By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
And you thought debate on HB 2 got off to a rocky start...
When Rep. Jim Keffer (R-Eastland) began laying out his HB 3 property tax reduction bill on the House floor today, he was questioned repeatedly regarding the effect that the defeat of his bill would have on public school reform and the success or failure of the Second Called Session.
HB 2, the public school reform bill, only moments before crashed and burned after author Rep. Kent Grusendorf (R-Arlington) made a motion to accept the remaining 70-odd amendments to his bill and then led the charge to prevent the bill from moving to third reading. That followed a contentious floor debate when Rep. Terry Keel (R-Austin) offered a motion to move the previous question, which would have prohibited debate on the 78 pre-filed amendments. His motion failed, but the damages had already been done.
Keffer was asked repeatedly by other members to postpone consideration of HB 3 and let the House wait to see what the Senate would send over as a school reform bill. The Senate met very briefly today and then recessed until noon Thursday, with Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) announcing on the floor Monday that she would not bring her SB 2 to the floor because of so many concerns expressed by Senate members. Since then, she has set a Senate Education Committee for 9 a.m. Thursday to take public testimony on public education and public school finance issues.
House members warned Keffer that if his bill failed in the House, because it is joined at the hip to a school reform bill, the session would effectively be over.
Keffer, however, was unrelenting, saying he "was told" to bring the bill to the floor. He said it is the will of the House as to "whether we go forward or don't go forward" with the bill, which he admitted was pretty much the substance of Gov. Rick Perry's bill.
Democratic members warned him that he should know the will of the House. They reminded that the House, Senate and the state's leadership have been criticized for not addressing HB 3 and for not addressing public school finance issues. "If you go forward with this...it's going to fail...then this special session is over, isn't it?" asked one member.
"I don't know," responded Keffer. "I'm not in that level of leadership. I have a HB 3 here to lay out," for the members of the House to "vote up or down."
"This kills the session right now if we vote down the tax bill," said Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville). "You're commanding the Titanic. This session ends with the vote on this bill."
Oliveira asked Keffer to postpone his bill for a week. "Let us see what the Senate does. Consider that before you sink the Titanic."
Undaunted, Keffer moved full speed ahead with laying out his bill and the House is now considering amendments to the bill.