MANY CHALLENGES AND NEW LEADERSHIP

Add to this mix new leadership and many new members in both Chambers. Gov. Perry was facing his first Legislative Session having been elected to that position. David Dewhurst was beginning his first Legislative Session as Lieutenant Governor. His only previous governmental experience was serving as the Land Commissioner for one term. While a 33-year veteran of the Texas House, Rep. Tom Craddick was serving his first term as Speaker of the House, a very different and challenging position.

In the House, 40 new members began their first term (out of a total of 150 - the greatest change since 1972 when the Sharpstown Scandal precipitated a larger turnover). With the change in leadership in the House, many new Committee Chairmen had been appointed who had never served in as a Chairman or had chaired other less substantial committees. In the Senate, six new Senators were elected out of 31.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Legislature addressed most of the major issues before it. Business in general and the construction industry had good sessions overall.

With a combination of spending cuts, measures to make the state government more efficient, some accounting changes (e.g., pay on Sept. 1 rather than Aug. 31), probably what will be some monetary downloading to local governmental entities, and elimination of some services, the Legislature passed a budget bill that balanced - or as in the game of horseshoes, was close enough. This accomplishment means no new taxes for our industry.

In addition, a measure was passed that gave greater regulatory authority to the Commissioner of Insurance for both homeowners and auto insurance. The measure provided that insurance carriers would have to file their proposed rates for approval by the Commissioner.

A bill having benefits for business and the construction industry, HB 4 (the Omnibus Tort Reform Bill) was passed. This measure was more sweeping than previous reform efforts in 1987 and 1995. Provisions included tightening requirements in order to bring a class action, allowance of litigation cost recovery when a party fails to reasonably settle a suit (Offer and Settlement provision), tightening of the comparative negligence statute, and changes in the products law which would benefit non-manufacturing sellers of products.

Also a constitutional amendment was passed which will go before the voters on Sept. 13 (see summary of Proposition 12 in the Constitutional Amendments section) having the potential to benefit the Construction Industry. This proposition ratifies the constitutionality of the limits on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases but also grants the authority to future Legislatures to put limits on non-economic damages in all other type of lawsuits. This would include construction industry suits involving personal injury.

As this goes to press, Gov. Perry has called the Legislature into session for the purpose of congressional redistricting. The governor would like to see new congressional districts drawn with the expectation that the majority of the districts will shift from Democratic to Republican representation. The governor may add extra issues to the called session and, probably early next year in another called session the legislature will try to find a replacement for the so-called "Robin Hood" system of school finance, the major issue not addressed by the Legislature during the regular session that ended June 2.