6017 House and Senate Bills. 1872 hours remaining in the regular session.

By the end of bill filing Friday the 13th, 6,017 house bills and senate bills had been filed. It beats last session’s 5,868 filed house bills and senate bills. 

Where did the big issues end up?

Revenue: State Contracting, the bills to watch:

• The contracting rider in HB 1
• Chair Nelson/ Chair Price omnibus contracting bills SB 20, SB 353, HB 3241 and HB 1027
• Uresti’s let’s address the AT&T contract issue at HHSC, SB 705
• HB 15 by the Chairman of Appropriations

Revenue: Economic Development, reading the tea leaves from the 90+ bill filings.

• Chair Chen Button has a reform package deal with fancy bill numbers: HB 26, HB27, and HB 28
• The list of Major Events for tax reimbursmeent will grow. NASCAR, big rodeos, Ultimate Fighting, and presidential election debates. Pretty much any big event that exudes Texas machismo.
  • HB3613 wants to move the funds from their current home at the Comptroller’s Office.
  • Rectify a drafting error from 2013 that was pointed out in Attorney General Opinion [GA-1052]
• Film and Video might divorce their incentives with HB 2729 and HB 2786
• Increase the public private partnerships with HB 2475, HB 1991, SB 598
• SB 458 will brighten aero space’s role in economic development 
• Some want to abolish economic devleopment programs, like SB 1047 and SB 1156 but those ill filings are in the minority 

Revenue: Taxes.

• 97 franchise tax/margins tax bills were filed. 
  • Chairman Bonnen leads the pack with HB 32, HB 33, Hb3482
  • Chairs Nelson and Schwertner offer SB 7, SB 8, SB 52, SB 134
  • Sen. Creighton has a package of franchise bills SBs 186, 330, 331& SJR 23
• 319 property tax bills were filed.
  • Including SB 1 by Nelson
  • The Taxman, Sen. Bettencourt’s offerings are: SBs 182, 515, 516, 758, 762, 763, 766, 767, 849,1062, 1215, 1220, 1452, 1680, 1692, 1693, 1694, 1807, 1809, 1981 and SJRs 28, 29, 35, 36, 56, 57

Transportation: Ride Share & Self Driving Cars, the haute transportation issues of 2015:

• HB 2440 by Paddie. Supported by Texas Association of Business. TAB Press Release
• Self driving cars get instruction from Guillen, Ellis and Larry Gonzales.  Texas wants to compete with other states that offer statutory protections and guidelines for testing self driving cars. The future is here now.

Transportation: Funding. TXDOT needs Billions just to keep up.

• 32 ways to reform the motor fuels tax for transportation funding

Data Security: Protect private information. Protect student information.

• HB4046 by Alvarado wants to protect student data
• Sen. Kolkhorst offer property rights in DNA and protect your personal information at state agencies
• Also watch protecting proprietary information in economic devleopment negotiations and decision making

Eminent Domain: Private Property Rights reign supreme in Texas. 

• Odds are super high for No eminent domain authority for toll roads and high speed rail 
• Improving compensation to land owners gains ground
•  28 bills that favor land owners, plus all the special districts being created or given eminent domain authority. Those districts matter, just ask the landowners suing in the Panhandle over a grab by a water district or Rep. Isaac and the groundwater fight he is leading.

Energy and Water Regulation: Groundwater Fighting. Local Control is it out of control?

• Groundwater fights in Central Texas being led by Isaac, and a new lawsuits by Panhandle land owners
• Local control over fracking or not? Watch HB 40 by Darby.
• Economic Development to give energy development near Mexico a leg up after Mexico’s deregulation.
• Let’s not forget the 2013 common carrier fight. It’s back.