Lone Star Report Recent Blog Posts

Last night on the House floor, Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) succeeded in stopping HB 1243 by Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) from going to the governor or conference. As filed, the bill is a simple net metering bill that allows customers to deduct from their electric bill any electricity generated on site. It is sought by solar power advocates who want to encourage more homeowners to install solar panels on their homes.

But several key electric bills died as a result of the filibuster that occurred on the House floor last week. Therefore, in the Senate, HB 1243 became a Christmas tree for several energy-related bills, most notably SB 921 by Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) and Rep. Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs).

Despite a fair amount of debate, the House voted to go to conference on the sunset safety net bill (HB 1959) ... Leibowitz then made a motion to instruct the conferees not to add TDI to the safety net bill.

Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) has passed HB 4765, which raises the exemption for businesses from the state franchise tax from $300,000 to $600,000 in gross receipts. The Patrick version provides permanent tax relief, whereas the House version of the bill provides temporary relief from the franchise tax (two years only), but with a $1 million exemption.  The bill now goes to the House for further consideration.

The Senate is streaming through bills at an auctioneer’s pace right now. With the carnage that occurred on the House floor the past five days, Senators are finding vehicles for bills on the House calendar that died because of last week’s filibuster.

Some major bills – such as Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s health care bill – has been split up and hitched a ride on several bills. Just about every bill is being amended with other bills that passed the Senate and were pending on the House calendar.

The Texas Senate passed HB 3646, the omnibus school finance bill, today unanimously. The bill allocates $1.9 billion to public schools. Senators repeatedly called the bill a “Christmas tree” as several bills floundering in the house got attached to the bill. The bill now goes to the House for further consideration (concurrence or conference committee).

For all the work UT had to do to get relief from the Top 10 percent rule, it’s amazing how little relief they’re getting.

Rep. Dan Branch’s (R-Dallas) bill to put a cap on the percentage of students admitted automatically (SB 175) appears to be one of the few major initiatives to survive the Democratic filibuster occurring on the House floor right now.

Should the governor's veto power be unlimited or should legislators get to grade the governor's papers?

The issue of the governor's veto powers has heated up the past three years, with high-profile debates between the executive and legislative branches over eminent domain, community college funding, and the Texas Department of Transportation.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) sent a letter to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst Sat. May 22 asking Dewhurst for recognition on HJR 29 by Rep. Gary Elkins (R-Houston) and Wentworth. He also blasted Gov. Rick Perry for taking the amendment personally and trying to kill it.

"This is not a piddling little resolution," states the letter. "It is a significant proposal on which the people of Texas have a right to vote to bring about a needed check and balance on the powers of the legislative and executive branches of state government."

Speaker Joe Straus is new. So we thought it might be helpful to remind him and the Capitol at large that the House rules have a provision specifically designed to deal with stalling the calendar. It's called a motion for the previous question. And it can be found in Rule 7, Sect. 21 et. seq.

It's rarely recognized, and that's appropriate. In fact, it generally is used only in situations like the one we're dealing with right now. House Speakers correctly err on the side of full debate and discussion and maximum ability to offer amendments. But that privilege exists on the understanding that it won't be abused. We reprint the rule below.

There's one ironic aspect to the slow-talking of the local calendar that the press corps is missing -- it may help the Republicans politically.