August 15, 2017      7:32 PM

SB: House tells the Senate to take it or leave it

Final questions of the special center on whether Patrick wants to declare a substantive victory and whether Abbott has internalized the damage he’s done to his own ability to govern

Now that the Texas House has adjourned sine die, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is on the spot as to whether he will declare a substantive victory in his decades-long crusade against local governments and accept the fact that he’s won on his signature issue: He has now successfully forced an automatic rollback rate for cities and counties through both legislative chambers.

Yes, Patrick prefers 4 percent. But the law now includes no automatic rollback rate and only the ability to petition for an election at 8 percent. That’s the same as it was when Patrick first loaded people on buses in Houston and brought them to the Capitol to voice their outrage about property taxes way back when he was only a radio talk show host.

The chatter in the lobby just before Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen took to the mic this evening was that “Senate Bill 1 is dead.”

Bonnen, however, told his colleagues he was not asking for House conferees to be appointed because he wanted to save the bill. "I'm trying to keep the bill alive," Chair Bonnen said. "If we appointed conferees now it would kill the bill because we are out of time."

The question of timing might be up for debate.

There is no doubt, though, that the Senate could simply discharge its conferees – which include no Democrats and only anti-local government crusaders – and Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, could move to concur on House changes to the property tax bill.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright August 15, 2017, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved