This week, the House voted for on one of many school finance bills, House Bill 21. House Bill 21 seeks to spend about $1.6 billion more on school funding by increasing per-student funding, reducing Robin Hood payments made by property-wealthy schools, and increasing funding for schools with dyslexic and bilingual children. House Bill 21 now moves to the Senate for debate. The bill didn’t provide any funding for the $1.6 billion, so as with the budget, I voted for the bill to allow it go to the Senate for real negotiation.
The Texas House also passed House Bill 100, which would create statewide regulations for transportation network companies, like Uber and Lyft, and would void the more onerous regulations from cities that drive these companies out.
The House passed House Bill 1352 that would allow cities to donate land they own for economic development. I added an amendment to protect property owners by guaranteeing that the land the city donates must not have been acquired by taking it from property owners by eminent domain.
My Legislation
You can follow all of my bills at http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=132 , but here a few that made progress this week:
On Monday, I will have a hearing in the Elections Committee on HB 3464. HB 3464 aims to institute an innovative way of voting for our nursing home population. Too often, nursing home residents become targets for those who would steal their vote by filling out their ballot without their input or by using coercion to get votes for a certain candidate. HB 3464 would allow nursing home residents to have their mail ballot delivered to the nursing home and delivered safely to the voting clerk for tabulation.
All of this would be done by election judges from each party in order to prevent undue influence from political operatives or nursing home employees. These election judges have taken an oath to protect the votes of nursing home residents and uphold election law. This type of voting has been in place in Wisconsin for decades and has shown to be very effective.
I will also be laying out 6 other bills, including House Bill 3384 guaranteeing that the school board members you elect can get accurate information from the school districts to represent you.
Earlier, I let you know about HB 532, which would save taxpayers money by prohibiting the practice of putting short term equipment in a 30 year bond. This bill that would require that bonds match the useful life of any equipment being bought was voted out of the Investment & Financial Services Committee on Thursday, April 20. It now moves to the Calendars Committee for consideration.
Upcoming Hearings
Due to deadlines for hearing bills in committee, there may be fewer high profile bills being heard. Below are a few bills coming up next week that you might be interested in:
Senate Bill 2067 by Senator Hancock will be heard Tuesday, April 25 in Senate Business & Commerce. It would require banks and other financial institutions to investigate and report on any suspected financial exploitation of senior citizens. These institutions would report to Adult Protective Services.
House Bill 3539 by Rep. Brooks Landgraf would increase the penalty for assault on a pregnant woman. Certain offenses automatically receive an increased penalty if they are especially egregious or they involve a violation of public trust. HB 3539 would add assault of a pregnant woman to offenses that are increased from a Class A misdemeanor to a third degree felony.
In the Public Education Committee, House Bill 1333, dubbed the Teaching Over Testing Act, will be heard on Wednesday. It aims to move the focus in public education away from standardized testing and back to the classroom through reforms including:
- Allowing school districts to select alternative test providers
- Reducing the number of tests
- Removing STAAR scores from teacher evaluations
- Reducing the weight of STAAR scores in A-F ratings