Patricia Kilday Hart reports on the burkablog
http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=4012
that Sen. Carona is considering filibustering HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset Bill, because earlier today the House-Senate conference committee stripped out of it Carona's local option transportation tax. Hart says the final committee report "was not shown to Transportation Chair Carona or Vice-Chair Kirk Watson, but signed and filed by Senate conferees Glenn Hegar, Chuy Hinojosa and Robert Nichols." How does this happen? Did the rest of the committee just wait until the chair and vice-chair of the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee were both out of the room at the same time, sign the thing real quick, and then take off at a run to file it? I'm having trouble picturing this.
In addition to Hegar, Hinojosa, and Nichols signing for the Senate, Linda Harper-Brown, Joe Pickett (Chair of the House Transportation Committee), Wayne Smith, and Carl Isett (author of HB 300), signed for the House. The only House conferee not to sign was Ruth Jones McClendon.
Previously, Carona has said he will not accept the TxDOT Sunset Bill if it does not contain his local option plan. From this point, the signed bill without his local option plan will be printed and distributed to the Senate and the House to be voted on by all members. It is not clear how soon the 1,000-plus-page bill call be printed and distributed, so it is uncertain when the votes in both houses will occur. It has to be before the session ends on Monday, June 1. Is it feasible for a Carona filibuster to prevent a Senate vote and thus kill HB 300? If this happens, TxDOT will have to be continued for two years by the "safety net" bill and its Sunset process taken up by the next session
Showing posts with label Joe Pickett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Pickett. Show all posts
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
TxDOT Sunset HB 300--internal and external attacks
House and Senate conference committee members are now negotiating to see if the two different versions of the TxDOT Sunset bill can be reconciled. Given some issues that it seems that they will never agree on, will this HB 300 collapse from its own weight? A good explanation in the Star-Telegram:
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1402048.html
The House has declared that it will never accept the local option transportation tax plan desired mainly by the DFW area, and the Senate has declared that it will not accept HB 300 without this plan.
The Star-Telegram reports a possible compromise: "Senate negotiators are offering to reduce two proposed fees on motorists and delay countywide elections by two years in a proposed compromise to keep a local transportation funding plan alive . . ."
While negotiations go on behind closed doors, there will be a very public rally and press conference: "Several hundred business and community leaders from Arlington, Burleson and other area cities planned to descend on the state Capitol today to show support for the local-option transportation provision, regarded as crucial to resolving worsening traffic congestion in North Texas."
In addition to the local option tax plan, the other major point of disagreement is red-light cameras. The House has placed a phase-out of the cameras in its version, but it is not in the Senate's.
Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Chair John Carona says that "local-option provisions are not negotiable." House Transportation Chair Joe Pickett says, according to the Star-Telegram, that he is "concerned that a provision widely opposed by the House membership could endanger the entire bill."
TURF, Liberty Matters, Texans Against Tolls, Independent Texans, and others are working to kill HB 300. They argue that the current version does not contain the desirable changes developed during the Sunset process and does contain most of the undesirable provisions that could not stand on their own and have been added under the table at the last minute. It could be that their efforts, plus the inability of the House and Senate to agree, will accomplish what seemed unlikely until recently--the death of HB 300, resulting in a TxDOT Sunset re-do, to be tackled in the 2011 session.
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1402048.html
The House has declared that it will never accept the local option transportation tax plan desired mainly by the DFW area, and the Senate has declared that it will not accept HB 300 without this plan.
The Star-Telegram reports a possible compromise: "Senate negotiators are offering to reduce two proposed fees on motorists and delay countywide elections by two years in a proposed compromise to keep a local transportation funding plan alive . . ."
While negotiations go on behind closed doors, there will be a very public rally and press conference: "Several hundred business and community leaders from Arlington, Burleson and other area cities planned to descend on the state Capitol today to show support for the local-option transportation provision, regarded as crucial to resolving worsening traffic congestion in North Texas."
In addition to the local option tax plan, the other major point of disagreement is red-light cameras. The House has placed a phase-out of the cameras in its version, but it is not in the Senate's.
Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Chair John Carona says that "local-option provisions are not negotiable." House Transportation Chair Joe Pickett says, according to the Star-Telegram, that he is "concerned that a provision widely opposed by the House membership could endanger the entire bill."
TURF, Liberty Matters, Texans Against Tolls, Independent Texans, and others are working to kill HB 300. They argue that the current version does not contain the desirable changes developed during the Sunset process and does contain most of the undesirable provisions that could not stand on their own and have been added under the table at the last minute. It could be that their efforts, plus the inability of the House and Senate to agree, will accomplish what seemed unlikely until recently--the death of HB 300, resulting in a TxDOT Sunset re-do, to be tackled in the 2011 session.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
HB 9--companion to Carona's SB 855 for local transportation taxes--heard on April 21
During the Tuesday hearing, after the relatively short time spent on HB 11 and 13, the Transportation Committee heard several hours of testimony on HB 9 by Vicki Truitt, Keller. This is the companion bill to Sen. Carona's large complicated SB 855 to allow some of the largest urban areas in the state to vote among several possible taxes and fees to raise money in their local area to pay for local transportation projects.
Teams of boosters from the areas that want this power testified up into the evening. (I left before it was over.) Testifiers included elected officials and business people. The most unexpected sighting for me was Nolan Ryan, who joined other witnesses from North Texas to advocate for HB 9. I was sorry that my husband the big baseball fan was not there to see him.
Ryan's main point was that the traffic congestion in the vicinity of the Ballpark at Arlington is keeping fans away, especially during the week, including Friday evening. I don't know if any of the projects that the North Texas leaders want most will help that traffic problem, but it was interesting to see and hear him in person.
I had thought that the Transportation Committee members would give all the HB 9 testimony a favorable reception so was surprised by the close questioning of the bill's author Rep. Truitt, especially by Reps. Harper-Brown and Davis. Both are from the DFW area, but they are not sold on the HB 9 approach. They and other members also questioned other witnesses at length on the details of the bill, and it certainly has many complicated details. The menu of taxes that the areas can choose from even varies from area to area!
Chairman Joe Pickett left HB 9 pending in committee and according to Rodger Jones, Dallas Morning News, Pickett seemed skeptical that HB 9 was the right approach, saying, "We do need a plan. We need a statewide plan." The author Rep. Truitt responded, "If you don't mind, I'm going to keep working on this bill." Maybe making changes that were discussed during the hearing will bring more representatives on board, but it looks like local transportation taxes may face more trouble getting through the House than the Senate.
Teams of boosters from the areas that want this power testified up into the evening. (I left before it was over.) Testifiers included elected officials and business people. The most unexpected sighting for me was Nolan Ryan, who joined other witnesses from North Texas to advocate for HB 9. I was sorry that my husband the big baseball fan was not there to see him.
Ryan's main point was that the traffic congestion in the vicinity of the Ballpark at Arlington is keeping fans away, especially during the week, including Friday evening. I don't know if any of the projects that the North Texas leaders want most will help that traffic problem, but it was interesting to see and hear him in person.
I had thought that the Transportation Committee members would give all the HB 9 testimony a favorable reception so was surprised by the close questioning of the bill's author Rep. Truitt, especially by Reps. Harper-Brown and Davis. Both are from the DFW area, but they are not sold on the HB 9 approach. They and other members also questioned other witnesses at length on the details of the bill, and it certainly has many complicated details. The menu of taxes that the areas can choose from even varies from area to area!
Chairman Joe Pickett left HB 9 pending in committee and according to Rodger Jones, Dallas Morning News, Pickett seemed skeptical that HB 9 was the right approach, saying, "We do need a plan. We need a statewide plan." The author Rep. Truitt responded, "If you don't mind, I'm going to keep working on this bill." Maybe making changes that were discussed during the hearing will bring more representatives on board, but it looks like local transportation taxes may face more trouble getting through the House than the Senate.
Monday, February 16, 2009
New House Transportation Committee Chair
Up until this session, our HD 52 representative Mike Krusee was chair of the House Transportation Committee, from which position he authored and rammed through the legislation enabling the Trans-Texas Corridor in 2003. Very few people, including members of the House and Senate who voted for it, realized what a devastating bomb was included in this legislation. Once we did realize it, we were forced to spend the ensuing years fighting the durned thing. We could have spent that time otherwise.
The new chairman of the House Transportation Committee is El Paso Rep. Joe Pickett. As reported by the El Paso Times, Pickett has called TxDOT a secretive bully.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11693160?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com
Pickett is called “an expert on transportation issues,” with “a thorny relationship with the Texas Department of Transportation,” filing in 2007 a bill to abolish the Texas Transportation Commission.
“Pickett has also chastised the Transportation Department for not being open enough about its spending and for having what he considers an insatiable appetite for toll roads.”
We shall see.
The new chairman of the House Transportation Committee is El Paso Rep. Joe Pickett. As reported by the El Paso Times, Pickett has called TxDOT a secretive bully.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11693160?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com
Pickett is called “an expert on transportation issues,” with “a thorny relationship with the Texas Department of Transportation,” filing in 2007 a bill to abolish the Texas Transportation Commission.
“Pickett has also chastised the Transportation Department for not being open enough about its spending and for having what he considers an insatiable appetite for toll roads.”
We shall see.
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