Pulling Your Lege

Your state legislature has now been in session for 113 days. It is scheduled to wrap up in just 27 days. To date the number of bills passed by both houses of the Lege? Zero. Nada. Bupkis. Hope y'all feel like you're getting your money's worth.

To be fair, they've had their hands full in hearings on excessively suggestive high school cheerleaders, preventing gay foster parents and renaming every fourth highway in the state after Ronald Reagan. But on the other hand, how many really important things did you want this crowd to stick their noses into? It could be that their lack of productivity is a blessing. Here's some of what they've been up to.

Tuition Regulation: This is actually a somewhat positive development. A 2003 law deregulated tuition for state colleges and universities, leading to major tuition increases, especially at UT-Austin and Texas A&M. In an ammendment to SB 1228, a bill to define measures of evaluation for the effectiveness of higher education programs, Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) showed this week that working quietly behind the scenes can work. Ellis' ammendment would have ended deregulation and permitted the legislature to resume the setting of tuition rates. According to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Ellis surprised the bill's sponsor, Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) with his ammendment, and though she objected, it became clear that Ellis had the votes already wrapped up, and the best Shapiro could manage was to agree to a compromise that established a study panel to report to the next legislature on the effectiveness of tuition deregulation and recommend whether or not to continue it. What is clear is that there is a majority in the Senate to reregulate. Unfortunately, the bill now goes to the more regressive House, where Speaker Craddick will likely do his best to kill it.

School Finance: You remember HB 3, right? We've discussed before the bill the House passed several weeks ago to rearrange the tax structure to fund education while decreasing the amount that school districts can raise through property taxes. Never mind that the Republican state comptroller found the bill $4 billion a year short. Well, the Senate raised the curtain on their concept for this bill on Monday. Clay Robinson of the Houston Chronicle provides a detailed summary of the numerous differences between the House and Senate versions. I haven't yet slogged through all the details, but the big differences seem to be a smaller sales tax increase, an expanded franchise tax, and a proposed constitutional ammendment to be voted upon next year to permit a portion of local property taxes to be replaced by a statewide property tax. At first blush, this looks like a much better deal for most than the House version, though certainly not optimal. More on this later, including the prospects for each version in conference. So far as I know, the comptroller has yet to score the Senate version.

Methamphetamine Control Diluted: According to the Austin American-Statesman, the Senate yesterday passed a bill, SB 107, to regulate the sale of cold and allergy medications that can be used in meth production. Upon complaint from the pharmaceutical lobby, the Statesman reports, the bill was ammended from requiring a prescription to requiring purchasers to show identification and sign a log. There is some justification for this change, as there is no medical reason why a prescription should be required, and making the products prescription meds would turn physicians into police. Still, it will clearly be easier for meth producers to get around the law as adopted. But what bothers me most about it is that the change really has nothing to do with how best to solve the problem, and everything to do with protecting corporate profit. We can expect no better result from the House.

Jim Crow Redux: The regressive Republican plan to suppress voting among Democratic voting blocks has taken the form of attempts in several state legislatures to introduce onerous and unnecessary requirements for identification for voters, in the name of trying to prevent fraud. Not only are they unable to provide evidence of any said fraud, but as Charles Kuffner points out, the best evidence is that none exists. Nevertheless, Rep. Mary Denny (R-Flower Mound) pushed through HB 1706 using the fig-leaf reasoning that photo identification is already required for renting a movie, which is well known to be at least as important as voting. Let me see if I can extract my tounge from my cheek--there. Ahem. Interesting is the way this was reported by the Amarillo Globe-Republican, casting the bill as an anti-vote-fraud bill that would keep the dead from casting ballots. Of course, the AG-R has no Austin bureau, so the story is an AP report. But, gentle reader, I regret to inform you that this report is rather skewed. Here, for comparison, is the Houston Chronicle report. I have saved the good news for last. Tuesday, 11 of the 12 Senate Democrats signed a letter opposing bringing HB 1706 to the floor, which is all that is required to kill it for this session.

Voter Verified Paper Trail: Although I have expressed reservations previously about the legislation that has been introduced, there is no doubt that enacting HB 166 and its companion, identically worded SB 94, will be much preferable to doing nothing. These bills have been endorsed by the independent organization, verifiedvoting.org. What the bills will do is to assure that voters using electronic machines will receive a paper record of their vote which they can verify, and which will be kept under lock, as paper ballots are now, to be used as the official records in case of recount or audit. Roman Candles notes that HB 166 was passed out of committee this week, but these still have a long way to go to become law. Without them, there will be no safeguards against the potential manipulation of electronic voting machines, many of which are being purchased as we speak by counties around the state. Both Potter and Randall counties received their checks from the Secretary of State about two weeks ago, and are now trying to determine what equipment to purchase. Honestly, I cannot think of any reasons why this legislation should be opposed by anyone, regardless of party, beyond the mind-numbingly partisan idea that if the Democrats favor it, then it must be bad for Republicans. Now would be a good time to contact your legislators to tell them to pass these bills. If you live in Amarillo, call Rep. John Smithee, (806) 372-3327 (Randall Cty.), Rep. David Swinford, (806) 374-8787 (Potter Cty.), and Sen. Kel Seliger, (806) 374-8994. If you live outside Amarillo, here is a list of House members and Senate members.

As the session draws to a close, there are going to be more of these requests for action. Please keep the phone numbers and lists handy. Time to saddle up.

DEMOPHOENIX