JACKSONVILLE —

The June 29 adjournment of the 82nd Texas Legislative session leaves Texas lawmakers breathing a little easier.  It also leaves citizens the task of unpacking the meaning behind recent legislation, and how sweeping budget cuts made necessary by the ongoing recession will affect their daily lives.

The following analysis focuses a handful of legislative pieces that will directly affect citizens of East Texas.



1. Passage of a balanced budget, with no new taxes

The most important task accomplished this session was the passage of a balanced budget with no new taxes, Senator Robert Nichols and Representative Chuck Hopson said.  

The Texas Constitution requires that the legislature pass a balanced budget each two-year legislative cycle.  Lawmakers fulfilled this requirement by streamlining government spending and tapping $3.2 billion of the $10 Rainy Day Fund expenditures rather than raising new taxes.

“We don’t like to reduce programs,” Hopson said, “but it’s like when you get together with your family around a table and everyone has to discuss how to save money.”

Hopson said the legislature made cuts across the board-even cutting the House operating budget.

The revenue shortfall comes primarily from a decrease in the amount of money generated by sales taxes, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the state’s revenue, Senator Nichols said.

The budget extends a tax exemption to businesses generating less than $1 million in revenue per year, which is important to small businesses trying to operate in this economy, Senator Nichols said.

“It’s the small businesses that generate the largest amount of jobs, and at this time, it’s best not to lay more taxes on them,” Nichols said.

The projected two-year budget weighs in at $172 billion, $15 billion less than the current spending level, and awaits Governor Rick Perry’s approval.

According to analysts, budget cuts would mean $4 billion less funding for school districts, and would eliminate approximately 5,727 state jobs over the next two years.  Financial aid reductions will affect approximately 29,000 students throughout Texas.

Despite these cuts, Hopson said, “It was not quite as horrific as I thought it would be.”

Hopson said the initial budget proposed an 18 percent reduction in Medicare spending, and up to 15 percent cuts in education spending.  Legislators were able to hold out for a compromise of a 3 percent reduction in Medicare spending, and a 3.7 percent reduction in education spending, Hopson said.

The initial budget also included language that would dramatically affect Rusk State Hospital, but Nichols and Hopson successfully combatted the measure to help preserve the 1,000 jobs Rusk State Hospital provides, Hopson said.

The legislature did not privatize or remove funding from the Rusk State Hospital, an issue that has generated a lot of concern in Cherokee county for years, Nichols said.

Nichols and Hopson also worked to prevent drastic cuts to nursing homes prescribed in the initial budget, which would have resulted in the removal of hundreds of patients.



2. Providing flexibility for underfunded school districts

Senate Bill 8 aims to help school districts cope with financial shortfalls by pealing back some of the restrictions placed upon school districts by the legislature.

“Over the years, the legislature tells a school district ‘you must do this or that,’ or ‘you must use this money for this or that purpose.’ Over the years, there are a lot of restrictions that get passed down to school districts,” Nichols said.

Nichols said before the 82nd session started, he met with school superintendents to discuss the top three items they would like addressed.  Unequivocally, they asked for more flexibility in their mandates, Nichols said.  

Senate Bill 8 is applicable to school districts receiving less income than this year.  Specifically, it removes the minimum salary floor for teachers, authorizes unpaid furloughs for teachers, and significantly shifts the date of notice for a teachers’ contract renewal.

Currently, school districts must notify teachers 45 days before the end of the school semester whether or not their contract will be renewed.  

“The problem was,” Nichols said, “back in April, school districts didn’t know how much money they would have to budget with. So we gave them a shorter notice period to tell teachers whether their contracts will be renewed.”

Senate Bill 8 reduces the notification time to 10 days.  Nichols said the provision aimed to preserve teachers’ jobs, rather than penalize them.

Hopson opposed the bill, claiming it benefits the administration at the expense of teachers.

“This bill gives the administration the ability to fire teachers late in the session without time to get a new job.  I thought it was detrimental to teachers and education,” Hopson said.  



3. Presentation of photo I.D. at the voting booth

Next election cycle, Texas residents must present a photo I.D. at the voting booth- if they intend to vote.

According to Nichols, the legislature and public at large expressed a lot of concern that people were voting illegally.

“Just because you die doesn’t mean your voter registration ceases.  We had one woman testify that her husband died forty years ago, and he had not missed an election in forty years.”   

“We had more constituent calls about this one issue than any other...We have a lot of people that are here illegally, and a lot of people perceive this to be a problem.  We believe the integrity of the ballot and the ability for people to cast a fair vote is sacred,” Hopson said.

Dissenters claimed the bill would present a costly and unnecessary obstacle for citizens trying to vote, and would prevent citizens from coming out on Election Day.



 4. Restriction of Texas cities’ ability to use eminent domain

The legislature eliminated cities’ ability to appropriate privately owned land for any reason other than public necessity, Senator Nichols said.  According to Nichols, highways, lakes, and schools constitute necessary projects.  Under the bill, cities would have to compensate owners for the cost of the land, as well as relocation costs.

The bill aims to prevent the scenario that occurred in New London, Connecticut, from



See BILLS, Page 10