'Good Bills' Died in Closing Hours of Legislative Session

May 29, 2007

By ROY MAYNARD, Staff Writer, TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH

Hopes for appraisal reform, a better electric deregulation bill and keeping two controversial lakes out of East Texas died in the closing hours of the legislature.

“We lost a lot of good bills in meltdown of the House,” says state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler.

Eltife’s bill allowing counties to increase sales taxes to buy down property taxes was one such victim; though it was the only significant piece of appraisal reform to emerge from Rep. Fred Hill’s committee, the bill never made it to the floor of the House.

And a deal on electric deregulation short-circuited late Monday when some House members wouldn’t accept the compromise hammered out by the conference committee. Consumers lost proposed protections and discounts, and greater oversight of utilities.

“The timing in the House killed us,” Eltife explains. “We had the votes, I believe, but we couldn’t get done because of time. And it’s a real shame because that was a good piece of legislation. It was good for consumers.”

And although two reservoirs had been pulled out of the omnibus water bill (Senate Bill 3), they went back in at the last minute as part of a House-Senate compromise. The Marvin Nichols reservoir and the Fastrill reservoir, planned for East Texas, will primarily serve the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s water needs, if they are built.

But Eltife was able to add an amendment to the bill that will force Region C (which includes Dallas and Fort Worth) to sit down with Region D (including East Texas) to determine whether the reservoirs are truly needed, and to ensure each region’s interests are protected.

But it’s not all bad news, Eltife adds.

One sliver of appraisal reform passed; the 10 percent cap on residential appraisal increases will no longer be a “rolling” cap. Before, that 10 percent per year could be added to other years, and could result in, say, a 30 percent hike in one year, if there was no increase for the two prior years.

Now it will be a 10 percent per year cap, period.

And parks funding was dramatically increased.

“Parks and Wildlife will get enough money to get our parks back into a condition we can be proud of,” Eltife says.

Improvements were made to the Teacher Retirement System, including a higher government contribution.

The transportation bill includes a two-year moratorium on most new private toll projects. There are a lot of exceptions, Eltife notes, but in general “it’s a good bill.”

“We’re sending the clear message to the Texas Department of Transportation that we want more accountability and that we’re not happy with the Trans-Texas Corridor,” Eltife says.

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