Weekly Summary

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Bill filing ended last week as legislators rushed to submit 2563 bills and proposed constitutional amendments, bringing the grand total up to 5924 pieces of legislation.

Gov. Perry continues his mission to bring jobs from California to Texas. Hoping that the Lone Star State will be home to the next Silicon Valley, he hosted a roundtable to recruit high tech start-ups. The governor boasted, “Our low taxes, reasonable regulations and fair courts have fueled Texas’ rise in economic diversity and prominence, and we continue to build a workforce that can meet the needs of high tech industries.” With tech companies rushing to San Antonio, he may be on to something.

In the Senate, newly-elected Sen. Sylvia Garcia officially became the 31st Senator and took office this week. Then it was back to business as several important bills affecting tax lien transfers, higher education, and information disclosures were voted out. SB 24 consolidates UT-Pan American and UT-Brownsville into a single university and creates a new medical center in the Rio Grande Valley. The House also approved $2 billion in spending for a state water fund.

SB 1, the general appropriations bill, was voted out of Senate Finance unanimously. To improve funding equity and to keep up with enrollment growth, the bill adds $1.4 billion to the Foundation School Program. It also funds the Women’s Health Program by $100 million and increases Texas Grants by $120 million. The bill will be considered by the Senate on Wednesday.

Texas walked the line with its overdue Medicaid payment. Chairman Pitts of House Appropriations urged the Senate to quickly approve amendments to HB 10 because Medicaid funds were due to be depleted on Thursday. The bill was promptly signed by Gov. Perry earlier in the week. While the bill gives $1.75 billion to public education, it actually just pays another bill that had been postponed from the last biennium. No funding cuts have thus far been restored for public schools.

 

News of the Week

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House panel approves $1.5 billion more for schools

House budget-writers scraped together an additional $1.5 billion for public education Thursday, but that wasn’t enough to mollify Democrats who say more needs to be found to help Texas schools.
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House Sends Medicaid IOU Bill to Perry

Two days ahead of a crucial deadline, the Texas House sent a bill to Gov. Rick Perry Tuesday that pays off $4.5 billion in Medicaid IOUs and speeds up a $1.75 billion payment that schools were already expecting.
-Read full article-

 

Tax committee leader weighs options to boost state’s economy

The chairman of the state’s powerful tax-writing committee is considering a package of bills aimed at fixing — not phasing out — the state’s primary business tax, giving incentives for research, and putting state officials in charge of granting temporary reductions in school property taxes to companies relocating to Texas or expanding here.
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Texas House committee approves $2B water fund

Texas needs to spend about $53 billion over the next 50 years to meet the water needs of the growing population, according to the State Water Development Board. About half of that needs to come from the state.
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The Senate has 31 members again with Garcia’s arrival

Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, took her place in the Texas Senate chamber Monday to succeed the late Mario Gallegos. “We have 31 members. We are complete,” said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio.
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Texas’ smoking habit costs us billions

Annual health care costs in Texas directly caused by smoking were $5.83 billion in 2011. Of that, Medicaid — financed by state and federal taxpayers — covered $1.6 billion. Productivity lost to smoking-related causes cost Texas businesses $6.79 billion.
-Read full article-

 

Blue Cross Launches Campaign for Insurance Exchange

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the state’s largest health insurance provider, is launching a statewide campaign on Tuesday aimed at getting Texans enrolled in health plans through an online marketplace created by federal health reform.
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GOP Senator Eltife Challenging His Party on Debt, Taxes

State Sen. Kevin Eltife did not plan to make news last month while speaking at a transportation conference in Austin. Participating in a legislative panel, the Tyler Republican tried to explain how he would revamp the way Texas financed road construction. Taking on more state debt is not the answer, he said.
-Read full article-

 

More Guard soldiers dying from car crashes, suicide than in combat

Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, roughly twice as many Texas Army National Guard soldiers have died of suicide as in combat, an American-Statesman investigation has found.
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PoliTex: Davis seeks audits of governor’s and state comptroller’s grant-awarding funds
Sen. Wendy Davis made good on her pledge to seek audits of two major state funds that she said have distributed nearly $700 million in taxpayer-financed grants without being subject to “basic accountability standards.” The audits would apply to Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund and the Events Trust Fund.
-Read full article-

 

Can San Antonio Displace Austin as Texas’s Tech Hub?

The Air Force division charged with waging cyber-warfare is located in San Antonio, and a growing number of cyber-security and biotechnology companies have set up shop in the city as well.
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Career education plan stirs fear of minority ‘tracking’

Lingering memories of those days are fresh on the minds of the many Latino and African-American state leaders who are uneasy with current legislative efforts to loosen Texas’ high school graduation standards so that students can pursue more career training.
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SpaceX chief to Texas: Let’s make a deal
California billionaire Elon Musk remains hopeful that plans to build the world’s first commercial spaceport near Brownsville will take flight later this year.
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TEA audit uncovers cheating at Canutillo ISD

An audit by the Texas Education Agency of the Canutillo Independent School District found that efforts to cheat federal accountability measures took place under former Superintendent Damon Murphy, and it alleges that the former Canutillo High School principal participated in the scheme.
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Teed Up: Slicing Texas Tax Breaks

Certain tax exemptions will cost Texas $43.9 billion in 2013, according to a new report from the Texas Comptroller.
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House bill would end straight-ticket voting in federal elections
Centrist members of the House have proposed legislation that would prevent people from straight-ticket voting in federal elections, a measure they hope will weaken voters’ allegiance to the Republican and Democratic parties.
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Giddings, Turner blast hoarding of air pollution clean up fees

Two Democratic House budget writers complained Tuesday that a $6 air pollution clean up charge added to annual car inspection fees in North Texas, metro Houston and metro Austin continues to be hoarded, a practice they say GOP state leaders deplore but are moving very, very slowly to change.
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House completes budget fix for Medicaid

The House on Tuesday passed an emergency spending bill that would avert a looming cutoff of payments to doctors, hospitals and nursing homes for their care of poor Texans. The measure would spend nearly $7 billion, including $4.5 billion to patch a big hole lawmakers left in the last legislative session.
-Read full article-

 

Texas Senate education chair says some high school tests may be shelved this spring

Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick said Tuesday that some high school end-of-course tests may scrapped this spring if the Legislature acts quickly enough on a bill that would sharply reduce the number of exams required for graduation.
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STAAR tests to be released early

Questions from the state’s tougher new standardized exams will be released to the public this summer, at least a year earlier than expected, the Texas Education Agency announced Tuesday.
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Emotions charged at hearing on campus weapons

Citing mass shootings at places named Columbine, Aurora and Newtown, among others, supporters urged the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee to give potential victims — if they are trained and have a state handgun license — the ability to defend themselves if threatened by a shooter.
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Moorhead: Debunking Medicaid myths

“We’re keeping you uninsured for your own good,” seems to be the claim of those who oppose extending Medicaid to low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. Opponents use long-discredited research to reach the tortured conclusion that “people on Medicaid do worse than those with no insurance at all.” In fact, this canard is completely false, and there’s a wealth of information and experience to prove it.
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