Published: June 06, 2009 08:50 pm      

Area legislators: Session went well

Orange County’s representatives in the Texas Legislature, Democrat and Republican alike, said the state legislative session that concluded on Monday was a success.

“It went pretty decent,” Rep. Mike Hamilton (R-Mauriceville) said. “We passed a pretty conservative budget, worked to get money for schools and the seatbelt program that was passed last session.”

The program Hamilton was referring to was in a bill signed into law in June 2007; it was introduced after Beaumont West Brook High School students Ashley Brown and Alicia Bonura were killed when the bus carrying the school’s soccer team rolled over in Liberty County on Mar. 29, 2006.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the bill requires school buses purchased in Texas after Sept. 1, 2010 to have three-point lap shoulder belts. Charter buses and city buses used for carrying students will be required to have the belts by 2011.

Hamil-ton said state legislators also worked to make sure coastal counties and states got their money back after hurricanes while the entities were waiting on FEMA funds; the Legislature passed House Bill 4586, an appropriations bill with about $100 million for the state’s disaster contingency fund.

However, the disaster contingency funds are not exclusively for coastal communities, but all cities in Texas which would be affected by natural disasters such as tornadoes, flooding or wildfires.

“I believe the people of Texas will be pleased with the accomplishments of this session. While many other states are cutting budgets and closing businesses and classrooms, we passed a state budget which funds essential state services, provides tax relief for small businesses, and stimulates economic growth,” State Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) said in a press release. “Serving on the budget conference committee I was committed to keeping state spending in check again this session and no tax increase.  We did that, and kept budget growth well under the rate of inflation plus population growth.”   

Rep. Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont) said he viewed the legislative session as a success as well.

“I think we passed the legislation that needed to be passed,” Deshotel said, as he noted a budget was the only thing the Texas Legislature was constitutionally mandated to pass. “But you always feel like you can accomplish more.”

Deshotel told The Leader that tax relief for small businesses was also passed during this latest legislative session. Previously, all small businesses in Texas with revenues of more than $300,000 per year had to pay the state’s franchise tax; with the passage of House Bill 4765, only businesses with revenues of more than $1 million per year will have to pay the tax.

Deshotel also mentioned education, pointing out that the state increased spending on public education by about $2 billion, including scholarship money for 35,000 additional students.

Left unaddressed was the fate of two major state agencies, the Texas Department of Transportation and the state’s insurance department. The dispute over TxDOT was raised after that agency’s reauthorization legislation was stalled due to a House-Senate dispute over local gas tax options and road construction bonds, while the insurance agency’s reauthorization was blocked in the House by San Antonio Democrat David Leibowitz, who — according to the Houston Chronicle — said the agency hadn’t been reviewed in 16 years during a time when insurance rates rose dramatically.

The agencies — along with the Office of Public Insurance Counsel, the Texas Racing Commission and State Affordable Housing Corporation — were due to be reviewed by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, which was created in 1977; every state agency has to justify its existence to the commission every 12 years. If an agency isn’t reauthorized, it goes out of existence. Since the creation of the commission, 47 state agencies have been abolished, with another 11 being consolidated. According to the Houston Chronicle, Governor Rick Perry is working with legislative staff and the commission to keep the agencies alive without calling a special session.

When asked what he thought could have gone differently in the session, Hamilton mentioned what he perceived to be the Democrats holding up legislation, saying, “I wish some of the Democrats had not been so obstructionist.”

Democrat Deshotel, however, disagreed.

“That’s a matter of perspective. They have a right to say that, but I wouldn’t agree,” he said. “They chose to let legislation die for Voter ID.”

The Voter ID bill in the Legislature turned out to be perhaps the most contentious bill of the session, with Republicans saying it was needed to prevent voter fraud and Democrats saying the measure would disenfranchise poor and elderly Texans. Texas Republicans made the voter ID measure a top priority, putting it ahead of other bills in the House; Democrats filibustered for five days, with the impasse leading to hundreds of bills not being passed.

According to the Dallas Morning News, some Democrats privately blamed House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) for holding up the other legislation for the voter ID bill, saying he influenced the actions through Republicans on the Calendars Committee, which sets the House agenda.

Still, though, Deshotel credited Straus for setting a different tone in this legislative session by being less controlling than his predecessor, Midland Republican Tom Craddick.

“This was a different kind of session than the last two or three. There was more cooperation and congeniality — more tension in the last session. People tried to work things out with the new speaker,” Deshotel said, referring to Straus. “He let the members do their own thing.”



Erik Onstott is a reporter and page designer for the Orange Leader. He may be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2616 or eonstott@orangeleader.com