By Senator Kirk Watson
It definitely feels like baseball season.
Not just because the Longhorns are in the
College World Series. And not just because its gotten so stunningly hot that no one wants to play anything that doesnt involve a lot of standing around.No its baseball season because up in the Capitol everyone seems to be in that clock-less mindset. As in nobodys in much of a rush and theres no clock or calendar or whatever making us move faster.
At the same time theres work to do. Weve all had our metaphorical nine innings to play. And if we didnt get everything done we need to come back for extras.
In fact we now know well be back for extras. The Governor just said so.
Isnt that special?
Yes legislators learned last week that that theyre going to have to come back to work for a Special Session to finish up at least a little of what didnt get done last month.
The agenda will have to include two items that ran out of time in the political demolition derby that was the
Texas House of Representatives over the last weeks of the session. (Yeah yeah. I know that badly mixed sports metaphors. Real guys can do that.)
One is the so-called safety net" bill that will keep the Department of Transportation Department of Insurance and other agencies in business even though their required Sunset reviews didnt pass.
The other item is funding for roughly $2 billion in transportation bonds that voters authorized in 2007 and that the state indisputably needs but that didnt get authorized during the session thanks again to needless political spats around the Capitol.
All of that should be pretty easy barring any unforeseen political flare-up (which is to say it probably wont be that easy). And that probably covers the basic legal bases we need to touch to keep the state running for two more years.
But honestly I feel like theres still a lot of unfinished business and missed opportunities that Texans would like to see taken care of. And if were potentially going to get another shot at all of this I think we should take it.
Were done when the people say were done.
The top of the list should be the Department of Insurance and TxDOT unless theres anyone out there who thinks things are swell enough with insurance rates and transportation that the state can get by with the status quo for a couple of years.
The truth is that the insurance sunset bill is pretty close to done. It isnt perfect I voted against the thing and would like to see the agency doing a whole lot more to protect consumers not just insurance companies.
But I was also able to negotiate a couple of important protections that would benefit customers around the state. And a special session would provide more time to come up with a product everyone could support.
As for the TxDOT sunset bill the lone sticking point seemed to be a measure allowing communities and regions to ask the voters to authorize additional funds to pay for their transportation needs. This is a critically important issue in places like Central Texas it would actually give us alternatives to toll roads options that wed control at a local level.
The objection is that even though the voters are deciding whether anyone gets taxed and even though the money would go somewhere its desperately needed this initiative involves taxes so it must be bad. I guess some folks up here think theyre smarter than local officials who know what they need and who know how little support theyre getting from the state.
Whatever it would be good to spend a couple of hot summer weeks actually having the conversation. Since were going to be here anyway I say lets go.
And theres other important business thats still unfinished. The state has actually funded a good important expansion of the Childrens Health Insurance Program and the bill authorizing that spending came within days (and some very bad House politics) of passing. Some landmark renewable energy legislation including my RPS bill was left on the table for the same reason. Really cant we take advantage of this sun?
None of this stuff should require that much more work weve been doing the work for the last six months. It just needs to be waved around third. If well be in town anyway I say we try to take home.
This aint no rain delay
One of the big problems with rain delays is you dont know when play will continue.
Well the Governor who has sole power over when to schedule a special session is being coy about when well start. So all anyone can do is guess and speculate about when well be back together.
Meanwhile Six Flags goes bust and declares bankruptcy since no one can plan for anything or schedule a vacation.
It definitely feels like baseball season.
Not just because the Longhorns are in the College World Series. And not just because its gotten so stunningly hot that no one wants to play anything that doesnt involve a lot of standing around.No its baseball season because up in the Capitol everyone seems to be in that clock-less mindset. As in nobodys in much of a rush and theres no clock or calendar or whatever making us move faster.
At the same time theres work to do. Weve all had our metaphorical nine innings to play. And if we didnt get everything done we need to come back for extras.
In fact we now know well be back for extras. The Governor just said so.
Isnt that special?
Yes legislators learned last week that that theyre going to have to come back to work for a Special Session to finish up at least a little of what didnt get done last month.
The agenda will have to include two items that ran out of time in the political demolition derby that was the Texas House of Representatives over the last weeks of the session. (Yeah yeah. I know that badly mixed sports metaphors. Real guys can do that.)
One is the so-called safety net" bill that will keep the Department of Transportation Department of Insurance and other agencies in business even though their required Sunset reviews didnt pass.
The other item is funding for roughly $2 billion in transportation bonds that voters authorized in 2007 and that the state indisputably needs but that didnt get authorized during the session thanks again to needless political spats around the Capitol.
All of that should be pretty easy barring any unforeseen political flare-up (which is to say it probably wont be that easy). And that probably covers the basic legal bases we need to touch to keep the state running for two more years.
But honestly I feel like theres still a lot of unfinished business and missed opportunities that Texans would like to see taken care of. And if were potentially going to get another shot at all of this I think we should take it.
Were done when the people say were done.
The top of the list should be the Department of Insurance and TxDOT unless theres anyone out there who thinks things are swell enough with insurance rates and transportation that the state can get by with the status quo for a couple of years.
The truth is that the insurance sunset bill is pretty close to done. It isnt perfect I voted against the thing and would like to see the agency doing a whole lot more to protect consumers not just insurance companies.
But I was also able to negotiate a couple of important protections that would benefit customers around the state. And a special session would provide more time to come up with a product everyone could support.
As for the TxDOT sunset bill the lone sticking point seemed to be a measure allowing communities and regions to ask the voters to authorize additional funds to pay for their transportation needs. This is a critically important issue in places like Central Texas it would actually give us alternatives to toll roads options that wed control at a local level.
The objection is that even though the voters are deciding whether anyone gets taxed and even though the money would go somewhere its desperately needed this initiative involves taxes so it must be bad. I guess some folks up here think theyre smarter than local officials who know what they need and who know how little support theyre getting from the state.
Whatever it would be good to spend a couple of hot summer weeks actually having the conversation. Since were going to be here anyway I say lets go.
And theres other important business thats still unfinished. The state has actually funded a good important expansion of the Childrens Health Insurance Program and the bill authorizing that spending came within days (and some very bad House politics) of passing. Some landmark renewable energy legislation including my RPS bill was left on the table for the same reason. Really cant we take advantage of this sun?
None of this stuff should require that much more work weve been doing the work for the last six months. It just needs to be waved around third. If well be in town anyway I say we try to take home.
This aint no rain delay
One of the big problems with rain delays is you dont know when play will continue.
Well the Governor who has sole power over when to schedule a special session is being coy about when well start. So all anyone can do is guess and speculate about when well be back together.
Meanwhile Six Flags goes bust and declares bankruptcy since no one can plan for anything or schedule a vacation.
