 February 6, 2003 |
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| 78th Legislature Policy Orientation, Four Seasons Hotel, Austin
2/3/2003 - 1:00 pm Texas Public Policy Foundation, Four Seasons Hotel, Austin 2/3/2003 - All day (George Scott speaks at 1:30 pm) |
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| House Appropriations TUESDAY - 2/4/03 7:00 A.M., E1.030 House Public Education TUESDAY - 2/4/03 2:00 P.M., E2.036 Senate Intergovernmental Relations WEDNESDAY - 2/5/03 9:00 A.M., E1.028 Senate Education TUESDAY - 2/4/2003 9:00 A.M., E1.028 Senate Health and Human Services TUESDAY - 2/4/2003 On Adj., Senate Chamber Senate Government Organization WEDNESDAY - 2/5/2003 1:00 P.M. or Adj., Senate Chamber |
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| House Committees Signal Speaker's Priorities Speaker Tom Craddick?s committee appointments speak volumes about his legislative agenda, particularly with regard to budget and taxes, public education, tort reform, health and human services, and insurance regulation. While no one was surprised that experienced budget hand Rep. Talmadge Heflin (R-Houston) received the coveted Appropriations Committee chair, Craddick departed from House tradition by placing several relatively junior members of the House in key positions. These include a trio of increasingly powerful sophomores, Elizabeth Ames Jones (R-San Antonio), Myra Crownover (R-Denton), and Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) and two up-and-coming freshmen, Dan Branch (R-Dallas) and Jack Stick (R-Austin). The Speaker also selected the Conservative Coalition?s key players on fiscal policy for budget-writing duty, including Arlene Wohlgemuth (R-Burleson), Carl Isett (R-Lubbock), Peggy Hamric (R-Houston), John Davis (R-Pasadena), Vicki Truitt (R-Grapevine), and Suzanna Hupp (R-Lampasas). This is a committee made for implementing some of the more controversial spending policies proposals of the Coalition, primarily deep cuts in health and human services programs and employee health benefits. The strongly conservative tilt of the Appropriations Committee is mirrored by its revenue counterpart, Ways & Means. Chaired by one of the Speaker?s early Democratic supporters, Ron Wilson (D-Houston), Ways & Means is purely a leadership committee. Any bill proposing to raise tax revenue will have to pass through four committee chairs and two vice-chairs, as well as the committee Appropriations watchdog, CBO Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie). Just as the Appropriations Committee is clearly structured to write a budget within available revenue, Ways & Means is built to reject tax bills. Craddick?s decision to split the Ways & Means Committee into state and local components indicates the Speaker?s interest in revising the property tax. Local Government Ways & Means will be chaired by Fred Hill (R-Dallas), a conservative lawmaker from an area afflicted by growing taxpayer unrest over property tax increases and high valuations. Hill is joined by three other suburban Republicans, Glenn Hegar (R-Katy), Jodie Laubenberg (R-Wiley), and Anna Mowery (R-Fort Worth). Mowery has already filed legislation doing away with appointed appraisal district boards and replacing an appointed chief appraiser with an elected county tax assessor-collector as the administrator of each appraisal district. These bills would effectively roll back the clock to pre-property tax reform days, in which residential property was on the tax roll at a third or less of its market value, while business property was appraised at a much higher ratio. This important committee will also consider significant changes in the law governing rendition of business personal property, as well as numerous proposals to lower the 10% cap on the annual increase in appraised value of residential property and to extend the age 65 and older school tax freeze to other taxing units. It cannot be emphasized enough how potentially important this new committee could be. If the Texas property tax system is set to return to the Dark Ages, either through reverting to a pre-Peveto system or going to a more formal split roll, this will be the committee to initiate the process. The Speaker?s Public Education Committee is likely to cooperate in this process. While the chair, Kent Grusendorf (R-Arlington) has grown closer to the education community in recent years, his committee finds itself populated with five suburban Republicans out for Robin Hood?s blood, especially Chairman of Budget and Oversight Dan Branch. He hails from Highland Park, epicenter of the anti-Robin Hood movement. Virtually every new GOP legislator was elected on a pledge to get rid of Robin Hood, and Speaker Craddick has made it clear that he intends to do it in the regular session. If this is a sincere desire, it may frustrate the House?s conflicting desire to avoid a general tax bill. If appropriations, school finance, and new taxes are all pulling in opposite directions, there is no such ambivalence about tort reform. Speaker Craddick?s new Civil Practices Committee is overwhelmingly pro-business and is unlikely to spend much time debating the finer points of liability reform. Chair Joe Nixon (R-Houston), a defense lawyer and veteran of past tort reform wars, leads a true Speaker?s committee, boasting the chairs of Calendars (Wooley), Transportation (Mike Krusee, R-Georgetown), Judicial Affairs (Will Hartnett, R-Irving), and Public Health (Jaime Capelo, D-Corpus Christi). Medical liability and other tort reform won?t spend much time moldering here, as it has done for the past few sessions. It is much the same story for insurance regulatory reform. Veteran Chairman John Smithee (R-Amarillo) returns for another session at the helm, this time with the task of shepherding through a package of reforms aimed at restructuring the Texas homeowner?s market and reining in the use of credit scoring to rate and underwrite risk. Smithee is joined by Vice Chair Gene Seaman (R-Corpus Christi), and four other Republicans. This shift represents a substantial change in direction for the committee, which during the past few sessions been heavily dominated by Democrats more or less hostile to the industry. However, while industry should get a somewhat more sympathetic ear from the incoming committee, avoiding substantial new rate regulation will not be easy. Business & Industry is another committee to watch. Chair Helen Giddings (D-Dallas), another early Craddick supporter, is joined by three other Democrats and five Republicans. This committee is important to the business community for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is its jurisdiction over workers? compensation legislation and commercial law, including changes to the Uniform Commercial Code. With several major UCC and business organization bills expected this session, Business & Industry could be a real sleeper committee with critical influence on key issues. Another sleeper committee is likely to be Government Reform, chaired by David Swinford (R-Dumas). Swinford?s committee may be charged with eliminating some state agencies and reorganizing others. Swinford?s Vice Chair, Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), is also an experienced watchdog of agency spending and is expected to carry one or more of the Sunset bills this session. Ray Allen (R-Grand Prairie), Chair of Corrections, is also strategically placed to pursue a full-scale privatization of the Texas prison system. Watch for this committee to make some big recommendations in line with the Appropriations Committee restructuring of the state budget. Chairman Kenny Marchant (R-Carrollton) will lead the State Affairs Committee, traditionally the most influential substantive committee outside of Appropriations. Although the utility and telecommunications functions of the committee have been split off (Phil King, R-Weatherford, will handle those), State Affairs is the home for the major social issue legislation and a wide range of other issues. This may be the year that reproductive rights legislation finally clears committee and hits the House floor. That brings us finally to the Calendars Committee, where legislation is usually sent to die. Speculation is rife that this session?s version of Calendars will play less of a direct role in setting the House agenda, although it is still very much a Speaker?s committee. Chair Beverly Wooley and Vice Chair Arlene Wohlgemuth are important leaders in the Conservative Coalition, both champions of the conservative agenda of prior sessions. Their control of the bottleneck is a strong indicator of the kind of calendars we are likely to see in the House this session. |