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April 19, 2019 2:00 PM
Moving people from point A to point B takes a back seat to banning red light cameras this session
The 86th session probably will not be one
known for great strides in transportation policy.
Yesterday, on a day when transportation policy usually is
at its hottest, the House Transportation Committee was still hearing bills on
specialty license plates. Rep. Ben Leman,
R-Brenham, brought some heat to a discussion of high-speed rail bills earlier in
the week, but a hearing on toll-related bills on Wednesday morning was
remarkable for its lack of buzz.
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom,
the longest-standing opponents to toll roads, promised a showdown with Rep. Matt Shaheen’s,
R-Plano, House Bill 436, but the bill to eliminate tolls off existing
toll roads once the roads are paid off drew a limited response.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright April 19, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 19, 2019 1:04 PM
His camp says "In addition to the more than $410,000 raised for his re-election, Cuellar raised nearly $300,000 for the DCCC during a three-day swing through his South Texas district with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi..."
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Copyright April 19, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 19, 2019 9:26 AM
A spokesman for Pelosi said “His comments, which are beneath the dignity of the office he holds..."
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Copyright April 19, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 17, 2019 10:30 PM
The Texas GOP and Senate Property Tax Chairman Paul Bettencourt have serious reservations; Chair Huberty says “It’s our responsibility to be able to go through this without litigation. And the bottom line is Texans are tired of their property taxes funding the biggest portion of the education budget.”
The Republican Party of Texas still has reservations about the
sales tax-property tax swap presented by Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Kingwood, during House
Ways & Means this morning.
Terry
Holcomb of the State Republican Executive Committee
testified on, rather than in support, of the bill.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright April 17, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 17, 2019 10:29 PM
Another carrot to Stickland from leadership? Chairman Canales had indicated just last week the bill may be dead. Passed it out tonight 9-3 with Chair Canales voting "no" along with Bernal and Martinez
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Copyright April 17, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 17, 2019 6:48 PM
U.S. Senate aspirant Joaquin Castro and Lt. Gov. Patrick face off in dueling press conferences at the Texas Capitol
With
more and more people in the Texas Capitol community hoping Lt.
Gov. Dan Patrick will receive a plum
appointment in the Trump Administration – and pulling for him to get it – the Senate’s
presiding officer faced off with Democrats in dueling press conferences today
about the president’s signature issue: Border security.
Both
press conferences, held minutes apart in the Senate Press Room, focused
on the recently-passed resolution passed in the upper chamber along party lines
declaring an “emergency” along the state’s border with its number one trading
partner.
The
Democrats went first, but organized their news conference as a response to the Republicans led by Patrick, who has denied he has any interest in going to DC.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By James Russell and Andrew Turner
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Copyright April 17, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 17, 2019 4:04 PM
Federal lawsuit accuses Administration Chairman of "viewpoint discrimination" when issuing media credentials for House proceedings. The Senate now has its own process, issued credentials to Empower Texans for this session
Via
reporter Asher Price in the
Austin
American Statesman:
A
prominent conservative political group is suing a Republican member of the Texas
House, claiming that he unfairly denied the group a media credential.
In
a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Austin, Empower Texans accuses
Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth,
chairman of the Committee on House Administration, of “unconstitutional
viewpoint discrimination” and the trampling of free speech and free press
rights.
...Geren,
whose committee oversees the distribution of media credentials (for the House,
the Senate has its own process), told the American-Statesman he had no comment
on the lawsuit.
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Copyright April 17, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 17, 2019 2:50 PM
Conferees are Chair Nelson, Taylor, Kolkhorst, Nichols and Huffman
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Copyright April 17, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 16, 2019 6:10 PM
With Rep. Davis of Harris in the chair, the House passes the bill to 3rd reading on a vote of 93 to 1 no and 50 PNV.
Chair Dutton voted no
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Copyright April 16, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 16, 2019 5:18 PM
Some nursing homes say they can “no longer compete with fast food restaurants and local convenience stores”
A
bill aimed to increase the quality of Texas’ nursing homes was in the Senate
Finance Committee this week. Senate Bill 1050, called the Texas
Nursing Home Quality Act, by Sen. Bryan
Hughes, R-Mineola, increases funding for the state’s nursing home facilities.
Texas
nursing home care is the worst in the nation, according to the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention, due to chronic underfunding and a
high staff turnover rate.
“This
bill creates a method of finance that allows Texas to draw down federal dollars
directed to nursing home care and ties all the funding to improving quality
outcomes,” Sen. Hughes said.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By James Russell
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Copyright April 16, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 16, 2019 11:19 AM
In an interview with KFYO Radio in Lubbock, Chair Bettencourt says there is not appetite in the Senate for the increase to buy down property taxes
Via KFYO
in Lubbock:
In an apparent split from
the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Speaker, Bettencourt came out against raising
the sales tax and said that he did not see a "tremendous appetite" in
the Texas Senate for approving an increase in the sales tax. Bettencourt wants
to know if every dollar would going to go to tax relief and "I haven't
heard that yet".
Bettencourt told Hasty,
"whether it's income tax, property tax, sales tax, or whatever tax, I'm
not voting for an increase". Bettencourt continued to say that a tax swap
is not currently a popular idea in the Texas Senate, "tax swaps got us
into trouble ten years ago when we swapped out property tax relief for the
franchise tax".
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Copyright April 16, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 15, 2019 2:47 PM
Abbott, Patrick, and Bonnen looking for as much as roughly $14 million, we are told, including funding for a GOTV effort for potentially threatened House incumbents
Gov.
Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen plan to convene a meeting
of roughly 25 major GOP donors later today, around 5pm, to make an appeal for
millions including funding for a GOTV effort for Texas House candidates
during the 2020 election.
They’re
looking for commitments of as much as about $14 million, QR learned Monday
afternoon.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright April 15, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 15, 2019 2:36 PM
Chair Burrows says "it looks like we're waiting on the Senate bill."
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Copyright April 15, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 15, 2019 11:59 AM
Seliger says it would be unconscionable to invoke the nuclear option and "discredit the body." He voted to suspend and will vote "no" on the bill
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Copyright April 15, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 15, 2019 11:00 AM
Here
are significant changes to SB 2 under the floor substitute:
The rest of the story, subscribers only
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Copyright April 15, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 15, 2019 9:41 AM
Patrick pledges allegiance to the Texas Senate as senators prepare to burn it down at his behest; as divisive a figure as he is, Patrick should neither be given credit nor receive blame for what may happen on the floor this week
Time
and again since the beginning of the session, when he was notably absent, Lt.
Gov. Dan Patrick has answered questions
about a possible jump to the Trump Administration – as DHS Secretary
or something else – by saying that he already has the best job in government he
is ever going to have.
This
past week, he went so far as to tell our friend Chad Hasty of KFYO Radio in Lubbock that he’s
already announcing his bid for reelection in 2022. The promises, though, rang
hollow to Texas Capitol observers on the eve of Patrick’s plan to invoke the
“nuclear option” to pass Senate Bill 2, the property tax “reform”
legislation, by first moving the “blocker bills” out of the way with a simple
majority.
One
GOP senator on Thursday admitted that at least four Republicans were not yet
willing to go along with the plan, under
consideration since February, which is why it didn’t happen last week or
sooner. But now at least one top Republican is privately saying they do have 18
votes, more than enough even with a lone GOP holdout, to move the “blocker bills”
ending decades of Senate tradition.
To
be clear, Patrick is operating within the rules and not changing them as some
have reported.
This
is brute force not craftiness.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright April 15, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 15, 2019 9:23 AM
After Lt. Gov. Patrick talked about putting ISD rollback rates at 2.5% into HB3, it's suddenly off the agenda for Senate Education tomorrow and may come up next Tuesday, April 23
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Copyright April 15, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 13, 2019 6:39 PM
Stuck at 15 votes? The situation is in flux this weekend as Patrick lobbies GOP members to support moving blocker bills to then take up SB2 on Monday
The
Texas
Senate’s presiding officer is working this weekend to make good on his
promise of throwing out the chamber’s traditions on Monday so that he can pass
the session’s signature bill on property tax “reform,” SB2.
GOP
senators held a conference call this afternoon at 3pm, Quorum Report has learned, though it was not clear whether Lt. Gov.
Dan Patrick was invited to be on the
call.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright April 13, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 12, 2019 4:21 PM
Via
Carlos
Sanchez at Texas Monthly:
The
move has Democratic senators scrambling to fashion a response and has some
Republicans concerned about the precedent that the move could set. Senators
said they intend to work throughout the weekend to fashion a bill acceptable to
both parties and thereby avoid the nuclear option.
The
move was later confirmed by the
Dallas
Morning News.
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Copyright April 12, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 12, 2019 12:00 PM
Some aggravation over budget conferees, key appointments, and some awards
Remember when this session was about tax reform and relief? “Well, now it’s about raising
sales taxes,” said a longtime lobbyist, amused at the Gordian knot the leadership has now created for themselves.
So,
we’ll come back to all that next week. Maybe Monday, though some veteran lawmakers
said there’s no way the Texas House will be ready to vote on
HB2
after the weekend. Who knows? Too many variables. That’s why we come to work
every day.
Meantime,
there are key appointments, some lobby news and awards to tell you about. Send us
your career news anytime to ksbraddock@gmail.com
and put POTM in the subject line if you can.
Many
thanks.
Here’s
this week’s People on the Move:
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright April 12, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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April 12, 2019 11:55 AM
Economist Dr. Stuart Greenfield notes that “this policy would increase taxes for 80 percent of Texas households, reducing taxes only for those with income above $146,000”
For
the last decade, conservative groups have actively campaigned to replace the
state’s property tax with an increased sales tax.
On
April 10, the state’s troika announced that legislation would be introduced to
ask voters to approve increasing the state’s sales tax by one percentage point
to 7.25 percent.
The
increase in sales tax receipts would be used to reduce local school district
property taxes by a comparable amount.
The complete column by Dr. Stuart Greenfield is in the R&D Department.
By Dr. Stuart Greenfield
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Copyright April 12, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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