CAPITOL ROUNDUP
Early primaries get closer
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
VOTING
Early primaries get closer
The Senate Committee on State Affairs advanced an early primary proposal Tuesday by a 6-3 vote.
If the proposal survives, candidates would face a mid-November deadline this year to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries Feb. 5.
The Texas legislation shifts the primary from the first Tuesday of March every even-numbered year to the first Tuesday in February of those years.
"Texas should not play second fiddle to anyone," Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said.
SCHOOLS
Bible class idea advances
House members tentatively passed legislation Tuesday allowing high schools to continue to have the option of offering courses on the literature and history of the Bible.
In the process, they resisted an effort by the bill's author, Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, to require that all schools offer the course as an elective.
After Chisum filed his first bill, the House Public Education Committee took public testimony on several days before changing the bill significantly into the version approved Tuesday.
SMOKING BAN
Weaker measure clears House
The House voted 92-52 to pass a statewide smoking ban that it significantly weakened Monday.
The bill was designed to protect workers by banning smoking in indoor workplaces, including restaurants and bars. But the bill was amended to include a provision that allows property owners to allow smoking simply by posting a sign.
Author Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, said she hopes the amendments she objects to will get stripped off in the Senate.
BUSINESSES
Mom-and-pops could get help
Small-business owners would get help buying insurance for their employees under a bill the Senate passed Tuesday.
The bill by Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, directs the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Department of Insurance to create a premium assistance program for small employers.
ENVIRONMENT
Emissions measure approved
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, persuaded his colleagues Tuesday to pass a bill requiring the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to develop a statewide strategy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The agency has until the end of 2008 to develop the greenhouse strategies. It must prove that the strategies, through the reduced use of energy, will result in a cost savings for households and businesses.
Groups fear energy drain
Environmental groups say renewable energy producers and consumers will be left in the lurch if language offered by Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, is successful.
Currently, Texas law requires the state to get about 5 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, by 2015.
The Fraser language, floated as an amendment to a Senate utilities bill, calls for an end of the obligation to buy renewable energy credits two years after the state meets the 5 percent standard.
The language is designed as relief for ratepayers, because it is utilities that typically buy the renewable energy credits, according to Fraser's office.
"This would completely destroy the Texas renewable energy market," Luke Metzger, the head of the group Environment Texas, wrote in an e-mail.
BORDER
Security measure approved
A sweeping security measure aimed at beefing up law enforcement agencies along the border won final House approval Tuesday.
The bill details how a proposed $100 million requested by Gov. Rick Perry for border security would be spent.
The money has been earmarked to boost resources to patrol Texas' border with Mexico.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
BICYCLISTS
Senators OK protections
A motorist passing a bicyclist would have to move into another lane if there's one available or pass at a safe distance of at least three feet under a bill the Senate tentatively approved Tuesday.
Existing Texas law requires motorists to pass at a safe distance, but Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said his legislation would define what that distance is.
About 50 bicyclists are killed each year in Texas, and about 40 percent of those are hit by motorists traveling in the same direction, Ellis said.
TEXAS YOUTH COMMISSION
Crockett official suspended
The superintendent of the Crockett State School, about 45 miles west of Lufkin, has been suspended with pay, the fourth head of a lockup removed in the past two months, Youth Commission officials said Tuesday.
Agency spokesman Jim Hurley said Don Freeman was relieved of his duties Friday in connection with violations of Youth Commission policies. He would give no further details.
Sylvia Machado, superintendent of a San Antonio halfway house, was fired in March after she was arrested in connection with records shredding.
Weeks later, Jerome Parsee, superintendent of the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Center, was terminated after his arrest on a charge of lying to investigators.
Within the past two weeks, Bart Caldwell, superintendent of the Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg, was terminated.
Quote of the day
"Y'all hear that? It's bills dying."
Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, commenting on the slow progress in the House as legislative deadlines loom.
