House Appropriations Debate Not As Divisive As In Recent Years

The debate over the General Appropriations Act (CSSB 1), also known as the state budget for 2010-2011 was fairly calm–although it lasted until nearly 4 a.m. Saturday morning.

In contrast to the last three legislative sessions under former House Speaker Tom Craddick, more amendments were considered with less record votes.

The reason for the lack of record votes was the same as the reason that there wasn’t as much partisan rancor as has been seen in previous years’ debates: Republican and Democratic House leaders got together and agreed to pull their most controversial amendments.

Amendments that would have stripped funding for Planned Parenthood clinics, killed funds for stem cell research and amendments that would have prohibited spending education funding on students that aren’t legal residents were all pulled or killed, thus avoiding both lenghty debates and potentially embarassing record votes for both sides.

Among the hottest battles last night were on school finance. An amendment by State Rep. Larry Phillips (R-Sherman) that would have taken funds in SB 1 that were reserved for a school finance bill that, when passed, will feature a teacher pay raise and converted them to a one-time $1,000 bonus for school employees covered by the state minimum salary schedule faces significant opposition and was ultimately withdrawn, prompting a personal privilege speech from the Sherman lawmaker.

We’ll be addressing the House debate over SB 1 in several subsequent posts.

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81st Texas Legislature: 473 second reading amendments considered
81st Texas Legislature: 15 record votes on amendments
80th Texas Legislature: 34 record votes on amendments
80th Texas Legislature: 241 Second Reading Amendments considered
79th Texas Legislature: 29 record votes on amendments
79th Texas Legislature: 212 Second Reading Amendments considered
78th Texas Legislature: 72 record votes on amendments
78th Texas Legislature: 352 second reading amendments considered

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