Capital Highlights
by ED STERLING
On Sunday night, May 29, a Senate filibuster inspired primarily by $4 billion in proposed cuts in public school funding temporarily blocked passage of the 2012-2013 state budget.
The deadline to consider legislation hit at midnight. It would have taken unusual suspensions of House and Senate rules for the state budget to be debated on Monday, May 30, the final day of the 82nd regular session of the Texas Legislature.
So, at press deadline for this column, it appeared Gov. Rick Perry had no choice but to call a special session of the Texas Legislature for lawmakers to complete the budget and attend to other matters of his choosing. He could turn right around and issue the call.
Here’s basically how the budget impasse played out:
On Saturday, May 28, after days, weeks and months of contentious meetings of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees, lawmakers passed the conference committee report for House Bill 1, the state budget for 2012-2013 on votes of 97 to 53 in the House and 20 to 11 in the Senate.
HB 1’s conference committee report, however, was a train without wheels: it could not go anywhere without passage of a “state fiscal matters” bill that instructs how and where the funding comes from.
That bill, SB 1811, also in the form of a conference committee report, commanded the spotlight on Sunday, May 29. While it requires 6 percent across-the-board school funding cuts in 2012 and more complex formulas for cuts to be made in 2013, the conference committee report prompted a string of questions and speeches decrying its patchwork of budget cuts augmented by fee and fine increases, accounting delays, speed-ups, deferrals and revenue projections.
On Sunday, the 139th day of the 140-day session, a number of lawmakers protested the fact that the 205-page conference committee report was only made available late that same morning, and therefore did not receive the normally afforded due process, meaning scrutiny by citizens and the press followed by open public debate by lawmakers. The complaints were to no avail.
Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, in an impassioned turn at the microphone, blasted the unusual path the budget bill and its funding component had taken, but be that as it may, he said, school districts across Texas are in for deep suffering as a result of funding cuts of more than $4 billion.
While enormous, that amount is perhaps not as graspable as amounts individual school districts would lose in the coming biennium. Those are expressed in both dollar amounts and as percentages that can be obtained from local school districts.
Hochberg also said that if the budget passes as currently written, school districts should brace for huge property tax increases necessitated by the governor’s and Legislature’s refusal to make use of the state’s rainy day fund.
After hours of debate, the report was brought to a vote, and was approved on a vote of 84 to 63 in the House.
Now, about that filibuster
Passage by the House is half of the deal. To attain final passage, the Senate also had to adopt the conference committee report on SB 1811, and that is where the process came to a halt shortly after midnight.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, in a 90-minute filibuster, laid out arguments against the bill using complaints brought to her attention by constituents and read the “runs” – dollar amounts of funding district after district would lose if the Senate were to adopt the report.
When Davis had finished speaking, the Senate, by its own rules, could not bring up and consider any more legislation, because another calendar day – the final day of the session – had arrived.
Former Gov. Clements dies
Dallas oilman William P. Clements Jr., governor of Texas from 1979 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1991, died at age 94 in a Dallas hospital on May 28. Clements was the first Republican to be elected governor of Texas since post-Civil War Reconstruction.
In 1947, Clements co-founded SEDCO, which became the world’s largest offshore drilling company. SEDCO was sold to Schlumberger in the 1980s.
Before running for governor, Clements served as deputy U.S. Secretary of Defense in the Nixon and Ford administrations.
His notable accomplishments as governor include the fostering of trade relations with Mexico and improvements in crime-fighting and public education.
Ed Sterling works for the Texas Press Association and follows the Legislature for the association.
