Tagged: 83rd Legislature

At the Capitol, House Judiciary Committee members will debate a bill that would increase the number of people who have a say over how a child is raised in Texas.

The bill sparking debate is HB 393, filed by State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston.  Thompson’s bill would expand the number of people who can sue for visitation rights if they believe a child is being raised in a way that puts his or her well-being at risk. 

During the Texas Lyceum Conference on Transportation Friday, Gov. Rick Perry announced his plan to fix funding issues with transportation costs. 

"On every car or truck sold in the state of Texas, we take in sales tax. The amount we take in on those sales is increasing steadily. I propose we dedicate the future growth in sales tax collected on motor vehicles to transportation infrastructure," Perry said.

The governor said Texas should take advantage of the state’s relatively low debt to fix roads, like those in the Eagle Ford Shale and Burnet Shale areas of the state.

Texas Senate Committee on Finance gave their approval for tapping into the state’s so-called Rainy Day Fund to pay for future water and transportation needs.

Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, authored the bill that doesn’t include any of the money going to education.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, got another win for open-enrollment charters schools and vouchers on Thursday as the bill, which would raise the number of charter schools to 215 by 2014, got little to no opposition, and even got some help from across the aisle.

The bill also calls for that number to be raised to 331 by 2019.