Carona considering filibuster
May 30, 2009
"State Sen. John Carona, still smarting from the death of his local-option gas tax plan, is considering a filibuster of the adoption of the Texas Department of Transportation sunset bill."
Written by Patricia Kilday Hart, Burka Blog
State Sen. John Carona, still smarting from the death of his local-option gas tax plan, is considering a filibuster of the adoption of the Texas Department of Transportation sunset bill.
The local option tax was stripped by a conference committee report that was not shown to Transportation Chair Carona or Vice-Chair Kirk Watson, but signed and filed by Senate conferees Glenn Hegar, Chuy Hinojosa and Robert Nichols.
“If you are not going to address the urgent issues, and just pass a stripped-down version…are we better off having a sunset bill or not?” Carona asked. “If you don’t force the Legislature to deal with urgent funding issues, I don’t think we need it (the sunset bill.)
Carona laid the death of the local option tax plan at the feet of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who ignored Carona’s suggestion that Sen. Eliot Shapleigh be appointed to the conference committee. Instead, Dewhurst appointed Hinojosa, whose vote was essential in stripping the local option tax from the sunset bill.
“It’s not about what’s best for the state of Texas, it’s all about the political careers of David Dewhurst and Rick Perry,” Carona said, referring to Dewhurst’s U.S. Senate aspirations and Perry’s re-election campaign.
He was also unhappy that Hegar circulated an alternative conference committee report while Carona was continuing to negotiate with House members. That undercut his efforts, and also meant that the top two members of Senate Transportation were out of the loop on the final TxDOT sunset bill.
Related Stories
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.