News

March 30, 2009

EMINENT DOMAIN

"Eminent Domain Day" was Wednesday in the House's Land & Resource Management Committee, and will be Monday in Senate State Affairs.  Texas is still grappling with the now infamous 2005 Kelo United States Supreme Court case that allowed a local government to condemn a residence for economic development purposes and sell the property to a commercial developer.  Property owners across the nation have risen up in arms, and numerous states, including Texas, have passed laws prohibiting condemnation for purely economic development reasons.  But what is economic development, after all?  Legislators and the Governor have pronounced support of a constitutional amendment to clarify that concept, and private sector entities that have the power of eminent domain are cautiously optimistic that any definition of "public use" that might  make it more difficult for them to use that power will not be adopted.    Texas is an energy state, after all.

Testimony in the House hearing took the entire day, and ranged from angry property owners to railroads and pipeline companies, as well as water utilities, explaining how necessary the right is even as it is an action of last resort.  The bills and the HJRs required to amend the Constitution, were left pending.  The more prominent of the bills all have or soon will have  "diminished access" in them, in response to the Texas Farm Bureau's claim that highway construction could separate ranchers from their water supplies, or split cropland and make access to the land with farm vehicles much more difficult. Texas is a rural state, after all.

As you can see the balance is a tough one for the legislature, and the issue still promises to be one of the most important addressed this Session.

VOTER ID

The House Election Committee chairman is envisioning a two-day hearing to avoid the all-nighter endured in the Senate.  Most media gave the Senate a thumbs-down for forcing members of the public to stay up all night and not allow them to testify until the early morning hours.  In the House, the plan so far is to have one day of "invited" testimony and one day of "public" testimony, both of which will begin in daylight hours.

TAXES, TAXES, TAXES

The House Ways & Means Committee is slogging through 478 bills that have been referred to it.  Nearly 100 are margin tax bills.  We are attaching a copy of the TTARA listing of the 95 margin tax bills reviewed so far by this taxpayer watchdog group.  You and others you know may be interested in the proposed tweaks to this tax.  As you recall, the margin tax is the state's franchise tax, and it replaces the  tax in effect until 2007's tax year that did not apply to partnerships.  In order to halt the flight from taxation that companies such as Dell and other large corporations took by organizing as partnerships, the margin tax was designed to be a bigger revenue producer.  It is $1.5 billion short per year, or $3 billion short for the biennium.    So it is not surprising to hear that the committee chairman has said any margin tax bill with a fiscal note (cost to the state) is DOA.  Having said that, it may surprise you to hear that around the Capitol there are pretty good odds being bet that there will be a new minimum of $1 million in revenues, as is proposed by NFIB.  If passed that is going to cost the state about $165 million for the biennium, according to current estimates. 

UP NEXT

The House companion to SB 1123, an anti-tort reform bill dealing with asbestos claims will be heard next week.  The Senate hearing was lengthy but thorough.  Brown McCarroll's own Kay Andrews testified, using her time to explain how a case gets to court.  Because of the strength of the Senate sponsor, the bill is likely to come out of the Senate committee that the author chairs.  Too soon to predict if the bill will make it out of the full Senate.  The House author is a plaintiffs' trial lawyer, a much more expected author than in the Senate (HB 1811 was filed by Democrat Eiland in the House and Republican Duncan filed the Senate bill).

Next week the Senate Finance Committee will vote out its budget, and it could make it to the Senate floor by the end of the week.  The House is likely to hear the bill on the floor the week of April 13.

THE CLOCK

Today is day number 77 of the 140-day Session, meaning there are 64 days left.   Both the House and Senate finally are actually passing bills.

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