck them back in -- with a provision that cities and water districts must start spending money on those reservoirs by 2015, or risk losing their designation.
That's peeved some House lawmakers, particularly those concerned wtih the environmental and economic impact of flooding big portions of East Texas.
Here's hoping they do SOMETHING on this before midnight.
Rep. Robert Talton says he wanted to make the point that we're a nation of laws and rules, then withdraws his point of order that might have forced a special session.
House Speaker Tom Craddick's allies applaud.
"Thank you, Mr. Talton," says Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, the House's chief budget writer. "That was the gentlemanly thing to do."
Another Craddick ally speculates that the dissidents got to Mr. Talton and persuaded him that a vote to appeal the chair's ruling would be a poor test vote: There are members who'd vote to oust Mr. Craddick who don't want to vote against the budget.
But Mr. Talton now is asking for recognition to appeal the ruling of the chair.
Mr. Craddick says he'll recognize him for that appeal -- only on the point of order on the budget. Among other things, Mr. Talton's point of order said the budget was making "general law" by setting fees for the Residential Construction Commission.
"I have the 10 signatures," says Mr. Talton, who again has approached the dais.
Stay tuned.
Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, just raised a point of order against the budget.
"I’d like to raise a point of order," he said, "on the grounds that the conference committee report changes general law."
No word yet on details.
Rep. Robert "Torpedo Bob" Talton, R-Pasadena, has just raised a point of order -- or at least appeared to do so -- on the bill to partially undo cuts made four years ago to the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Mr. Talton said he found a "transition provision" in the conference report that was in neither chamber's version.
"I was under the impression that if you had something new in the bill, that you had to have a privileged resolution [to OK the change], is that not correct?" he said.
Replied Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, who's now presiding: "That principle is correct."
Big huddle to the south of the speaker's dais right now .... This could be a heart-breaker for CHIP advocates because the bill was finally approved by the Senate an hour or so ago and was only one hurdle away from going to the governor's desk.
"You know, a lot was made that there was no one from Dallas on the conference," Rep. Lois Kolkhorst just told me, referring to the House-Senate conference committee that worked out final details of the proposed two-year budget.
"But I gotta tell you, I think we were very fair to Dallas."
Ms. Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said Dallas got $21 million of the roughly $180 million of "special items" in the higher education budget. She said UT Southwestern Medical Center also got $8 million of state money for graduate medical education. "That's up there with Baylor in Houston," she said.
Here's Craddick spokeswoman Alexis DeLee's statement, responding to the Pitts-Talton-Delwin Jones presser alleging big time pork in the two-year budget, and last minute budget shenanigans by the speaker to save his political skin:
"The budget is a strong one -- supported by members on both sides of the aisle. The process that has taken place to put it together is the same as every session in the past. It reflects the various needs of the state."
In addition, Team Craddick arranged for Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the House's negotiator on the higher education budget, to respond to the dissidents' pork allegations -- one of which was that the speaker loves Dallas' UT Southwestern Medical Center, so much that he inserted two "special items" to give it $19 million.
Continue reading "Team Craddick defends budget in war of words" »
Former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and two GOP colleagues, Lubbock's Delwin Jones and Pasadena's Robert Talton, just held a presser to denounce the $152.5 billion budget that is before lawmakers today -- and Republican Speaker Tom Craddick's use of it for his own political ends.
The three dissidents assailed $100 million of late additions to the budget, college "special items" that they said Mr. Craddick used to shore up support so he could face down efforts to remove him. Mr. Pitts also outlined tens of millions of pork projects inserted for the Midland-Odessa, Permian Basin area, which Mr. Craddick represents.
"We can and must do better," Mr. Pitts said. "This budget is bloated and fiscally irresponsible."
While Mr. Pitts said he thinks fiscally conservative Republicans should oppose the budget and force a special session on the subject, he dodged a question about whether anti-Craddick forces have the votes to blow up the budget.
Craddick spokeswoman Alexis DeLee said she would respond -- but is too busy right now listening to dissidents' attempt to get Mr. Craddick on record for every aspect of the vast power he's been claiming since Friday afternoon.
Saturday afternoon, negotiators agreed to restore the Children's Health Insurance Program more than halfway toward the enrollment it had in September 2003.
Since then, CHIP rolls shrank by 201,000 youngsters, mostly because of cuts that helped lawmakers dig out of a $10 billion budget hole. Under the deal, which now goes to the two chambers for approval, enrollment would climb by nearly 128,000.
The Senate accepted a final offer by the lead House negotiator, Houston Democrat Sylvester Turner. He insisted that if the state does any electronic income checks six months into kids' coverage, as senators demanded, it'll scan just the top 10 percent of CHIP households by income. The Senate wanted the top 43 percent checked.
The bill would allow families again to submit paperwork once a year, instead of every six months, and to deduct from income their child-care expenses. Asset limits would be loosened and a 90-day wait eliminated for most new applicants.
House Speaker Pro Tem Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, is obtaining signatures of his chamber's negotiators on a version of the Children's Health Insurance Program bill that would subject only 9 percent of households to electronic income checking every six months -- not the 43 percent that the Senate favors.
"If they don't sign it," Mr. Turner said of the Senate's negotiators, "we just don't have a CHIP bill."
According to the Health and Human Services Commission, Mr. Turner's proposal would add nearly 128,000 youngsters to the rolls in the next two years; and the Senate's almost 102,000.
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said he is “pretty much a solid ‘no’” on the budget if, as expected, it reaches the Senate floor tomorrow.
Mr. Patrick said he would reconsider his opposition if assured that Mr. Perry would empanel a commission to carefully review state spending while the Legislature is not in session.
The radio talk show host and anti-tax crusader says he thinks at least 5 percent of the budget is wasteful spending.
Mr. Patrick was asked if he would filibuster the budget, which probably would force the governor to call lawmakers back to Austin this summer. He replied, “You never know.”
The budget conferees in the last half hour approved a two-year, $152.5 billion budget by a vote of 9-0.
House Speaker Pro Tem Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, walked out shortly before the vote was taken -- presumably to underscore his displeasure over money set aside to pay interest on bonds that might be used to build prisons. Or was it the rider on Texas Southern University, which Mr. Turner also questioned moments earlier? Or the failure to give prison guards any of the bigger pay raises handed to newbie state cops and game wardens?
Well, if you can't have unanimity, you at least can have speed. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said he'd ask for colleagues to suspend rules to bring the budget to the floor tomorrow. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, said he expects the budget on the House floor on Sunday.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has skillfully splintered the advocates of fully undoing the 2003 cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program.
After collecting kudos Tuesday from the Texas Network of IAF Organizations (Dallas Area Interfaith, Valley Interfaith and so on), Mr. Dewhurst named Senate negotiators who are expected to strongly defend his pet idea of electronic eligibility verification.
Senate conferees include the only two senators who voted against the House's partial CHIP restoration bill: Republicans Steve Ogden, who voted "nay" in committee, and Jane Nelson, who opposed the bill on the floor. The team's leader is Waco Republican Kip Averitt, who favors a bigger CHIP but is unlikely to betray Mr. Dewhurst, even though the lieutenant governor dumped him as a budget negotiator this session to appease the right wing of the Senate's GOP caucus.
Most CHIP advocates, physician groups and hospital execs who prefer the House-passed version believe Mr. Dewhurst has made income verification almost a fetish -- and is going to give us another Accenture-like fiasco, albeit much smaller in scope than the call centers that do eligibility screening for the major social programs.
Transportation writer Jake Batsell sheds some light on the stalemate over transportation policy:
As lawmakers sort out Texas’ transportation future in the feverish finale to the legislative session, Ric Williamson is taking a page from Sir Winston Churchill.During a monthly media briefing today, the Texas Transportation Commission chairman gave reporters blue rubber wristbands emblazoned with a Churchillian message: “Never ever give up.”
Transportation writer Jake Batsell is watching the machinations on toll roads for us. He reports:
Will Amendment 13 be lucky or cursed?
As lawmakers haggle behind the scenes on SB 792, the compromise transportation bill that would overhaul the state’s toll road policies, grassroots activists are rallying around the one amendment they want kept in at all costs.
The bill includes the much-ballyhooed, partial two-year moratorium on private toll-road contracts. While most North Texas toll projects would be spared from the freeze, most observers have assumed all along that the moratorium would include TTC-35, the controversial Trans Texas Corridor toll road that would roughly parallel I-35.
To make double-sure, Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, added House Amendment 13, which would prohibit private toll roads from being constructed in separate legs called “facility agreements.” Ms. Kolkhorst said she wants to prevent the Texas Department of Transportation from dodging the moratorium by using flexible semantics to build TTC-35.
Yes, those were House Speaker Tom Craddick's words.
And yes, they were about House Civil Practices Committee Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana.
But no, the speaker wasn't applauding Mr. Cook's speech last night excoriating Mr. Craddick for "abuse of power" and asking him to resign. In a surreal moment, the speaker simply ignored Mr. Cook's scalding words and called up the next bill.
The quote is from a Craddick press release issued nearly 3 hours earlier, praising Mr. Cook for his help in passing a bill to stop what the speaker said are "frivolous lawsuits" against Texas' port-dredging companies. The bill, now headed to Gov. Rick Perry's desk, is one of this session's big priorities for the tort-reform group, Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
Craddick spokesman Chris Cutrone said the verbal bouquet for Mr. Cook was completely unrelated to the speaker's effort to survive a possible revolt this session.
"We thought it was a great bill for Texas' ports," Mr. Cutrone said.
The Senate just sent to the governor a bill by Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Southlake, that would ban cities from using cameras to charge motorists with speeding.
“If that’s not a grab for money, I don’t know what is,” said Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, the bill’s Senate sponsor. The vote was 27-4.
Mr. Carona said the cities of Rhome, northwest of Fort Worth, and Marble Falls, northwest of Austin, have used cameras to create “speed traps.” He said motorists don’t learn they’ve been nailed – on a criminal charge -- until a notice arrives in the mail from a Rhode Island tech company days or weeks later. That robs a driver of ability to argue with the cop who stops him, Mr. Carona said.
Republican Sen. Kel Seliger, a former Amarillo mayor, opposed the bill. He called it undue curtailment of local governments’ power.
Senate leaders say a final deal on the state's two-year budget has been delayed.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, told reporters a few minutes before noon that Gov. Rick Perry "is involved in the discussion" -- much of it about higher education.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said late Friday that House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, has intervened in the talks about university funding. "The speaker's taken a real interest ... particularly [in] the higher education budget and some special items," Mr. Dewhurst said.
Asked if the special college funding items were for Midland, the lieutenant governor responded, "For different [House] members' districts."
Wrapping up the budget now seems unlikely before House members decide whether they're deposing Mr. Craddick or not in the session's last seven days.
Talk about your tight spots. Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, was torn between House loyalty and partisan allegiance yesterday. Very reluctantly, and even painfully, he sided with his chamber.
The scene: House Appropriations room, Capitol extension, 2:18 p.m.
The action: As the budget conference committee convenes to ratify decisions on health and welfare programs, all five Senate negotiators are present. But two from the House are missing -- Democrat Sylvester Turner and Republican Lois Kolkhorst.
Unexpectedly, Warren Chisum, the House's chief negotiator, brings up a politically supercharged matter left over from the otherwise-finished judiciary section of the budget: Whether to give Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's Public Integrity Unit 6.5 percent more than the $6.8 million, two-year "baseline" budget it was given by the Legislative Budget Board back in January. Uh oh. It's crunch time.
Continue reading "Tales of the budget conference: Guillen's dilemma" »
Advocates for the Children's Health Insurance Program were livid at Senate GOP leaders for rushing to move the session's big CHIP bill out of committee tonight, some 14 hours before a scheduled Capitol rally featuring uninsured children.
Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, main author of the bill, said between 250 and 300 uninsured children had been scheduled to attend the rally.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, told this reporter late this afternoon, "We'll hear that bill tomorrow."
But after a flurry of media advisories about the planned rally flew far and wide, lo and behold, the Senate suspended its rules to add the CHIP bill to this evening's Finance Committee meeting -- at which a scaled-down version of the bill passed.
Said Barbara Best of the Children's Defense Fund, one of the organizers of the rally: "It is outrageous that the Senate Finance Committee would deliberately exclude the input of families, health care providers and advocates from criticial decisions about the future of the CHIP program. The Texas Senate should have the courage to look into the eyes of the children who have lost coverage and to take responsibility for the drastic cuts that they have imposed on the CHIP program."
Mr. Ogden was unavailable for comment.
Welcome to the Texas Senate, Karen!
This is Bob Garrett, filling in for Terry Stutz as the Senate does its darnedest to detract attention from the Team Craddick meltdown at the Capitol's West End.
It seems somebody in Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's office did a no-no today. The Dewmeister just popped out of the Betty King Room, where Democrats have been huddled since noon. He looked like a man who had just made an apology. He told reporters that his staff some 2 hours ago shouldn't have issued a provocative letter under his name that called Democratic tactics "an outrage against all Americans."
Said Mr. Dewhurst: "I didn't say that at all. ... [A] statement went out that I had not approved and we’re going to correct that."
The background: At 12:32 p.m., the Dewhurst press shop issued a letter on yesterday's blockade by Senate Democrats of the voter ID bill.
"I think this is an outrage against all Americans," Mr. Dewhurst's letter says.
Responded Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas: "I’m just as American as he is."
The now-inoperative Dewhurst letter says the Democrats apparently don't believe in "one person, one vote." It rebukes Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, saying he "gamed the voting process" on Tuesday by first walking out, hoping to stall, then rushing back to the Senate floor and pitching a fit when his vote wasn't counted.
The letter adds some torque as it sinks the blade: Mr. Whitmire, it says, "cursed and tried to make himself a victim."
But, whoops, retract that, Mr. Dewhurst now advises us.
The Senate's fine and will shortly show us its internal dynamic is comity, he predicted. "I’m proud of the Senate. We all, all 32 of us are close friends. And you’ll see that today."
Rep. Jim Jackson, R-Carrollton, who on Tuesday was pilloried by a GOP colleague during House debate of a bill to fix the new business tax, received an apology Wednesday.
Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, told the entire chamber that he regrets "getting personal" in debate of Mr. Jackson's amendment that would stop Sprint from collecting a 1 percent surcharge and describing that on bills as the new Texas tax.
Mr. Haggerty had said Mr. Jackson, a long-time Dallas County commissioner, had been "sucking off the public teat for 30 years." The next day, Mr. Haggerty attributed his anger to suggestions that telecom companies are "bad people" for trying to pass along the tax's cost. "The bad people in this debate were us," he said.
The House passed a much-debated bill that aims to clarify what religious expression is allowed in schools. Here's an early report from Karen Brooks. Check back later for updates, both on the Web site and tomorrow in the print version of The Dallas Morning News.
An update on this session's booze wars:
The package stores have fended off a campaign contribution-fueled push by Texas' two big liquor wholesalers to break up the monopoly that package stores enjoy in selling liquor to bars and restaurants. The package stores' big defender? Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview. He runs the House's liquor legislation committee. And he has refused to hear the wholesalers' bill.
Now go to archived video of last night's hearing of Mr. Flores' committee.
Charles Sims, a San Marcos liquor retailer who is secretary-treasurer of the Texas Package Stores Association, irritated Mr. Flores by speaking against a bill to let school districts expand to 1000 feet, from 300 feet, the minimum required distance between any new booze purveyor and one of their campuses.
The bill is by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, the committee's vice chairman.
(Four minutes, 53 seconds into the meeting:)
Mr. Flores: Don't they know that we were with 'em this whole session? Now they're against us!
Mr. Geren: Uh, huh.
Continue reading "Ingrates and other irritations: A Kino Flores moment" »
The Senate has signed off on tougher punishments for sex crimes against children. Click below for Emily Ramshaw's early report.
Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, fends off press inquiries about who will be the Senate's five negotiators with the House on the budget by reworking a line from the classic Humphrey Bogart film, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
In the movie, a Mexican bandit leader named Gold Hat tries to convince Bogart's character, Fred C. Dobbs, that Gold Hat and his buddies are the Federales.
Dobbs: "If you're the police, where are your badges?"
Gold Hat: "Badges!? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!!"
Now back to the Capitol extension yesterday ...
Reporter: "What's the latest on the budget conference committee?"
Averitt: "Conference committee!? We don't need no stinking conference committee!! Take it or leave it!"
That was pretty clever, given the sensitivity of the subject.
So while the House is locked down on electricity rates, the Senate is long gone, having passed the budget. There were the usual squabbles over CHIP and tax cuts, but nothing like the throwdown between Sens. Whitmire and Patrick. Our man Bob Garrett witnessed it all. For a sneak peak at his story on the Houstonians imbroglio, read on the jump:
About 100 community activists held a fire breathing rally inside the Capitol today, calling on the Legislature -- and specifically, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst -- to roll back restrictions imposed on the Children's Health Insurance Program four years ago.
Three men of the cloth -- and some of the placards folks in the crowd were holding --rebuked Mr. Dewhurst for opposing a House-passed plan that would again let families renew coverage annually instead of every six months.
"We don't have patience with a lieutenant governor who doesn't understand the problems and the difficulties that affect the working families of Texas," said Father Kevin Collins of Houston, one of the clergymen active in Industrial Areas Foundation groups such as Dallas Area Interfaith.
Continue reading "Dewhurst to CHIP 'zealots': Get continuous" »
On Jan. 24, I left a House Democratic press conference and scooted over to the Senate to ask Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for a response to two Houston reps' insinuation that he is a hypocrite for proclaiming a "Children First" agenda while opposing annual renewals for families in the Children's Health Insurance Program.
"I don't think most people in Texas have a lot of sympathy for someone that can't fill out a two-page application every six months," Mr. Dewhurst said, defending a semiannual renewal rule that lawmakers imposed on CHIP families in 2003.
I suspected that wasn't the last time we'd hear that quote -- either from Mr. Dewhurst or CHIP advocates.
Today, Democratic activist Matt Angle, once an aide to former Congressman Martin Frost, released documents showing that a Dewhurst business lost its license on Dec. 6 for failing to file a report due at the Secretary of State's office every four years.
"Deadbeat Dewhurst failed to file basic business forms," screamed a headline on the Lone Star Project web site.
The House had a love-fest as it tentatively passed a bill to partially restore the Children's Health Insurance Program to its pre-2003 contours. The vote was 126-16.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, who during debate preceding a key test vote razzed a Republican amendment author mercilessly, went to the back mike to praise Speaker Tom Craddick and the bill's co-authors, Democrat Sylvester Turner and Republican John Davis, both of Houston.
Ms. Thompson's bouquet was so unusual that defeated speaker's candidate Jim Pitts immediately requested that her comments be reprinted in the House Journal.
Casting an "aye" vote was the bill's harshest critic from the left, Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. He said it's progress, and he's a progressive.
"Attaboy, add a kid," he quipped.
U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice has signaled to lawyers in a long-running, class-action lawsuit over children's Medicaid that he wants the case settled soon, two Republican House members said today.
"The judge wants it done now," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa. He said he understands Judge Justice wants the case to cap his long career as a jurist.
Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, quoted a lawyer for state Health and Human Services Commissioner Albert Hawkins as saying Judge Justice "wanted it resolved" while lawmakers are still in session. A hearing in the case is scheduled to begin on Monday.
Continue reading "Children's Medicaid lawsuit: scurry, scurry" »
The House passed and sent to the Senate a $150.1 billion, two-year budget. The final vote was 129-14, with only Democrats dissenting.
The House also gave final approval to a supplemental appropriations bill. It spends another $400 million or so, much of it for unexpected bills in the current budget cycle. The vote was 144-0.
Nearly an hour earlier, a funny thing happened when the budget bill tentatively passed, 132-16.
Moments before the vote, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jim Dunnam of Waco gave a speech. Mr. Dunnam said he hadn't voted for a budget since 2001. He really would like to vote for one, he said. But he said he couldn't do it this time because $8.5 billion has been left unspent.
Guess who got his wish, though, and voted for the budget? Jim Dunnam.
"We did some good stuff today," he said later. "Let's keep it going. Maybe hope springs eternal." But he added, "If it comes back from conference the way it is now, I'm a 'no.'"
Stop the presses! The House just sided with House Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland and kept in the budget a rider that would allow state universities such as UT-Permian Basin in Odessa to tap motor fuels tax money for campus parking lots and roads.
Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, proposed to kill rider language allowing $10 million from the Highway Fund to be used to build "access roads and parking lots for new facilities on public state university campuses." Members tabled Mr. Gallego's amendment by a mostly party-line vote of 96-50.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gallego said Mr. Craddick had asked budget writers for the language so the folks back home can get road and parking improvements for UT-Permian Basin's new performing arts center.
Late Thursday, Craddick spokeswoman Alexis DeLee confirmed, "He discussed funding for UTPB and other state universities that had an issue with road access."
A vote to eliminate the nation's largest teacher merit pay program, and instead give school professionals an across the board pay raise, was definitely the shocker in the House's marathon budget debate today.
All Democrats supported the move, except for Reps. Norma Chavez of El Paso and Sylvester Turner of Houston.
But 23 Republicans broke ranks to back the gut merit pay amendment of Houston Democrat Rick Noriega, including key Craddick allies Will Hartnett of Dallas, Harvey Hilderbran of Kerrville, Mike Krusee of Round Rock, David Swinford of Dumas and Corbin Van Arsdale of Houston.
Continue reading "Breakaway GOP members kill teacher merit pay" »
House Speaker Tom Craddick just mowed down 17 proposed amendments to the budget bill with a ruling that incensed Democrats -- and a maverick Republican.
Mr. Craddick said 3 violated a calendar rule by trying to divert money from the State Highway Fund and 14 did so by seeking to siphon funds from the Enterprise Fund, Gov. Rick Perry's deal-closing fund on economic development projects. The logic? The speaker said the amendments messed with constitutionally dedicated revenues, a no-no. Irate Democrats questioned why amendment drafters at the Legislative Budget Board and Legislative Council didn't tell them the funds were off limits.
"I just want to know who is responsible," said Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston.
Mr. Craddick responded, "You're responsible, Mr. Eiland."
Things grew more tense when the speaker rejected Democrats' pleas that they be allowed to fix their amendments.
Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, seized the chance to settle an old score with Milton Rister, the head of the Legislative Council.
House Democrats objected today to a calendar rule that will prohibit them from adding to overall spending during next week’s House debate of the budget.
Calendars Committee Chairwoman Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, and Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, said the rule is the same that has governed floor debate of budgets in previous sessions:
You can propose amendments to shift money around, but you can’t grow the budget.
Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, said Mr. Chisum’s committee left about $8.5 billion unspent, either in idle money or the state’s “rainy day fund” for emergencies and economic downturns.
By adopting the rule, Mr. Eiland said the House will have “locked in the amount that’s going to be spent” at $150.1 billion.
Continue reading "House Democrats can't dip into unspent money" »
House Speaker Pro Tem Sylvester Turner, a Craddick ally, didn't vote when the budget passed in the Appropriations Committee this morning. The Houston Democrat explained -- oh, did he explain -- why: He suspects he's being "suckered" to move the budget along but will see his priorities gutted by the Senate.
"I don't want to be hoodwinked," Mr. Turner said in an at times passionate, sometimes funny exchange with Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa.
"Don't wave a carrot and keep moving the carrot away, and I keep chasing the carrot," said Mr. Turner, who fears the Senate will strip out money to help poor families pay electric bills and to provide health coverage for more poor children. "I'm not falling for that."
Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, then tried to ask a question of Mr. Turner. But he either didn't hear her, or pretended not to. He hunched over to whisper to a seat mate, Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso.
"Mr. Speaker Pro Tem!" said Ms. McClendon, asking a question about Mr. Turner's bill to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program. "Mr. Speaker Pro Tem!"
No answer.
"He's chasing carrots over here," Mr. Chisum said, to much laughter from committee members and the audience.
Former Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, lists a surprise client in ethics disclosures about her new lobbying practice: She represents a group trying to cull from the state's jail and prison populations offenders who've committed "nonviolent and victimless crimes," such as possessing small amounts of marijuana.
Ms. Hupp is the lobbyist for and one of three founders of Texans for Public Safety Solutions. It supports passage of HB 2391, which would let law enforcement officers write citations to -- and not have to take to jail -- people who are found with less than 2 ounces of marijuana, an expired driver's license or in the act of trespassing.
Continue reading "Suzanna Hupp, lobbyist, has a new cause" »
Miss the debate? Well, that's what we're here for. Here's Karen Brooks' early report.
Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville, is a pharmacist as well as a House budget writer.
So it was natural for other members of the House Appropriations Committee to turn to him for advice on a confusing budget rider about pharmacy benefit managers a few minutes ago. Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, noted that Mr. Hopson is a pharmacist.
"I have my light on," Mr. Hopson said. That means he wanted to speak.
"Our resident drug dealer down there," said a smiling Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, the committee's chairman.
"Legal drug dealer," Ms. Kolkhorst interjected.
Call it tit for tat. Package liquor stores have persuaded Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, to introduce a bill that would outlaw distillers from giving a wholesaler exclusive rights to sell a brand of booze in Texas. The bill, filed on Monday, would deny Glazer's Distributors of Dallas and Republic Beverage Co. of San Antonio their current control of most big-name brands.
The move comes after the two big wholesalers urged lawmakers to break up the monopoly that package s
