Forrest for the Trees

In the end, the Senate proposal to spend $5.7 billion out of the state’s Rainy Day Fund on roads ($2.9 billion), water infrastructure ($2 billion) and schools ($800 million) was unanimous: 31-0.

Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands), who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, told lawmakers he had “woken up at 2:30 this morning not knowing how we were going to get this out of the ditch.”

During the day, according to the Austin American-Statesman, “an angry dispute over the resolution developed behind closed doors” as Democrats and Republicans tried to reach a deal.

Although Democratic proposals to fully restore the $5.4 billion cuts made to public education were rebuffed on partisan lines, the additional money for schools in Senate Joint Resolution 1 amounts to a concession by Senate Republicans.

“We are within spitting distance” of matching spending levels before the Legislature made big cuts in 2011, noted Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth).

Later, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D- San Antonio) said, “With today’s vote, we have signaled that we are no longer going to kick the can down the road on water, transportation, most importantly, the infrastructure of opportunity: education.”

Even with the additional spending, the state’s Rainy Day Fund—officially called the Economic Stabilization Fund—is expected to have a balance of around $6 billion when the Legislature meets again in 2015.

Still, for today at least, the Senate could brag on itself: It almost restored all the damage it did two years ago. Now, there’s a campaign slogan.

Harold Simmons’ West Texas radioactive waste empire got a boost today after the Texas Senate passed legislation allowing Waste Control Specialists to accept “hotter” radioactive waste at its dump. The final vote was 24-7. Waste Control, a Simmons-controlled company, operates a growing radioactive waste dump green-lighted by the Legislature in 2003.

Since Waste Control received two licenses to dump waste from state and federal sources, it has moved to expand its operations. Amarillo Republican Sen. Kel Seliger’s Senate Bill 791 would order “Class A” radioactive waste—the least radioactive of so-called low-level radioactive waste—to be sent out of state, freeing up more space for hotter “Class B” and “Class C” waste. While the total volume and radioactivity currently allowed wouldn’t be changed, the bill would permit Waste Control to bring in waste that’s 250 percent hotter on an annual basis.

Cyrus Reed, with the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club said his group “continues to be opposed to passage of SB 791 by Seliger because it increases the radioactivity and volume of waste coming from out-of-state generators for a site that was intended for waste generated in Texas and Vermont.”

Seliger, however, agreed to drop some provisions of the bill that would have limited citizen input. One provision would have barred citizens of New Mexico—the town of Eunice, is the closest population center to the dump—from legally contesting changes to the dump. Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) got Seliger to agree to drop that idea.

Also removed, courtesy of an amendment by Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen), was a section attacking a Sierra Club lawsuit challenging one of the company’s disposal permits. Last summer, a Travis County district judge agreed with the Sierra Club that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had wrongly denied the club a chance to contest the permit. Sierra Club said it expects to win the suit and “the license will be found invalid.”

SB 791 now goes to the House, where a similar bill has been stalled in committee.

After a dramatic false start on Thursday, the big payday loan reform bill—tediously-negotiated by Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas)—easily cleared the Senate. But not before senators agreed to changes that would more or less kill the payday and auto-title industry in Texas.  You read that right: The Texas Senate ultimately voted for legislation that would shut down most of the payday and title lending stores in Texas.

Over the course of 15 amendments, Senate Bill 1247 went from milquetoast to something that Ralph Nader would lavish with praise. The trouble is that it may give the payday lending industry, with its legions of high-paid lobbyists, an opening to bring the whole thing down.

By the end, a beleaguered-looking Carona was calling his bill an “ugly baby.”

“I just want to go home and feed my cat,” said Carona.

The upper chamber ignored Carona’s warnings that anything that went beyond his tediously-negotiated modest set of new regulations would jeopardize the bill.

First, Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) got into his twitchy bulldog mode, insisting that Carona consider removing a provision that pre-empts city payday regulations. (Austin, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio have passed near-identical ordinances setting limits on the number and size of loans consumers can enter into. Houston has enacted a much-weaker ordinance.)

“[The industry] will continue to rape and rob the people of Houston,” he said, if cities aren’t allowed to set their own rules. Carona explained that pre-emption is paramount because without it, the lenders will move to kill the legislation.

Removing the pre-emption clause “has the effect of not leaving us any hope of passing” the bill, Carona said. “i’ve come to believe that [passing nothing] is your real objective here.”

But the Senate waved Whitmire’s amendment through on a 21-9 vote. Notably, a stampede of payday lobbyists left the Senate gallery at that point.

By an 18-12 vote, the Senate approved an amendment that would cap rates at 36 percent APR, a move that would probably shut down the payday and title loan business in Texas. Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who has made payday loan reform one of her top priorities, also secured an amendment to close the loophole that allows these lenders to charge unlimited fees.

In one sense, it’s remarkable that one half of the Legislature—plied with millions in campaign contributions from the industry—passed such a strong, pro-consumer bill. On the other hand, Carona’s admonitions about the limits of the possible probably still apply. The action now moves to the House… and wherever else the hired guns do their business.

An ugly scene erupted in the Texas Senate today, with Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) suggesting that some of his Republican colleagues were “shills” for the payday loan industry and worrying that the GOP would be seen as “the party that is backed and bankrolled by payday lenders.”

After intense negotiations this week, Carona told lawmakers he had struck a deal to pass legislation to reform payday and auto-title lending in Texas. Most of the consumer groups, the cities, Senate Democrats and even the payday loan industry were on board with the “hard-fought compromise,” he said.

“There have been great concessions on both sides,” Carona said. “We can leave this chamber at the end of May and honestly say we made a significant incremental step forward on protecting consumers.”

However, as Carona moved toward a suspension of the rule to bring the bill up for debate, which requires two-thirds of the Senate, he complained that payday-loan lobbyists were calling senators on the Senate floor and asking them to change their votes. He even hinted that two GOP senators were acting as agents for the industry.

“If we don’t do it this time, you won’t be able to regulate this industry two years from now,” he said. “This industry will be so much wealthier, so much more politically powerful that you won’t be able to say no and you won’t be able to draw the line. I know the lobbyists are just in a frenzy right now to try to stir up some action on the floor and get one or two of my colleagues who seem to be working the floor to change their vote.”

Republican Sen. Troy Fraser ($42,000 in contributions from the payday industry between 2009-2012) complained that the legislation was being rushed and asked Carona ($140,000 in industry contributions) to wait till Monday to vote. “I know you’re not down here as a shill for the payday lenders,” Carona said. “This is a stall tactic, and I’m sorry you chose to be the messenger.”

Later, Carona got into it with Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat. “What’s the rush?” Whitmire asked. “We spent more time on this than water for Texas, highway funding, mental health, why is this bill getting such a high priority?”

Carona responded: “Because the interests behind this bill have hired darn near every lobbyist in this town that needed employment. They are around every corner in this Capitol.”

Despite claiming to have 28 votes for his bill and earlier promising not to pull it down, Carona agreed to wait till Monday to bring it up for a vote. If, he said, he can’t get enough votes to pass the bill, “then we’re going to talk very publicly about what changed the minds.”

It’s never been easy fighting powerful polluters in Texas. A bill approved by a Senate committee today would make it even harder. With a big push from the Texas Chemical Council and the Texas Association of Business, the Senate Natural Resources Committee voted 6-3 today for legislation “streamlining” (read: weakening) the process that communities and environmental groups can use to challenge permits to pollute. (Democrats Rodney Ellis and Carlos Uresti as well as Republican Robert Duncan were the ‘no’ votes.)

“We are very disappointed by the committee’s vote today,” said Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger. “The deck is already stacked against residents when a powerful polluter applies for a permit to discharge chemicals in to our air, water and land.”

Senate Bill 957 by Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) would put limits on contested case hearings, mini-trials in which each administrative law judges hear testimony and evidence from each side. Environmental groups already complain that the process is flawed: The judges can only offer recommendations to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. That agency, run by corporate-friendly Rick Perry appointees, often ignores or downplays the judge’s proposals.

However, SB 957 would weaken it even further. Fraser’s proposal would shift the burden of proof from the company seeking the permit—often some of the most lucrative and powerful corporations in the world—to the protestant, often a hastily-formed grassroots group or an environmental organization. The bill would also strictly limit how long the contested case hearing could last; limit who could participate; narrow the scope of the hearing; and eliminate discovery.

But Sen. Craig Estes, a Wichita Falls Republican who voted for the bill in committee, said it would do nothing to diminish democratic participation.

“The bill in no way lessens the ability of the public to fully participate in the environmental permitting process,” Estes said.

“That’s a true statement,” responded Fraser. “That’s why it’s a good bill.”

A few minutes later, Estes explained to veteran consumer advocate Tom “Smitty” Smith, using an analogy, why he thinks the burden of proof should be shifted to citizens.

ESTES: “Let’s say you get accused of jaywalking. Should you have to prove that you didn’t jaywalk or should your accuser be the one to have to prove you jaywalked?”

SMITTY: “That’s the criminal standard, Senator. And this is a civil issue.”

ESTES: “You can be accused of all types of things, rightly or wrongly.”

The good news for opponents of the bill is that it’s unlikely to receive enough support to bring it up in the full Senate as-is—a political reality its author acknowledged.

“I think this bill has got to have some magic happen to get it up on the Senate floor,” Fraser said.