Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN - El Paso legislators' wrangling over who gets credit for reducing local taxes has jammed up bills that would exempt El Paso County and local school districts from paying thousands in stormwater fees.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh and state Rep. Chente Quintanilla filed two bills that would exempt school districts and the county from paying stormwater fees charged by the Public Service Board. State Reps. Norma Chavez and Joe Pickett filed two similar bills.

The Senate approved Shapleigh and Quintanilla's bills. The House approved Chavez and Pickett's bills.

Now all four measures are stuck in committee as the four El Paso legislators bicker over which bills should pass and whose name should be on them.

Shapleigh said his bills should be the ones to pass. The bills by Chavez and Pickett, he said, are flawed. And, he said, Quintanilla's name should be on any bill that aims to fix problems with the stormwater fees because he helped Shapleigh create the stormwater fees after the devastating floods in 2006. The stormwater fees were designed to allow the PSB to generate money to improve infrastructure and prevent future flooding damage.

"Chente did most of the work," Shapleigh said.

He is refusing to sponsor the measures by Chavez and Pickett, which means those bills can't get out of the Senate.

Pickett said any flaws in his bill could be fixed with amendments in the Senate.

Chavez said she has asked state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, to be the Senate sponsor the stormwater bills she and Pickett passed in the House.

Lucio said Monday he was considering whether to sponsor the measures, but didn't want to get in the middle of the local spat. He said Shapleigh had told him he'd prefer that the El Paso lawmakers deal with the issue.

"Something's got to give," Lucio said.

Meanwhile, Shapleigh's bills are stuck in the House after Chavez on Monday morning told the leader of the Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee that she and Pickett would ensure passage in the Senate of the two bills that Shapleigh is holding up.

Quintanilla told state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, chairwoman of the House border committee, it didn't matter to him which of the bills passed so long as the mission of exempting the city and county from the stormwater fees was accomplished.

"What difference does it make" whose name is on the bill, Quintanilla asked after the meeting, lamenting the political wrangling.

Gonzales said she told the El Paso legislators they need to work out their internal disagreements and decide among themselves which of the measures should move forward.

"I would like to see something pass, because I know it's important to El Paso, but I want the delegation to feel comfortable with what it is that passes," Gonzales said.

Lobbyists for El Paso Independent School District and the county said it didn't matter which of the measures passed as long as something makes it out of the Capitol this year exempting their property from the stormwater fees.

The county has paid about $42,000 in stormwater fees.

Four El Paso school districts were initially charged more than $225,000 for stormwater utility fees, but the PSB reduced the charges to about $90,000.

Paul Colbert, a lobbyist for El Paso Independent School District, said every dollar spent on stormwater fees is one less dollar the district has to spend on classroom education.

"We're not taking sides in whose bill ought to pass or anything like that," Colbert said. "We don't back a bill, we back a change in law that's needed."