The Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 106, No. 17, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 29, 2015 Page: 4 of 10
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Aransas Pass Progress and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
The Aransas Pass Progress
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Page 4
House, Senate state budget conferees roll up sleeves
(4) is basing the proposed rule on out-
dated data from 2009.
ment. “People act different on camera,’
he said.
Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAl-
len; Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston;
freshman Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Bren-
ham; and Sen. Charles Schwertner,
R-Georgetown.
AUSTIN — With barely more than a
month left in the regular session of the
Texas Legislature, it’s time for the House
and Senate to do whatever can be done
to reach an all-points agreement on
House Bill 1, the state budget for fiscal
years 2016 and 2017.
A widely reported sticky area in the
estimated $211 billion budget is over
which taxes to cut and how much to cut.
House and Senate conferees will meet
this week. From both ends of the Cap-
itol, the budget has a ways-and-means
inertia to it, with House leaders pushing
for cuts in the state sales tax rate and the
state franchise tax. Senate leaders favor
more emphasis on cutting homeowners’
property tax rates, a job traditionally in
line with the normal functions of local
governmental bodies.
School districts, for example, get
most of their revenue from local prop-
erty taxes, and under the Senate plan,
the state would have to make up for
revenue lost to property tax cuts. The
House plan, touted to provide some
$5 billion in tax relief through other
Capital
Highlights
Injection well hearings planned
Senate OKs body camera bill
The Texas Senate on April 23 passed
SB 158, legislation authored by Sen.
Royce West, D-Dallas, that creates a
framework for the use of body cameras
by police officers.
The cameras, to be worn by officers
to record interactions between them
and members of the public, may help
“restore credibility and trust in our law
enforcement agencies,” West said.
While West’s bill does not mandate
that police departments adopt the use
of body cameras, it does create a grant
program at the Office of the Governor
that local law enforcement agencies can
apply for to help offset the cost of pur-
chasing equipment.
During floor debate, West said that
documenting encounters between po-
lice officers and citizens reduces com-
plaints against police, incidents of lethal
force and lawsuits against law enforce-
Southern Methodist University
on April 21 announced an SMU-led
seismology team has found that “high
volumes of wastewater injection com-
bined with brine extraction from nat-
ural gas wells is the most likely cause
of earthquakes occurring near Azle,
Texas, from late 2013 through spring
2014.”
by Ed Sterling
f
Abbott challenges haze rule
means, includes the first-ever reduc-
tion in state sales tax, with a 0.30-cent
reduction in rate from the current 6.25
percent to 5.95 percent. Wherever such
matters settle, the state’s checkbook
must balance. Tax cuts will have to be
“paid for” by corresponding cuts to
budget items, such as health care, edu-
cation, transportation and public safety.
Last week, House Speaker Joe Straus
and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick picked five
members each for the conference
committee on HB 1: House Appro-
priations Chair John Otto, R-Dayton;
Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin; Rep. Sarah
Davis, R-Houston; Rep. Larry Gonza-
les, R-Round Rock; and Rep. Sylvester
Turner, D-Houston; and Senate Finance
Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound;
Gov. Greg Abbott on April 22 sub-
mitted comments to the federal Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency’s Air Plan-
ning Section over the agency’s proposed
regional-haze rule.
Abbott said the EPA’s proposed action
“is unlawful on multiple fronts, and per-
haps most egregiously it would impose
a $2 billion burden in compliance costs
and threaten the reliability of Texas’ en-
ergy grid
benefits.”
The governor is arguing that the EPA:
(1) does not have the authority to reg-
ulate “invisible” haze; (2) oversteps its
statutory authority by imposing a com-
pliance cost on Texas; (3) discriminates
against Texas by imposing a different
standard than it has on California; and
On April 24, the oil and gas indus-
try-regulating Texas Railroad Com-
mission directed the agency’s hearings
division to initiate proceedings requir-
ing the operators of two disposal wells
in the area of Azle, 17 miles northwest
of Fort Worth, to “show cause” why the
injection permits for the wells should
not be cancelled and the wells ordered
shut-in, due to an alleged connection
raised by new seismic research between
ongoing operation of the wells and seis-
mic activity in the vicinity.
without any discernible
Letter to the
Editor Policy
Legislative update
Criminal
jurisprudence
committee
an-nwi02.coM
fk
1*1
The Aransas Pass Progress
encourages letters to the
editor. Letters will be run as
space permits and at the dis-
cretion of the editor. Letters
may tackle political topics,
but letters supporting or op-
posing candidates for public
office will not be accepted.
Letters from the same author
will not be published more
than once a month.
Letters must include the
writer's full name, daytime
phone number and home ad-
dress for verification. Phone
numbers and addresses will
not be printed. Any letter
submitted without a phone
number and address will not
be published. Additionally,
anonymous letters to the edi-
tor will not be accepted.
All letters must be typed.
Letters submitted in long-
hand may not be published.
Email letters to editor@
aransaspassprogress.com.
Letters may be mailed to P.O.
Box 2100, Aransas Pass, TX
78335.
esaa a
iST BUIE1
r * 8* B&L,
^ lllsa
tMWloyv
zv.
Y/7
Ifw
V
9
taking a DNA specimen.
•HB 2263: Relating to war-
rants or orders issued to ob-
tain location information from
wireless communications de-
vices and to public access to
law enforcement or prosecutor
requests for certain related lo-
cation or communication infor-
mation.
•HB 2525: Relating to the
appointment of counsel to rep-
resent indigent defendants in
criminal cases.
I will plan to do updates on
bills being considered. This
will give some information on
what potential laws are being
reviewed.
If you would like to follow
the Texas House and learn more
information on news, commit-
tees or other aspects of the leg-
islative body, you can access its
website at house.state.tx.us/.
The site features live streaming
from the House floor, commit-
tee hearings as well as access to a
number of other resources. You
can also follow the Texas Senate
at senate.state.tx.us/. The Texas
Governor’s official website can
be found at governor.state.tx-
.us/. For important information
regarding transportation in the
state, feel free to visit the Texas
Department of Transportation’s
website at txdot.gov/. The Texas
General Land Office’s website
can be found at glo.texas.gov/,
while the Texas Railroad Com-
mission’s website is located at
rrc.state.tx.us/.
As a reminder, the 84th Tex-
as Legislative Session is cur-
rently underway. As always,
I want to hear your ideas and
suggestion. Your ideas and in-
formation are important forms
of feedback and I hope that you
will not hesitate to contact my
office.
By Rep. Todd Hunter
0
In this week’s article, I want
to follow up and give an up-
date on this important legisla-
tive session that is well under-
way. Last month, March 13th
marked the legislative filing
deadline to file bills for the
84th Legislative Session. With
this deadline now past, I want
to take this opportunity to dis-
cuss some of the bills that have
been filed and have been up for
hearings in the committees that
I now serve on. It is important
to note, however, that while the
bill filing deadline has passed,
this does not mean that the dia-
logue has been finalized. House
and Senate committees are
hearing many bills and the next
stage of the legislative session is
in progress.
As your elected representa-
tive, I want to take this opportu-
nity to feature some of the piec-
es of legislation that have been
introduced and have come be-
fore committees that I serve on
for this current legislative ses-
sion. Below, I have listed some
of the bills that were recently
before the House Committee on
Criminal Jurisprudence.
•HB 273: Relating to the
minimum term of confinement
for an offense of illegal dump-
ing in a municipality.
•HB 511: Relating to the
prosecution of certain offenses
committed against a person in
custody.
•HB 563: Relating to the
prosecution of and punishment
for the offense of official op-
pression.
•HB 597: Relating to the
designation for criminal pros-
ecution and other purposes of
certain chemicals commonly
referred to as synthetic canna-
binoids as controlled substanc-
es and controlled substance
analogues under the Texas
Controlled Substances Act.
•HB 1076: Relating to the
authority of a magistrate to pro-
hibit certain communications
in an order for emergency pro-
tection.
•HB 1293: Relating to the
confidentiality of identify-
ing information of victims of
stalking; creating a criminal of-
fense.
tr *
fl
/
IT
i
i
-
7
BELL
P0
iii
So
m
n
?/
(tjj)
Sffi
Staff
M
Interim Publisher & Editor
Brittney Richerson
Circulation
Michael Hembree
Reporter
Brooke Ostrom
Contributing Writers
Richard Gonzales
Annita West
The Aransas Pass Progress
(USPS 028-900) is published
weekly by Granite Publishing
Partners Inc., 346 S. Houston St.,
Aransas Pass, Texas 78336. Sec-
ond Class postage paid at Aran-
sas Pass, TX. Postmaster: Send
address changes to The Aransas
Pass Progress, P.O. Box 2100 Aran-
sas Pass, TX 78335.
Legislative session:
Week in review
by Rep. Nicole Collier which requires police
officers to undergo four hours of training on
canine behavior. The measure is designed to
prevent the unnecessary injury or killing of
dogs.
By Rep. J. M. Lozano
As we close in on the final weeks of the
84th Legislative Session, the pace of legis-
lation moving through the process is pick-
ing up as well. Several important bills were
passed this last week that I proudly voted for.
Perhaps the most notable legislation was
HB 1690 by Rep. Phil King, which makes
changes to the Public Integrity Unit. Public
integrity offenses committed by elected or
appointed officials will now be investigated
by a new division of the Texas Rangers in-
stead of the Travis County District Attorney.
The cases will be tried in the official's home
county as well. This will remove politics from
the process and the over-concentration of
power in one office.
Two significant healthcare bills were also
passed. HB 2813 by Rep. Ken King requires
many health insurance plans to cover ovarian
cancer screenings. And HB 21 by Rep. Kyle
Kacal would allow terminally ill patients to
use drugs, biological products, and devices
that have cleared the first phase of clinical
trials. Another important bill was HB 593
Subscription rates: Aransas
and San Patricio County, Cities of
Port Aransas and Rockport - $39
per year. Outside the listed area -
$49 per year.
Several important bills will be heard on
the house floor next week regarding taxes,
economic development programs and other
issues. I look forward to these debates and
If you have questions re-
garding any of the information
mentioned in this week’s article,
please do not hesitate to call my
Capitol or District Office. Please
always feel free to contact my
office if you have any questions
or issues regarding a Texas state
agency, or if you would like
to contact my office regarding
constituent services. As always,
my offices are available at any
time to assist with questions,
concerns or comments (Capitol
Office, 512-463-0672; District
Office, 361-949-4603).
Hunter
Nueces (Part) County. He can
he contacted at todd.hunter@
house.state.tx.us or at 512-463-
0672.
Memberships:
National Newspaper
Association, Texas Press
Association;
South Texas Press Association;
Texas Gulf Coast Press
Association;
Aransas Pass Chamber
of Commerce,
Rockport Chamber of
Commerce, Ingleside Chamber
of Commerce.
will vote in a way that I think is best for my
district and our state.
Aransas Pass Progress
346 S. Houston • PO Box 2100
Aransas Pass,TX 78336
Phone: 361-758-5391
Fax: 361-758-5393
www.aransaspassprogress.com
rrrrrr r r rlrrrr
r rrrrrrrr
•HB 1503: Relating to the
rights of certain defendants who
successfully complete a term of
community supervision.
•HB 2185: Relating to the ex-
ecution of a search warrant for
rrrrimr rrrr
m Trim
Rep.
represents
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View three places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Richerson, Brittney. The Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 106, No. 17, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 29, 2015, newspaper, April 29, 2015; Aransas Pass, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1144190/m1/4/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.