AUSTIN -- El Paso legislators' wrangling over who should get credit for reducing taxes has stalled bills that would exempt El Paso County and its school districts from paying thousands in stormwater fees.

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

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

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 approved. The bills by Chávez and Pickett, he said, are flawed.

Moreover, he said, Quintanilla's name should be on any bill that aims to fix problems with the stormwater fees. Shapleigh said Quintanilla helped create the fees after the floods of 2006.

"Chente did most of the work," he said of creating a system to generate money for flood-control projects.

Shapleigh refuses to sponsor the measures by Chávez and Pickett, which means those bills cannot get out of the Senate.

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

As for Chávez, she hopes to advance her bill without Shapleigh's help. She has asked state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, to be the Senate sponsor of the stormwater bills Pickett got through the House.

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

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

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

Quintanilla's stand was that he wanted the legislation approved, regardless of who got credit.

"What difference does it make?" whose name is on the bill, he said.

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

Gonzales said she told the El Paso legislators they need to work out their disagreements and decide 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 the El Paso Independent School District and the county said it did not matter which of the measures passed as long as something made it out of the Capitol this year exempting their property from the stormwater fees.

The county has paid about $42,000 in such fees. Four El Paso school districts were initially charged more than $225,000 for stormwater utility fees, but the PSB reduced the amount 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 for 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."