Legislature working for themselves

House votes to raise members' budgets
By R.A. DYER and JOHN KIRSCH
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS

AUSTIN — In some of their first substantive acts since convening the 80th Texas Legislature, House members on Friday voted themselves access to more tax dollars and rejected a slew of new ethics rules.

The votes come after a legislative session in which lawmakers called for state agencies to trim their budgets and after a year marked by indictments and criminal investigations into lobbying.

On Friday, the House rejected amendments that would have banned lobbyists and people under indictment from areas of the Capitol barred even to the public during floor debates.

Rep. Jim Dunnam, a Waco Democrat who proposed some of the restrictions, said House members needed to reduce the influence of “superlobbyists.” “Do you really want to be on the record that a registered lobbyist should have better access to the powers of government than your constituents?” he said.

He proposed an amendment that would have barred registered lobbyists from a Capitol hallway behind the House chambers when the House is in session. The House rejected it 70-62.

Lawmakers also rejected a measure that would have required them to identify any lobbyist or lawmaker with whom they do business.

“If I’m in an oil and gas deal with lobbyists, I think my constituents ought to know about that,” said Dunnam, who also sponsored that measure. The House rejected it 88-52.

Also Friday, Forth Worth Democrat Lon Burnam did not win approval for his proposal to ban people under indictment from areas around the House chambers. That measure went down 99-37.

Asked afterwards about the votes, House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said many of the ethics provisions were either unworkable or unnecessary. For instance, he questioned how officials would identify people under indictment walking around the Capitol.

“People have good ideas, but it’s got to be where it can work,” Craddick said.

The ethics amendments would have been included in new House rules that the chamber adopted Friday as one of its first orders of business during the 140-day session.

But even before House members considered those rules, they overwhelmingly voted to increase their own office budgets.

Under a measure offered by Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, members’ budgets would go from $11,250 to $12,250. That would be about $150,000 per month in extra taxpayer expenditures.

According to the House clerk’s office, the measure was adopted 123-19, with all Tarrant County lawmakers voting in favor except Republican Reps. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Bill Zedler of Arlington and Rob Orr of Burleson. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, was absent.

Supporters said they need the money to help pay for growing travel costs and other expenditures. But Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, an opponent, said lawmakers should look to economize.

“If you’re going to ask for caps for counties and cities to control your spending, then I think we ought to control our spending — these are the citizens’ money, and I think we need to give it back to them,” said the Mauriceville Republican.

Several measures intended to limit Craddick’s power also ended in defeat. Among them was an amendment from Burnam that would guarantee that any legislation with 100 sponsors would automatically get a hearing on the House floor.

Because of House rules, even popular legislation sometimes dies before going to the full chamber. Another failed measure would have limited the discretion of the House speaker to appoint members to the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

This week, Craddick faced a challenge to his control of the 150-member House. It was the first such challenge to a sitting House speaker in over a generation. Lawmakers did, however, adopt a measure limiting the values of gifts that one lawmaker can give to another to $75. House members typically give gifts to committee leaders at the end of legislative sessions.

Also Friday, freshman lawmaker Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, sponsored an amendment that would require that all votes for the final passage of bills be officially recorded and available to the public on the Internet within an hour. The amendment passed.