May 15, 2009

Taps

At the stroke of 12 last night, a little over 3,000 bills died in the Texas House of Representatives.  The next deadline in the House will be for senate bills.  The last day for senate bills to pass out of their house committee is Friday, May 22^nd.  The last day for the House to pass a senate bill on 2^nd reading will be May 26^th. 

AGC only had one of its bills, HB 3203 by Representative Hartnett,  that did not make it out of the House last night.  This bill would have allowed the recovery of attorney's fees from local governmental entities in a breach of contract suit.  It was about another six pages down on the calendar when the clock struck 12.  The good news is that the language from this bill is in another bill that is alive and in good shape (HB 987).   HB 987 by Representative Creighton has passed the house and the senate committees.  It is on the senate calendar and is eligible to be voted on at any time.  HB 987 includes the attorney fee language from HB 3203 as well as the language to limit the local bidding preference to contracts for $100,000 or less.
 

AGC Bill Status

The alternative delivery bill (SB 1110 by Senator Jackson and Representative Geren) is in the House State Affairs Committee.  This committee did not meet this week so there was no opportunity to pass bills out of the committee.

SB 555 by Senator Duncan and Representative Eiland is now in the House Calendars Committee waiting to be set on a house calendar.

The local bidder preference bill (HB 2082) by Representative Isett that would limit the local preference to contracts of $100,000 or less has been picked up by Senator Duncan and will be heard in the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

School background checks, the language that would make subcontractors responsible for running background checks on their own employees, is in an amendment that was added to the Texas Department of Public Safety sunset bill (HB 2730 by Representative Kolkhorst) this week as it was being passed by the House of Representatives.

It has been one busy week at the Capitol with several late nights.  The Legislature only has two weeks to finish its business.  The last day of the regular session is June 1^st.
 

Bad News on the Budget Front

On May 5, the Legislative Budget Board dropped a bombshell on the legislature, recommending an additional $1 BILLION be added to the budget for higher-than-expected Medicaid caseload growth and health care costs. This comes three weeks before the session’s end.

Because the legislature is trying to protect the Rainy Day Fund for the expected shortfall in the 2011 session, and is refusing to access those funds, the effect is to require eleventh-hour cuts to other programs to the tune of $1 billion. This has affected, among other things, two programs important to AGC members. The current plan is, (1) to issue no new tuition revenue bonds for constructing higher education facilities and, (2) to revert to minimal funding of the Texas Historical Commission’s Courthouse Renovation Program.  This after TBB had successfully increased the funding to much higher amounts from the initial LBB proposal.  Other effects include  possibly killing the proposed margins tax cut for small businesses, and adding additional pressure to accept the federal stimulus funds on unemployment insurance.

The simple explanation is that the recession, health care costs and hurricane recovery simply outranked traditional construction programs in funding priority.
 

Representative Kuempel Recovering
from Heart Attack

Many of you know Representative Edmund Kuempel from Seguin.  He had a massive heart attack in one of the capitol elevators at about 10:30 PM Wednesday night as the House was working late.  He was revived by Dr. John Zerwas, a state representative from the Houston area, and is in the hospital.  Please keep Edmund in your prayers.  Doctors put him into a medically induced coma and are in the process of bringing him out of that coma.
 

Check the AGC Website for the Latest

Legislative information on the AGC website will be updated Monday morning after the House finishes its business later today. Representatives will be passing house bills on 3^rd reading today.  This is the last step in getting bills out of the house.