Budget, 'red meat' issues will dominate as legislature convenes

A tight budget picture and brutal fights over “red meat” issues such as school bathrooms and sanctuary cities are expected to dominate the 85th session of the Texas Legislature. 

Government transparency issues championed by the Texas Press Association Legislative Advisory Committee will have to compete for legislators’ time and attention.

In the five-month session that convenes Jan. 10, legislators have only one constitutionally required duty: to write a balanced two-year state budget. That budget must cover not only basic needs such as highways and public health, but also must address critical funding problems with public schools and child protective services.

That won’t be easy in an era when $100-a-barrel oil is a distant memory, and it will consume a great deal of legislators’ time. But that won’t deter lawmakers from filing a tsunami of other bills — an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 pieces of legislation dealing with everything from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms to funding state pension programs.

Although an interim joint committee recently recommended that public notices remain in Texas newspapers, some individual lawmakers still may file bills calling for moving notices to governmental websites. If so, the TPA legislative team will work aggressively and tenaciously to defeat them.

We’ll also work hard to promote bills addressing important public information concerns, such as:

1. Legislation repairing the damage to transparency done by the Texas Supreme Court’s Boeing v. Paxton ruling, which allows companies doing business with government to withhold crucial information that has been previously been considered public.

2. Legislation ensuring access to date-of-birth information from public records for crucial identification purposes. An appellate court ruling in the Paxton v. City of Dallas case can be interpreted to deny public access even to the ages of criminal suspects and political candidates.

Legislation to close the “custodian loophole” used by some officials to avoid disclosure of public record documents on their personal electronic devices. 

Legislation closing the loophole created in open records laws by Baylor University’s claim that federal privacy rules prohibit the release of police reports of sexual assaults.

Legislation ensuring transparency of records between non-profits and governmental entities with whom they contract to perform city services. An example is the City of Houston and the Greater Houston Partnership, which work together on economic development matters.

One important thing hasn’t changed from previous sessions: the need for TPA member involvement. Our association doesn’t make political contributions, so TPA relies on the influence of its members to convince legislators to do the right thing. That approach has worked very well in the past, but it will work this time only if you are involved.

Included in this issue is a list of Texas legislators and their contact information. We ask that you use the list to contact your lawmakers at critical junctures during the session. We’ll provide talking points for you to use.

If you don’t already have a relationship with your state representative and state senator, now is the time to develop one. Pick up the phone and call them before the session begins. Wish them well and tell them you’d be happy to serve as a resource for information if they have questions on bills involving the public’s right to know what government is doing.

Then stay tuned. Your TPA legislative team will be in touch when the time comes to engage the political power of Texas newspapers.

– By Donnis Baggett, executive vice president of Texas Press Association. He may be reached at dbaggett@texaspress.com.