AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report) March madness takes on a meaning of its own every odd-numbered year at the Capitol as we steadily increase the committee workload reach the bill filing deadline and begin hearing bills on the House floor. Last Friday marked the bill filing deadline after which no 
new piece of legislation can be introduced. As of a week ago the count of bills filed in the House is at 4161 while the Senate has filed 1546 pieces of legislation.
We will be closely monitoring the many bills filed at the buzzer!
Addressing Fiscal Challenges - Texas Style
I want to commit to you today that the House will fund our obligations to our retired teachers said Appropriations Chairman John Otto on the House floor recently indicating the Appropriations Committees commitment to fund the shortfall in the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) health insurance plan TRS-Care.
If the Legislature took no action TRS-Care would be insolvent by 2016 and start 2017 with a $768 million shortfall. Rather than increase premiums or cut benefits for the 233000 retirees in TRS-Care the 
Legislature is poised to fully fund the program this session.
We are immensely grateful to Texas teachers for their dedication to providing a quality education to future generations of Texans and look forward to working with the House Appropriations Committee to ensure our commitment to them is fulfilled.
General Investigating & Ethics Committee
Earlier this Session when committees were announced I was appointed to the newly created House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics. The committees charge includes investigating misconduct malfeasance misfeasance abuse of office or incompetency of an individual or officer and transparency in the reporting of financial transactions by agencies of the judicial and executive branches of state government and affiliated entities or foundations.
During the committees first hearing last week we received updates from the State Auditors Office the Legislative Budget Board the Comptroller and others. We discussed at length the contracting scandal that took place recently at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission when the agency signed a $20 million no-bid contract with a company called 21CT to investigate Medicaid fraud.
This is just one example of unethical contracting issues that various agencies have become involved in and our committee will play a major 
role in both rooting these issues out and developing legislation to keep them from happening in the future.
Larson Legislation
Most of our bills have been referred to various committees and weve been granted hearings for several of them. Last week HB 163 a bill we filed that creates a regional water council was heard in the House Committee on Natural Resources. We presented a bill in the Ways and Means Committee this morning and will lay out a bill in the State Affairs Committee tomorrow. We have described these bills for you below.
HB 163 Regional Cooperation to Secure Texas Water Future
Texas is currently in the midst of the second worst drought in the states history. The ongoing drought which began in 2011 requires innovative strategies to address. Its time we develop a multifaceted plan to secure Texas water future. One part of the strategy should include a regional water commission.
HB 163 calls for the creation of a Southwestern States Water Commission that would be charged with facilitating interstate cooperation to help resolve regional water issues. The Commission would advise the Governor and Legislature and would consist of six commissioners: two appointed 
by the Governor two by the Lt. Governor and two by the Speaker of the House.
HB 163 was received well by the Natural Resources Committee membership and we look forward to working it through the House.
HB 157 Increasing Local Control for Texas Cities
This morning we presented HB 157 before the House Ways and Means Committee. HB 157 seeks to increase local control for Type A general law cities. Currently these cities are authorized to collect a 2 percent sales tax to fund different items within 4 categories and the statute includes caps for each category:
1. General Fund (1) 2. Venue Projects (.5) 3. Economic Development (.25) and 4. Street Construction & Maintenance (.25).
This bill does not allow cities to raise taxes beyond the 2 cap rather it allows them the flexibility to use the revenue they receive for their own unique needs rather than having to abide by these arbitrary statutory caps. For example if a general law city wanted to spend more on street maintenance than venue projects their city council could vote to take .25 percent from the venue projects category and move it to street maintenance. Without this legislation cities effectively have their hands tied by the states law. Hollywood Park and hundreds of other general law cities across the state would benefit from increased local control provided by this bill.
