Floor Pass

The Lead

The top campaign donor in Texas, Bob Perry, passed away late Saturday night at his Nassau Bay home near Houston. The Houston Chronicle has a story about his significant impact on Texas politics. Perry, a wealthy homebuilder, gave tens of millions mostly to Republicans, and bent public policy in Texas toward his conservative worldview. He donated heavily to Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry, as well as millions to PACs and other Republican candidates across the country. He famously bankrolled the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that damaged John Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid. In 2003, he prodded the Legislature to create his own state agency—the Texas Residential Construction Commission—that served the interests of the homebuilding industry, until public backlash forced lawmakers to abolish it.  That was the kind of influence Bob Perry had. He was 80 years old.

Meanwhile, at the Capitol, the session is speeding up with just over a month until the finale. The budget is headed to conference committee where lawmakers will iron out differences between the House and Senate versions. Rep. Jim Pitts, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said a supplemental education spending bill is on the way.

Weekend Headlines:

1. Gov. Rick Perry proposed dedicating growth in motor-vehicle sale revenue to improving roads. This would be on top of using the rainy day fund, halting diversions from the dedicated transportation fund and utilizing low interest rates to make financing easier, as the Quorum Report writes.

2. The Senate has passed a bill to help South Texas hospitals get hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds for indigent healthcare, the Rio Grande Guardian reports.

Line of the Day:

“They have the audacity to act as though they’re underpaid. They’re enriching themselves by having their living expenses paid for ad infinitum,” —Dave Palmer, a California based campaign finance watchdog, told the Texas Tribune about Texas legislators.

What We’re Watching Today:

1.  The Senate State Affairs Committee will hear a constitutional amendment, SJR 4, by Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) on religious liberty. The amendment would bar government from infringing on a person or group acting (or not acting) out of religious faith. Seems harmless, but it could impact all kinds of policy, including this.

2. The Texas Legislative Study Group will release Texas on the Brink, a report that ranks Texas compared to other states. A sampling: Texas ranks first for the highest percentage of uninsured people and 50th in the percentage of students graduating from high school. Yikes.

3. If you’re in Austin, the whole Texas Observer bunch will be talking politics at tonight’s Mid-Session Review at MonkeyWrench Books.

The Lead:

The big news yesterday was in the Senate, which passed a heavily amended version of Senate Education Chair Dan Patrick’s controversial charter school reform bill Thursday afternoon, with only one vote against. The bill originally would have removed a state cap on the number of state-issued charter schools, created a new education board to oversee charters, and required public-school districts to allow charters to occupy any empty facilities.

As the Observer‘s Liz Farmer reports, Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) offered an amendment that—instead of eliminating the cap altogether—would set it at 305 by 2019 and would also impose a cap on out-of-state charter schools. Patrick accepted the change along with several other Democratic amendments. Just before the bill passed, senators applauded the “new” Dan Patrick and asked him to remember this feat of bipartisan cooperation.

Yesterday’s Headlines:

1 The Senate passed an amended version of SB 21, which mandates drug testing for some Texans seeking unemployment benefits, the Quorum Report writes. It was the second drug-testing bill the Senate passed in two days. Both were heavily amended to attract Democratic support.

2. The Texas Tribune reports that Senate Finance Committee Chair Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) laid out his plan to filter $6 billion from the rainy day fund into transportation and water projects and laid the groundwork for a discussion on using some of the funds for public education.

Line of the Day:

“Perhaps they do not understand the difference between ‘inconvenient’ and ‘confidential’… I cannot help but note the irony of Chair Powell’s complaints, given the sweeping demands for information demanded by some regents from [University of Texas at Austin] personnel.” —Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) to the Texas Tribune  about the UT regents’ refusal to turn over documents to the Legislature

What We’re Watching Today:

1. It’s Friday, and the Legislature is still in town. Well, House members are around anyway—the House’s first working Friday of 2013, a clear sign that we’ve entered the session’s final stretch. The House is meeting today at 10 a.m. A few bills are up on third and final reading, including HB 1642, the Port of Houston Authority Sunset Bill. The bill would limit terms for port authority commissioners, require the port authority to pay for a review by the Sunset Advisory Committee in the 2016-17 biennium.

2. The House Public Health Committee will meet at 9 a.m., but as of this writing no agenda has been posted yet.

The Senate passed Sen. Dan Patrick’s major charter school reform bill Thursday afternoon, in a version far different from what Patrick introduced earlier this session. A few compromises with Democratic members helped it along to broad approval on a 30-1 vote.

Senators congratulated one another before the vote and roamed the floor to pat each other on the back afterward, but the scene would have played out much differently earlier in the day, when the bill didn’t include the checks some Democrats wanted placed on charter school expansion. Patrick (R-Houston), chair of the Senate Education Committee, delayed the vote a few hours to talk behind the scenes with critics including Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) and Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas). Both West and Van de Putte had already complained they’d been left out as Patrick shaped the bill in committee.

Thursday afternoon, Patrick graciously endorsed West’s amendments to his bill, a cap on state-issued charters set at 305 by the year 2019. Patrick had originally proposed eliminating the cap altogether. His original bill also added new spending for charter school buildings, required public school districts let charters occupy their vacant buildings, and created a new board to approve and oversee charters. Patrick, one of the Legislature’s most strong-willed conservatives, compromised on all these points to see his bill through.

“Mr. President and members, I want to introduce the new Dan Patrick,” West said today. “I know that the best is yet to come in terms of the other issues that we’re working together on.”

West said the cap gives the state more control over charter quality. Democrats also pushed to ensure out-of-state charters to be subject to the cap.

Another skeptic of the original bill, Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), also lauded Patrick’s efforts.

“What we see, as a result of a bipartisan effort and your willingness to work across the aisle on this bill, is an excellent product,” Davis said. “It’s very, very different than it was when you first laid it out.”

Under SB 2, the Commissioner of Education will be brought into the approval process, but will leave final authority to approve charters with the State Board of Education, which handles it today. “This is going to give the commissioner the teeth he needs,” Patrick said.

After the vote, West told the Observer he voted for the bill because of those compromises, and the bill’s provision to revoke charters for schools that performed poorly in three out of five years.

“The reality is we have got to have a better system in the state of Texas with dealing with charters,” West said. “I think this is a great improvement on it.”

SB 2 could face a tough fight for approval in the House, where previous attempts at charter school expansion have died in recent sessions. If it’s approved, though, differences between the House and Senate versions will be negotiated in a conference committee of a few members. In the midst of his high praise for Patrick’s leadership, West also secured a promise that the cap on charter schools—including those from out of state—would stay in the bill.

Underneath the feel-good congratulations for Patrick’s willingness to compromise, there was still a note of caution.

“I see it as our collective bill,” Patrick reflected at one point, “as members of the education committee in the Senate.”

“I want you to remember that,” West broke in.

“I won’t forget,” Patrick said with a smile.

After a beat, West replied: “I won’t let you, either.”