A Newsletter of AGC Texas Building Branch

May 29, 2009

Still Alive
There are two important AGC legislative issues that are still alive and in the works at this time. 

The first is HB 987 by Representative Creighton/Senator West.  This bill was amended in the Senate by Senator West to allow for the recovery of attorney fees in cases where a local governmental entity has breached a contract.  Senator West added the amendment for AGC and took out some items that he did not like that were in the version of the bill that passed the House.  The Senate passed its version on May 21^st and sent it back to the House.  The House refused to accept the Senate changes and the bill is now in a conference committee to work out the differences.  AGC staff has been working with the bill sponsors and others to keep the amendment by Senator West in the final conference committee version.

AGC added an amendment to HB 2730 (The Texas Department of Public Safety Sunset Bill) passed by the House on May 14^th.  This amendment makes it clear that each contractor is responsible for the background checks on their own employees in regard to the Safe School Law. The House passed HB 2730 on May 14^th.  The Senate had a hearing on this bill on May 20^th and a slightly different version of the amendment was brought up and discussed.  The revision to the amendment came at the request of the Lt. Governor’s office.  Due to the timing requirements for passing bills, the Senate committee decided to add all amendments on to the bill on the Senate floor.  The new amendment was added to HB 2730 on May 27^th and the new version of the bill was passed by the Senate.  The new version of the bill went back to the House where it is eligible for consideration today.  The House is expected to refuse to concur with the Senate amendments and send the bill to a conference committee.  AGC feels good about keeping the amendment in the final version of this bill.

The deadline for all conference committee reports to be finished is midnight, Saturday – May 30^th.  The last day for approval of the conference committee reports and the final version of these bills is midnight, Sunday – May 31^st.  The clock is ticking on both HB 987 and HB 2730.

 

Local Preference Bill Headed to Governor

HB 2082 by Representative Carl Isett was passed by the Senate on Thursday and is now headed to Governor Perry.  He has until June 20^th to take action on the bill.  This bill will limit the 5% local preference statute to contracts that are less than $100,000 for cities that have a population of less than 250,000 people and school districts headquartered in these cities.

 

$182.3 Billion Budget for Biennium

The Legislature will be sending a $182.3 billion budget for the next two years to Governor Perry.  This is an 8.7% increase over the current budget.  The federal stimulus money will cover most of the budget increase, with state general fund spending rising by 0.9%.  The increase amounts to $14.5 billion, with $747 million coming from state general revenue funds.

 

Senate Gives CPR to Dead Bills

As the House was strolling through the local and consent calendar, the Senate began to attach amendments to the house bills that it was hearing.  In many cases, the amendments were either whole bills or parts of bills that were in the death spiral in the House.  The Senate held back over 500 bills during the five-day stall for purposes of amending them if necessary.  While many measures have been revived, they are running against the clock and the house rules for crossing the finish line.  To add to the difficulty of this task, the Speaker has decided that strict enforcement will be exercised on the amendments to the house bills – meaning they have to pass a tough germaneness test.

 

Many key legislative issues are still up in the air as this update is being put together.  The TxDOT Sunset bill is in conference committee with big disparities in the two versions – can they agree to something in the middle?  The Texas Department of Insurance Sunset Bill was killed in the five-day slowdown – will it get into the Sunset Safety Net Bill extending the agency for two more years?  The Texas Windstorm Insurance issue was an emergency measure as declared by Governor Perry back at the start of the session – its first vehicle was killed in the House and it has now hitched a ride on one of the House bills that was held back by the Senate – what is its fate?

 It does appear that two state agencies are going to go out of business.  The Texas Residential Construction Commission and the Texas Racing Commission are waiting for the lights to go out.

A Big Thank You

AGC Texas Building Branch leadership and staff want to thank all of you for your support, cards and letters.  Our success is dependent on your involvement in the legislative process.  We truly have an A Team.  Thank You.