Stormwater bills, which if enacted would exempt school districts and the county from stormwater fees, are being held up in both chambers of the Texas legislature.

On the House side, state Reps. Norma Chavez and Joe Pickett have passed bills which have now been sent to the Senate. However those bills are stalled because Sen. Eliot Shapleigh has refused to carry them. Shapleigh has his own stormwater bills working through the system, but since having passed the Senate, they are encountering problems on the House side.

Members of the delegation in both chambers are blaming each other for the hold-up, happening a little too close to the end of session not to jeopardize potential success.

So what exactly is going on?

Back in February, Shapleigh filed a bill that would exempt county property from storm water fees. Then on March 9 he filed another that would exempt school districts (state Rep. Chente Quintanilla filed identical legislation in the House a few days later). However, before the second bill was filed, Pickett and Chavez had filed bills of their own dealing with exempting both county and school districts. (The bills are slightly different, doing the same thing by amending different parts of the state government code.)

Both sets of bills (Shapleigh/Quintanilla, Pickett/Chavez) are in roughly the same position, having passed one chamber and been referred to the other.

Last week, Pickett and Chavez sent a memo to Shapleigh asking him to sponsor their versions of the bills. They argued in the memo that both bills were based on the legislative recommendation of the county and the El Paso Independent School District and "would improve transparency in taxation for constituents and remove and unnecessary tax burden."

However, Shapleigh declined, saying he had his own bills working through the system. "Both bills have the city's support," wrote Shapleigh. The memo added that Quintanilla should sponsor the bills in the house "because he carried the legislation that created the stormwater district and the associated fees last session."

That refusal left Chavez, who said she had been approached by El Paso Independent School District as early as last summer about the exemption, and Pickett, somewhat befuddled.

“I thought it was a no brainer, I'm not sure what the dynamics are. I filed a bill, Rep. Chavez filed a bill, they passed out of the house relatively early, I noticed that there was a bill filed in the Senate quite late, maybe trying to catch up with what we're trying to do. I didn’t really understand why that was done,’ said Pickett.

Chavez was more annoyed.

“I’ve said it before, the Senator has not called a delegation meeting for El Paso House and Senate members, not once this session,” she said. “I don’t understand why, if the bills have already come over on the Senate side, why he won't pick up mine or Joe’s. You’ll have to ask him.”

It is quite normal for multiple bills to be filed as it gives an issue multiple vehicles for making its way through the system. However in this instance, it appears that the vehicles have crashed into one another.

Shapleigh talked to NPT earlier in the week about the bills.

“Here’s the issue. Rep. Quintanilla and I worked with the PSB and the city to create the storm water district,” he said. “Since he (Quintanilla) and I helped to create the stormwater framework, he is the logical one to help fix it.”

Chavez wasn’t impressed and has asked Sen. Eddie Lucio to carry the bill in the Senate.

“I told the representative (Chavez) that I would be more than happy to look at it,” said Lucio earlier this week. “But at the same time Sen. Shapleigh has indicated to me that it is strictly a local bill within his district and he would prefer for me to not get involved.”

Lucio said that he could only carry the bill if its scope was widened to the include the whole border region. He added that the priority should be to “take care of the issue and not necessarily worry about who is authoring, co-authoring.”

With Shapleigh not prepared to carry the Pickett/Chavez bills it looks like the only option for stormwater reform at the state level will be the Shapleigh/Quintanilla bills.

“Sen. Shapleigh and Quintanilla state in his memo that they created the stormwater taxing authority. So maybe they are trying to fix their own mistake,” argues Chavez. “I don’t know what he’s worried about. He just knows it’s a political issue.”

Shapleigh, who is up for reelection in 2010 and could face a primary opponent in 2009, dismissed Chavez’s idea it was a political issue.

“Norma at this point in session is very very stressed. Why she creates these divisions I do not know,” Shapleigh said.

Shapleigh reiterated that the issue was about making sure Quintanilla’s name was on the bill. Qutinanilla told NPT that he wanted to fix the exemption problems but that he didn’t mind which bill passed as long as one of them did. Quintanilla is also now a joint author of Pickett’s bill.

“One of them is going to get done,” Quintanilla said. “Like everything else there is sometimes wasted energy, but we try different methods of moving legislation.”

Over on the House side, the Shapleigh/Quintanilla bills have been referred to the Border Committee, chaired by state Rep. Veronica Gonzalez.

“This will be the fourth bill that I have heard which deals with the stormwater fee,” Gonzalez said. “What we’re just hoping is that one of thee bills passes so that the citizens of El Paso are not unduly taxed.”

Gonzalez said she was not certain of the position of the Pickett/Chavez bills in the Senate but that they would die unless picked up by Shapleigh or Lucio.

“We’re trying to confirm whether or not they have movement or not … if they do not I am trying to ensure that some bill gets out,” Gonzalez said. “If there is any disagreement among the delegation, I’d like to see that resolved so that we can move things along.”

While time is short, with stormwater being a local issue it has the potential to move quickly once the logjam is relieved. A hearing is scheduled for Monday in the House Border Committee for the Shapleigh/Quintanilla bills.

“I can’t imagine something won't pass,” said Pickett. “We’ve got so much overkill on this that if it doesn’t happen, it's because of egos.”