HB 11 - The Water Plan is a Good Plan
By State Rep. James Frank
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Later today I intend to vote YES on
taking $2 Billion dollars from the Rainy Day Fund for the purpose of funding the Texas Water Plan. Because this is a huge amount of money coming from the Rainy Day Fund
I wanted to explain my thinking on this critical issue.
1. The Water Plan is a Good Plan (Not perfect but good)
- A. Water is a Core Function of Government - Water is NOT a free-market issue. In fact other than defense it is likely the most core function of government. Texas has continually kicked the can down the road to be addressed at a later date. This should stop.
- B. Limited Solution - Since water is primarily provided and sold at a local and regional level the Water Plan seeks only to help provide financing to the local governments that are actually providing water. This will help with coordination of water throughout the state without a state takeover of what has always been a
local/regional responsibility.
I would not vote for a plan that sought to have the state take over this responsibility.
2. Voting NO May Lead to Worse Legislation
- A. SJR1 (Nuclear Option) - If the conservatives team with the Democrats (yes that is how this would go down) then it is very likely that the next bill we will have on the table is SJR1 that would take $6 billion from the RDF (yes $6 billion not $2 billion). SJR1 unbelievably passed the Senate on a 31-0 vote. This train wreck legislation would send to the voters a request to spend $2 Billion on the Water Plan $2 Billion more on roads and $2 Billion more on schools. This bill would be supported by every Democrat and many Republicans. I believe we have already put more than enough money back into schools and have put too much money into roads. That being said I believe that a NO vote on HB11 today will likely mean that SJR1 will pass.
- B. Budget - As I mentioned several weeks ago in my newsletter this has been an amazingly BIG session for spending. It seems that there have been limited if any restraints on spending. The question that I am wrestling
with is not whether we are spending too much money but rather HOW to stop this.
I believe that voting YES on HB 11 and NO on busting the constitutional spending cap is the best option available to conservatives.
3. Strategy
- A. One of the conservative groups watching us said that we need to vote NO today even it is means that we sit back and watch them take the state off of a fiscal cliff. I was not sent here to watch others take us off the cliff but rather try to be a part of a governmental body that chooses to act responsibly.
- B. It is my sincere hope and desire that we will be able to work together as a body to come up with an intelligent way to:
- Fund the Water Plan and to
- Restrain the growth in government spending.
4. Improvements to HB 11
There are many things we can do to improve HB11. I will be voting for any and all amendments that would improve the bill. If we cannot get these accepted I will still vote YES on the bill for the reasons above and because that would
indicate that we dont have the votes to stop worse legislation in the future.
It should be a very interesting process. Stay tuned.
State Representative James Frank from Wichita Falls Texas serves District 69 and currently sits on both the Defense & Veterans Affairs and the Land & Resource Management Committees.
