2009 Legislative Accomplishments

School Accountability, School Finance, and E-Textbooks
A key role of state government is to maintain a thriving educational system for our children. The Legislature passed several bills this session that will enhance public education in Texas. The legislature moved to reduce the emphasis placed on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. High schools are already moving away from the TAKS and toward end-of-course exams. Elementary schools will have more discretion to advance students who fail the TAKS in the third grade. The school district can now take into consideration the student’s grades and teacher’s recommendation for promotion. Schools will continue to be held accountable for student performance on standardized tests, but student growth will play a larger role in the accountability system, providing a more level playing field to schools facing the greatest challenges.

Teachers across the state were given a one-time bonus of at least $800 as part of an education funding package which also includes a $1.9 billion increase for public schools. This legislation also provides districts a minimum increase of $120 per student.

Furthermore, school districts will now have more flexibility in the use of their textbook funding. I was pleased to be a joint author of HB 4294, which gives school districts the option of spending their traditional textbook allocations from the state on electronic textbooks as well as other instructional technology. I am convinced that investing in educational technology is one of the most important reforms we can make to our education system.

Top Ten Percent Rule
The Legislature modified the Top 10 Percent Rule to allow The University of Texas at Austin to cap the number of students it accepts under this standard at 75% of the incoming freshman class. The bill allows UT-Austin to admit the remaining 25% based on other criteria, thereby giving the University more flexibility in determining which students are most qualified for admission. The change does not take effect until 2011, so students who are current high school sophomores will be the first to be affected by the change. The changes are scheduled to expire in six years, which will require the Legislature to review the policy for any unintended consequences before continuing it into the future.

Special Session
The process mentioned above of writing a statute so that it arbitrarily expires on a certain date – forcing the Legislature to re-evaluate it before renewing it – is called the “Sunset” process. Two key agencies that were scheduled to “sunset” this year were the Department of Transportation and the Department of Insurance. Dissatisfaction with transportation policy across the state is well-known, and Texas insurance rates are among the highest in the nation, so legislators were anxious
for the opportunity to review and, in some cases, reign in these agencies.

However, the bills to reauthorize these agencies failed, necessitating a brief special session in July to extend the lives of these agencies another two years. So, while these agencies avoided legislative accountability this session, they will be reviewed again next session. Both agencies have a long way to go to regain the public’s confidence.

Passed: Green Jobs
The U.S. economy has been hit hard by the recession, and Texas is not immune. I authored HB 516, which passed as an amendment to HB 1935, to promote and fund the development of green jobs (jobs in the renewable energy industry ranging from development to manufacturing and installation) in our state. Green jobs will help our workforce excel in the new economy and ensure that Texas continues its history of energy leadership as the world increasingly looks to alternative energy sources. I also sponsored an appropriation rider to the general budget that funds the green jobs legislation and implementation.

Passed: Municipal Financing for Solar Energy and Energy Efficiency
Many homeowners, myself included, would like to put solar panels on their roofs but are hesitant to do so because of two concerns: (1) they might not live in the home long enough to recover the cost of the investment through savings on utility bills; and (2) they might not have the necessary amount of cash available for the up-front investments. I was pleased to join Rep. Mike Villarreal of San Antonio in supporting legislation that enables cities to create loan funds for homeowners to finance the initial investment in solar panels or energy efficiency, enabling homeowners to pay back the loan on an annual basis through the savings on their utility bills.

Passed: Carbon Sequestration
Texas is blessed with plentiful oil and natural gas resources that have provided great prosperity for our state. However, our leadership in the oil and gas economy has also made us vulnerable to pending federal legislation on climate change, which would penalize Texas for its high level of carbon dioxide emissions. I authored HB 1210, which was amended to HB 469 extending incentives created last session for carbon sequestration projects. This will boost the economy in an environmentally sound way by recycling the carbon dioxide we would otherwise emit into the atmosphere and using it to increase the amount of oil and gas produced from fields in tertiary stages of recovery.

Passed: Support for Former Foster Children
In Texas, economically distressed areas designated as “enterprise zones” receive special tax advantages from the state. Businesses receiving these tax advantages must hire a certain percentage of their workforce from disadvantaged groups, and through an amendment to HB 1043, I was able to add Texans who come from our state’s foster care system to the list of employees that help a business qualify for the tax incentives.

Passed: Notification Requirement
Texas has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country. While the Legislature failed to approve substantial reforms to the content of high school sex education courses this session, I helped to pass the “parent’s right to know” requirements from my HB 1694 as an amendment to SB 283. The amendment requires school districts to inform parents about a district’s sex education curriculum and instruction. This will at least ensure that parents in Texas are aware of what their children are learning, and are not learning, about this critical subject, and can register their own views with their children and their schools.

Passed: Police Officer Retirement
Police officers provide an invaluable service to our community. At the request of the City of Austin and the Austin Police Department, I authored HB 2796 to protect and expand the retirement benefits of members of the Austin Police Retirement System. This bill consolidates different components of law enforcement into the retirement system and increases the rate of city funding it receives.

Passed: Open Meetings Act
The Open Meetings Act was originally passed in 1967 and has been modified several times since. The Open Meetings Act protects the public interest by requiring that meetings of governmental bodies be held in an open setting and to limit discussions to items on the official agenda. Unfortunately, this has proven to be an obstacle to public information in cases where informal topics are unintentionally left out of the agenda. These topics can range from expressions of condolences to recognition of achievements and even reminders about upcoming events which might interest the public. At the request of the Pflugerville City Council, I authored HB 3298 which passed as an amendment to SB 1182. This bill remedies the situation by allowing governmental bodies to discuss certain narrowly defined, non-policy topics without including them on their agenda.

Passed: Texas Economic Development Act Enhancements
The Texas Economic Development Act was passed in 2001 to help bring businesses to the state. With the current economic situation threatening Texas’ economy, the Austin Chamber of Commerce asked me to propose legislation expanding the Act so it would apply to computer data centers, and to enable more projects in Central Texas to meet the wage requirements of the Act. I passed HB 2866 as an amendment to HB 3676. At such a critical time in the economy, I am pleased that our region will have additional tools to attract jobs to the Austin area.

Canyon Creek Lawsuit
I closely monitored HB 3335 by Rep. Callegari, which would have made changes to the state water code. This bill was of interest to me because it had implications for Canyon Creek’s lawsuit currently being appealed by the City of Austin. I worked with Rep. Callegari on this bill, and he agreed to amend HB 3335 so it would not undermine Canyon Creek’s legal rights to end the double taxation of homeowners there.

Legislative Disappointments:
While I was proud of the bills I helped pass this session, there were a number of bills on which I worked equally hard that failed to pass.

Unemployment Insurance
I believe that accepting federal unemployment insurance funds and modernizing Texas’s unemployment system would benefit the state and I was surprised when the Governor announced his opposition to that narrow sliver of stimulus funding (while accepting over $12 billion of other stimulus funds) because it required the state to expand benefits to unemployed Texans. Due to the economic downturn, our state unemployment insurance funds have diminished to the point where we are forced to borrow from the federal government to maintain the fund’s solvency – which will soon necessitate substantial increases in the business taxes that replenish the fund. The stimulus money would have infused $555 million into the fund, which would have reduced – though not eliminated – the need to borrow from the federal government and raise taxes on businesses.

I sponsored SB 1569 to accept the unemployment funds from the federal government. Unfortunately, the bill was still being debated on the House floor at the midnight deadline for passing bills. After this deadline, SB 1569 could not be brought to a vote.

As of October 2, 2009, the state has borrowed $579 million from the federal government to continue paying out unemployment insurance claims. The Texas Workforce Commission will determine before the end of the year how much unemployment taxes will have to be raised on Texas businesses to pay back the loan.

Sunny Day Fund
This is a unique time in American history. With federal funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the “stimulus bill”), decisions we make today can determine whether Texas remains an economic leader or falls behind in the race. I authored HB 4325 to take $1 billion from our state’s Rainy Day Fund (currently projected at over $9 billion) and create a “Sunny Day fund.” Such a fund would have allowed us to offer a match of $1 from the Sunny Day fund for every $3 of competitively awarded federal funding under the stimulus bill. This would give Texas a competitive edge over other states competing for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and reduce the need for Rainy Day funds in the future. Unfortunately, the Legislature failed to pass this bill.

Solar Power
I sponsored SB 545 to create a statewide solar power incentive program. This program would have directed the Texas Public Utilities Commission to work with electric utilities to provide incentives such as rebates for purchasers of solar generation equipment. This initiative would have made Texas the national leader in solar technology while creating much-needed jobs in a rapidly growing industry. Unfortunately, this was one of the bills on the calendar that did not come to the House Floor for a vote before the deadline. Promoting alternative energy will remain a priority for me in the future.