Let the games begin

Legislative session is right around the corner, and TSCPA is gearing up.

• Our 2007 legislative agenda has been developed
• Grassroots Seminar is almost sold out
• The January 24th Public Affairs Briefing and legislative luncheon are being planned

Legislative session will begin on January 9th, but pre-filing of bills started yesterday. Revisions to the margin tax are sure to be hot topics, as well as substantive education reform, funding of the Teacher Retirement System and reform of the state prison system.

Political pundit and TSCPA pal Harvey Kronberg posted this analysis in his Quorum Report:

PRE-FILING OF BILLS BEGIN IN THE HOUSE
After special session brouhaha, Naishtat to sign on to Berman bill assuring seniors of property tax cuts

Anyone holding out hope that the 80th legislative session might take on a less partisan tone from years past could take comfort from this: the first House leadership bill filed today will have a Democrat as a joint author.

HB 5, filed by Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler), revisits an issue left unresolved from this year’s special session: making sure that homeowners over 65 and disabled homeowners benefit from the property tax cuts passed this year.

Berman’s amendment to deal with the issue during the special session was criticized by Rep. Elliott Naishtat. In a column that appeared in QR at the end of May, the Austin Democrat criticized the amendment for not freezing property taxes after the cut. The amendment would allow property taxes for seniors and the disabled to float up in subsequent years, Naishtat argued. In the end, no added tax relief for those two groups passed the Legislature.

QR contacted Naishtat’s office this afternoon and discovered that the representative met with Berman on HB 5 and is satisfied that it will ratchet down property taxes. "And they will stay down," said Nancy Walker, Naishtat’s legislative director.

She confirmed that Naishtat, who filed a bill and constitutional amendment on the topic today, will sign on as a joint author of HB 5.

Could we be seeing the first signs of bipartisan rapprochement for the coming session? Well, before the gallery breaks out into "Kumbaya," it must be noted that the first non-leadership bills filed today - all by Rep. Frank Corte (R-San Antonio) - contain many of the red meat bills hungered for by the social conservatives in the House.

Those include:

• eminent domain (HB 16)
• a voucher pilot program (HB 18)
• informed consent on abortions (HB 21)
• extra regulations on providing emergency contraception (HB 23)

The House has reserved the first 15 bill numbers for leadership while the Senate has reserved the first 20 bill numbers for leadership. As of mid-afternoon, three House leadership bills had been filed online. None had been filed on the Senate side.