Prop Quiz III: Dan Branch’s Prop 11
October 26th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Question: What proposition on the November ballot will most affect the Texas Legislature?
Answer: That would be Proposition 11, authored by Rep. Dan Branch (R-Highland Park). This is how it will appear on the ballot:
The constitutional amendment to require that a record vote be taken by a house of the legislature on final passage of any bill, other than certain local bills, of a resolution proposing or ratifying a constitutional amendment, or of any other nonceremonial resolution, and to provide for public access on the Internet to those record votes.
This amendment has ‘open government’ written all over it, and as Branch says, “open government is akin to motherhood and apple pie.”
Currently, what votes are recorded in either body of the Texas legislature are governed by the rules of that body. In effect, there’s no guarantee that the public has a right to know how members vote. Although in the House any member can call for a record vote. Prop 11 would write it into the Texas Constitution.
There is some consternation over the fact that these record votes will be mandated — that is, the big board in the House will have to light up, the Senate’s scribes will have to count heads a lot more — but only on final passage. Anybody who has examined a full session’s journals knows that most final passage votes (on third reading) are non-controversial and lopsided. The real horse-trading is done on the first two votes. Lawmakers have as of yet balked at mandating that the all-important second reading vote be public.
Some have raised the issue of the cost of every record vote, but Branch says that argument does not hold water.
“I found the dollar amount to be one of the weakest arguments,” Branch said. The cost is minimal, but it will cause a lot more late hours in the proofreading rooms of the journals.
Branch said the Texas Legislative Council has estimated that the average time between the Texas Speaker’s call for a record vote and the coming down of the gavel is 20-45 seconds — a far cry from D.C.’s 20-minute window.
“At some point it gets back to the larger issue,” he said. “The benefit of having an engaged citizenry… outweighs (the cost issue) by a country mile.”
Branch says the point of Prop 11 is to get a record vote on all successful bills.
“I just didn’t want anything to ever leave a chamber without a record,” he said. He also noted that all bills require a record vote to get out of committee. And, Branch says, one can always go farther in pressing for open government. He says the ‘final passage’ approach is reasonable and won’t unduly change the amount of time taken up by voting.
“The time argument has some meaning if you materially increase the time taken up,” Branch said, by holding more record votes. But, he said, he intends to sit down with Parliamentarian Terry Keel and discuss ways to facilitate voting by members — through technology and process.
Branch said he did not want to speak for the Texas Senate, but Prop 11 would have a binding effect on both houses.
My opinion? The journals, vote-counters and webmasters better get ready, because this baby is likely to pass.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Final vote? Yawn. Hardly says a thing.