Special Session Especially Likely?
With the session at the 60-day mark, bills are running out of time
By Richard Whittaker, Fri., March 20, 2009
On March 13, the Legislature hit its first big date on the calendar. The 60-day mark is the deadline for filing nonlocal and nonemergency bills and joint resolutions: By close of business, the House had filed 5,721 bills, while senators had filed 2,942, putting them up about 20% over the total number filed in 2007. This session was already going to be a full one – transportation and the state school system were targeted early, clearing the decks for the massive Health and Human Services Sunset review in 2011. But between the wrangling over the federal stimulus, the Senate's voter ID debate, and the extra two weeks it took Speaker Joe Straus to make his committee appointments, there are broad concerns that too many big issues are outstanding to fix in the remaining 80 days. Gov. Rick Perry may be forced to call one or even multiple special sessions to deal with major unfinished business. It would scarcely be the first time: Since 2002, the Legislature has been called back to the Capitol an extra seven times.
The 81st session was going well for Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. "The first bill out of committee and to get on Calendars was my [House Bill 772] on broadcasting State Board of Education meetings on the Internet," she said. But now, with the clock ticking, she said she's hearing "the sound of bills dying for lack of time." So, like every legislator, she's making priorities. At the top of her list is working with House Public Health Chair Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, on finding more money to hire more nurses, as well as reforming the permanent school fund ("Right now it's being run by people who are not required to have financial expertise," she noted).
The House is trying to break the impasse. Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, said, "I have bills in committee every day this week, and it's becoming very frenzied." House committees are still a sore point: There was, she said, "disgruntlement by a vast majority of representatives" about their appointments. But it may be too late – at this time last session, some bills were already on their third reading. This year, she said, "All we've had is 60 days of resolutions." Even popular bills, like her film incentive reforms in HB 873, may be in peril. "That one was voted out of committee last week," she said, "but the question is: When will there be a calendar on the floor?"
The great number of bills filed doesn't mean that legislators have picked up a slate of minor issues. On March 12, Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, started a big push for HB 3477, allowing the state's desperately overstretched emergency service districts to raise an extra 5-cent property tax per $100 valuation, to pay for urgently needed equipment and infrastructure. Sitting on the Land and Resource Management Committee, as well as Local and Consent Calendars, Bolton said, "I think I'm well positioned [to work on] land and resource management issues." But even that committee may face distractions. "Eminent domain is a big topic that's going to go through that particular committee," she added, "so I'm going to be working to make sure my county issues don't get lost."
Got something to say on the subject? Send a letter to the editor.