Jun
19
Written by:
William Lutz
6/19/2009 8:20 PM
Since the governor announced his list of vetoed bills, we have received statements from groups praising one or more of his vetoes. We post a selection below:
Brooke Terry, Texas Public Policy Foundation praising veto of pre-K bill, HB 130:
Gov. Perry was correct to veto HB 130, which created an additional and unnecessary government full-day pre-k program. This legislation wrongly focused on inputs rather than results, and did not include the private sector as a full partner in providing early childhood education.
(Editor's note: TPPF included the following factual background with Terry's statement: Texas already has a government full-day pre-k program. HB 130 would have required every pre-k classroom in the new program to have a child-to-staff ratio of 11:1, a 22-child maximum class size, and a certified teacher with at least nine credit hours of early childhood education. The bill gives providers three years to find certified teachers. Very few, if any, private-sector pre-k providers currently meet these requirements, and HB 130 would have pushed many of them out of the market. These new requirements would cost taxpayers $7,300 per child per year, and research does not find that class size or certification lead to higher teacher quality or increased student learning.)
Jonathan Saenz and Kelly Shackelford, Free Market Foundation, praising veto of SB 1440:
We applaud Gov. Perry for standing for parental rights, and sending the message that our Constitutional rights cannot be cast aside by unverified, uncorroborated anonymous tips. Texas children are not ‘children of the state.’ This bill was a direct attack on the fundamental rights of every Texas parent. I am very thankful we have Governor Perry in office to stop this last minute bill amendment, which would have been a travesty for Texas.
Dr. William Fleming III, president, Texas Medical Association, praising veto of HB 3485:
The nearly 44,000 physician and medical student members of the Texas Medical Association express their most sincere appreciation to Gov. Rick Perry for protecting our state's highly successful medical liability reforms by vetoing House Bill 3485. Language inserted into the bill at the last minute by the Texas Trial Lawyers Association put at risk the broad medical liability reforms that Governor Perry, the Texas Legislature, physicians, and voters worked so diligently to achieve. We applaud the governor for recognizing that we cannot risk even the slightest dent in a new liability system that has worked exactly as promised. The epidemic of health care lawsuit abuse has ended. Sick and injured Texans have better access to needed and timely care. More physicians provide specialty and high-risk obstetrical care in both urban and rural areas. We are proud that Governor Perry always has been and remains a true champion for our patients by standing tall and leading the way toward enacting and protecting the 2003 liability reforms. HB 3485 would have allowed government-owned hospitals in any county with fewer than 50,000 residents to hire physicians directly. It also would have exposed these local governmental entities to liability risks way beyond those of the largest government facilities ...