Watch action away from budget battle

By Dave McNeely

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, February 6, 2003

While nearly all eyes in the Capitol will be focused on the Legislature's budget-writing committees, there are at least a couple of others that deserve close attention.

Everyone from Gov. Rick Perry on down says there will be no new taxes, but the House's tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is still likely to deal with two big issues that could determine whether there's more money available.

Perry and others have said they want loopholes in property tax laws closed so business property would have to be declared for tax purposes. And there have been calls to end companies' abilities to dodge the state franchise tax by organizing as partnerships rather than corporations.

Texas businesses of all sorts will line up to weigh in on those proposals, particularly while their bottom lines are under pressure from a soft economy.

Meanwhile, potential changes in the House Calendars Committee could take away a choke point at which bills have undergone yet another layer of scrutiny.

In the past, the committee has been the filter through which bills passed by other committees must pass before being considered by the full House. But some observers in and out of the House think new Speaker Tom Craddick may weaken that filter.

Calendars members' power has come from an informal tradition allowing them to anonymously hold up a bill for study -- much like a "tag" in the Senate.

New Calendars Chairwoman Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, says "the committee shall operate as it historically has in the past." Meaning, tags will continue.

But if they don't, the committee's filtering power will go away, former Chairman Barry Telford, D-De Kalb, warned.

"If it's not going to be a clearinghouse," he said, "then a clerk could do it."

And so on . . .

Some legislators have groused that the re-creation of a chairman for budget and oversight on every subject-matter committee will put even more power in the Appropriations Committee. Each chairman is a member of that budget-writing committee and is charged with keeping subject-matter committees on financial leashes.

Some eyebrows also were raised by two freshmen being named to the position for important committees: Jack Stick, R-Austin, on Corrections and Dan Branch, R-Dallas, on Public Education. Two reasons account for the freshmen: Appropriations Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, wanted new blood on the committee. And there are 35 new House members this year, contrasted with 11 last session.

As for another local freshman, Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, is putting the best face on his committee assignments. He had lobbied for an Appropriations seat but lost out to Stick. The reason, sources say, is that senior Travis County House members fear that Baxter's political ambitions -- he ran for the House in the middle of a term as county commissioner -- would make him less than a team player.

Baxter said he was "honored" to be appointed to the Regulated Industries Committee instead.

Dave McNeely's column appears Thursdays. Contact him at 445-3644 or dmcneely@statesman.com.