Texas voters to decide on requiring recorded votes in Legislature

Voters to decide on requiring recorded votes in Legislature

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, October 25, 2007

From Wire Reports The Associated Press

AUSTIN – Texas legislators would be required by the state constitution to record their final votes on bills under a Nov. 6 ballot proposition that supporters say will hold lawmakers more accountable.

"When you pass a bill that's going to leave this chamber and change someone's life, then we want to know where you stood on it," Rep. Dan Branch, a Dallas Republican, said in promoting Proposition 11 at the Capitol on Wednesday.

It's one of 16 proposed constitutional amendments going before voters.

After several years of pressure from news industry and other open government groups, the House and Senate have required a recorded vote on final passage of bills, rather than a voice vote or other type of nonrecorded vote. That means residents can see how individual lawmakers stand on an issue.

Mr. Branch's amendment would cement the recorded vote requirement into the constitution.

The League of Women Voters, the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, the Texas Association of Broadcasters and the Texas Daily Newspaper Association all favor the proposition.

"Accountability is the core value of our representative democracy, and recorded votes will allow us to check up on our representatives. We'll be able to make sure that what they do in Austin is what they promised us back home," said Wanda Garner Cash, past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

There is no major opposition to Proposition 11, though some legislators argued that it didn't go far enough. They said other votes on bills, such as preliminary passage votes and changes made to bills before they are passed, should be recorded. Sometimes those are recorded, sometimes they are not.

With early voting running through Nov. 2, there's a flurry of activity by groups for and against proposed amendments, including Proposition 4, which would authorize up to $1 billion in bonds for maintenance and construction for state parks, historic sites, crime labs and other projects. It would set aside money for potential new prison construction.

Texas parks and Battleship Texas near Houston stand to get $52 million from the amendment. Parks would undergo basic maintenance projects such as sewer upgrades and building improvements, while the battleship would get restoration work and a new dry berth to protect it from seawater corrosion. Cedar Hill State Park would get $4.3 million in repairs.

"Our parks are being used at a rate that we just never thought would be possible," said Peter Holt, state parks commission chairman. "These are basic needs for these parks. We're not going in there and making them fancy."

The Associated Press