GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS Te
Industry Eye on State & Local Issues Legislative Snapshot A
By MAGGIE YANCEY, GHBA Government Affairs and Communications Specialist
You Have a Voice with GAC!
If you have questions about this article or would like to get involved on the Government Affairs Committee, call (281) 970-8970, ext. 142 or email Maggie at
myancey@ghba.org.
s of this writing, the Texas State Senators and Representatives are working under the wire to pass or kill critical measures and wrap-up
the regular session, which concluded on May 30. However, a special session is speculated to begin this summer after the fourth of July. In the final days, the House and the Senate reconciled a budget to be sent to the Governor's desk for signing. The Governor has until Sunday, June 19, which is the 20th day following final adjournment, to sign or veto bills passed during the regular legislative session. The majority of passed legislation will take effect on September 1, 2011.
Next month's issue of the Government Affairs section in Houston Builder magazine will be a comprehensive list of all the pieces of important legislation affecting our industry. For the time being, lets celebrate a few of the many accomplishments! The GHBA and your building industry colleagues throughout the state, warmly extend our gratitude to those who joined us on Rally Day, phoned or wrote their legislators, or offered their expertise to help make this legislative session a huge success. Following are several bad bills that died and did not get passed thanks to your efforts:
SBs 1363, 1364 and Senate Joint Resolution 40 - Senator Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville): Relating to county and municipal land development regulations; providing a penalty. This bill would have resulted in an overwhelmingly large expansion of county authority that would severely obstructed economic development and a consumer's access o homeownership.
HB 1876 - Senator Vicki Truitt (R-Keller): Relating to the authority of certain municipalities to require fire protection sprinkler systems in certain residences. Which will allow a municipality to hold an election giving it the authority to mandate expensive fire sprinklers in new one and two-family dwellings. If passed, this bill would have effectively undone the actions of the 2009 Legislature prohibiting cities to mandate fire sprinklers in new and existing one and two-family dwellings.
8
HB 2328 - Representative Ruth McClendon (D-San Antonio): Relating to the registration, monitoring, and investigation of and handling of funds by property owners' association boards.
SB 437 - Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flowermound): Relating to residency requirements for voting in certain municipal utility district elections. It would have seriously impacted the creation of new districts and increased the cost to developers thus increasing the cost to the homebuyer.
*This information was reported accurately up to the deadline of this publication, and is subject to change.
Texas Economy
As the job market showed signs of recovery in April, employers continued to expand payrolls for the seventh month in a row and the unemployment rate edged down again. The Texas Workforce Commission released data that showed that payrolls rose by 32,900 jobs in April. The state's jobless rate dipped to 8 percent from 8.1 percent in March. However, declines occurred in construction where payrolls slowed by 9,300 jobs and in manufacturing by 2,000 jobs. As other sectors see improvement, historically, the overall economic conditions improve for our industry, although not as quickly as we would like. Employers added 3,700 jobs in mining and logging, which includes jobs within the oil and gas industry.
Redistricting
The economy and population shifts are all factors that weigh heavily on the legislature's role to pass pivotal legislation such as redistricting. The U.S. Constitution requires that a census be taken every 10 years for the purpose of apportioning the United States House of Representatives. There are two options for the unresolved redistricting issue. Lawmakers in Austin can allow a panel of federal judges to draw the map or add it to the call for a special session in July. Or
JUNE 2011 | HOUSTON BUILDER | GREATER HOUSTON BUILDERS ASSOCIATION – BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48