By Paul Emerson
TAC State Financial Analyst
The Senate voted 19-12, along party lines, to pass its version of the state budget. The Committee Substitute for House Bill 1 (CSHB 1) is now headed to a conference committee to resolve what is anticipated to be a $12 billion difference between the House and Senate’s respective budgets. As of now, the House budget stands at $164.5 billion, while the Senate version comes in at $176.5 billion.
SENATE RULE 5.10 (HOUSE BILL DAY)
In what is considered a rare move, the Senate was able to bypass the longstanding tradition of using the two-thirds rule to bring up CSHB 1 for a floor vote. Instead of relying on 21 members to consider a bill (a rule that promotes bi-partisanship), the Senate used Senate Rule 5.10 to bring up CSHB 1 on Wednesday, May 4. This rule, known as the “House Bill Day,” allows a house bill to be brought up on Wednesdays or Thursdays in the Senate without meeting the two-thirds rule. Senate Rule 5.10 has been around for some time, but not in recent memory has it been used on such an important bill as the general appropriations act.
In order to get all 19 Republicans to vote in favor of CSHB 1, including Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston), who voted against the bill while it was in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) offered an unprecedented floor amendment to CSHB 1: leaving the proposed $3 billion in Rainy Day Funds off the table and making up for it with cuts to agencies (but not education) while bumping a $1.25 billion Medicaid payment into 2013. It has been a longstanding Senate tradition not to offer floor amendments on the state budget. After this maneuver, even Senate Finance Committee Vice-Chair Sen. Juan Hinojosa (D-McAllen) voted against CSHB 1.
There is some doubt as to whether the new method of finance used in Ogden’s floor amendment will make up the $3 billion previously proposed from the Rainy Day Fund. The committee conference report for HB 1 is expected to more closely resemble the House version than the Senate budget.
For more information on this article, contact Paul Emerson, TAC state financial analyst, at (800) 456-5974 or paule@county.org.
By Elna Christopher
Director of Media Relations
SB 1771 by Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, was reported out of Senate Finance on May 5, despite testimony from several county tax assessor-collectors that the bill — proclaimed as a simplified notice bill — is totally unworkable.
Local officials would support a simplified notice form so that taxpayers could better understand proposed tax rates, compared to the amount of taxes they paid the previous year. However, SB 1771 does not accomplish this and even gives taxpayers less information and is fraught with misinformation.
Because of the timelines in the bill, it could delay the preparation of tax statements until October, making the job of meeting statutory and constitutional deadlines virtually impossible. In addition, the bill provides for publication of a “same services” tax rate that ignores unfunded state mandates as well as inflation/population growth — the “same services rate” would mislead voters into thinking that service levels will not be cut back.
Tax assessors who testified on behalf of their counties and the Texas Association of Tax Assessor-Collectors presented committee members with numerous details of why the bill’s mandates are unattainable. A one-page document explains the difficulties of the bill and suggests that an interim study — with county officials at the table — is preferable to passing this seriously flawed bill. Please contact your senator immediately and request that he or she oppose this bill.
The House companion, HB 874 by Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, has been heard and is pending in House Ways and Means.
SB 1059, which makes county participation in the Collection Improvement Program (CIP) operated under the Office of Court Administration discretionary, has moved through the Senate and is scheduled for a hearing at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, May 10 in House Criminal Jurisprudence.
Under current law, counties with populations of 50,000 or greater are required to participate. This includes 54 counties with programs in operation plus another eight counties that would implement a CIP during the next year due to official 2010 Census numbers.
According to data submitted by the Texas Association of Counties County Information Project, the fiscal impact of this legislation for counties would be as follows:
It is expected that each county will develop and implement a program to maximize collections regardless of whether the county is a part of the model program, and as a result, realize a positive fiscal impact. Some of the costs associated with the implementation of the model program are the requirement to implement the entire program, and because conditions vary across the state, some of the portions of the model program are not appropriate for some counties.
The bill would provide counties greater latitude in developing an appropriate collection program, which is expected to improve collections in counties resulting in a positive fiscal impact. Therefore, the positive fiscal impact is based on an expectation of greater efficiency, not greater participation.
The Legislative Budget Board has issued a fiscal note estimating a positive impact for the state of $6,836,170.
For additional information, please contact Rick Thompson at (800) 456-5974 or e-mail Rickt@county.org.
The Texas House of Representatives passed HB 150, a redistricting plan authored by Rep. Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton). The redistricting map was approved with a 92-52 vote on Thursday, April 28, after 16 hours of floor debate.
To see the map, visit the Texas Legislative Council’s district viewer. Under Select Plans, click on Base Plan. In the window that pops up, scroll down and click on PlanH283 near the bottom of the list. This will open up the redistricting map associated with the engrossed version of HB 150.
For help using the application, click on “Map Navigation” in the upper right corner of the screen.