Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 50, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 26, 2011 Page: 3 of 20
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POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE • SUNDAY, JUNE 26,2011 • PAGE 3A
Governor Perry announces vetoes
rrihis week Texas
I finally received some
X. relief from drought
as thunderstorms rolled across
the state. Here at the Capitol
rain fell, but the real storms
were inside as legislators
worked to finalize legislation
before the end of the special
session in a few days.
Five things that happened
this week at your Texas
Capitol are:
1. Governor Perry
Announced vetoes
Last Friday, Gov. Rick Perry
announced his vetoes of bills
from the 82nd Legislative
Session. He rejected 24 bills
including a ban on texting
while driving and legislation
allowing transit buses to use
highway shoulders. While
the Legislature may in
theory override a veto with a
two-thirds vote, that vote is
impossible if the Legislature is
not in session. Because almost
all legislation is finally passed
in the last days of session,
there are very few bills the
Legislature could revive
should the governor veto it.
This makes the governor’s
veto a very powerful tool
because it can completely shut
down legislation despite its
passage by the Legislature.
2. Anti-grouping legislation
added to the special session
call
On Monday, Gov. Perry
expanded the call for special
session to include legislation
concerning airport security
searches. During the regular
session, the House passed a
bill banning intrusive searches
by Transportation Security
Administration (TSA)
officials. The bill stalled at
the last minute in the Senate
and did not pass before the
legislative deadline. 1 voted for
this legislation in committee
during the regular session and
plan to vote for it again during
the special session.
3. Senate approves
redistricting committee
The Senate approved a
bill that would establish
a bipartisan committee to
determine congressional
boundaries when redistricting
every 10 years. The
committee would consist of
four Republicans and four
Democrats selected by the
House and Senate. A ninth
non-voting member would
be selected by a majority of
commission members to serve
as the presiding officer. I
voted against this bill because
1 believe it is the Legislature’s
constitutional duty to draw
and approve Congressional
districts. While the legislation
passed the Senate, it may not
have time to make it through
the House before the special
session ends.
4. Texas
Insurance
debated
Legislators
Windstorm
Association
may face
another special session if
issues related to the Texas
Windstorm Insurance
Association (TWIA) are
not resolved. The quasi-
govemmental association was
created in 1970 to provide
insurance for coastal residents
after many insurers pulled
out of the market following
Hurricane Celia. At issue are
the amount policyholders may
sue for if denied their claim
and if the state still needs
TWIA at all. If a resolution is
not reached, Gov. Perry has
indicated he will call another
special session to settle this
issue before the upcoming
Hurricane season. A bill has
passed the House and Senate,
but the differences between
the two versions must still
be worked out by the end of
special session on June 29.
5. Amazon. looking for a
deal from the state
Online retailer Amazon,
tried this week to negotiate a
deal with Texas officials for a
break in sales tax in exchange
for generating jobs in Texas.
The company promised to
invest more than $300 million
and create at least 5,000 jobs
in Texas during the next three
years if lawmakers would
approve a measure exempting
Amazon from collecting
online sales tax in Texas
for the next four-and-a-half
years.
In February, Amazon
announced it would close its
Texas distribution center after
Texas Comptroller Susan
Combs tried to collect more
than $200 million in sales
tax from the retailer. While
online companies without a
physical presence in Texas do
not have to collect sales tax,
Comptroller Combs argued
the retailer’s distribution
center made sales to Texas
residents subject to sales tax.
To make the deal work,
a last minute change would
have to be added to Senate
Bill 1 and the Legislature may
not be willing to make such a
dramatic change in the final
hours of the special session.
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Drought puts heat on poorly built ponds
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BY ROBERT BURNS
Texas AgriLife
Extension Service
OVERTON - If you think
it’s dry, try being a fish dur-
ing the drought, said a Texas
AgriLife Extension Service
expert.
“You know it’s dry when
your fish have ticks,” joked Dr.
Billy Higginbotham, AgriLife
Extension wildlife and fisher-
ies specialist.
Jokes aside, it’s a serious
matter as water levels drop for
the owners of the more than a
million private water impound-
ments in Texas, Higginbotham
said. Channel catfish, bluegill
and largemouth bass must sur-
vive both a shrinking habitat
and dropping water-oxygen
levels.
Dropping oxygen levels can
be a problem during a hot Texas
summer even when there’s nor-
mal rainfall. But there’s noth-
ing like a drought to highlight
a poorly constructed pond and
magnify the potential for fish
kills, he said.
“It’s hot and dry even by
Texas standards, but the ponds
that show the problem first and
foremost are those that have ei-
ther very small watersheds or
those ponds that were built on
•marginal soil,” he said.
A small watershed means
there is not a large enough area
surrounding the pond for suf-
ficient runoff to maintain water
With the ongoing drought, many ponds in Texas, such
as this one in Rusk County, were nearly dry by late
June. This pond dried out prematurely not just due to the
drought but because of lack of sufficient clay content in
the liner and a limited drainage area, according to Dr.
Billy Higginbotham, Texas AgriLife Extension Service
wildlife and fisheries specialist. (Texas AgriLife Exten-
sion Service photo by Robert Burns)
levels, even during years with
average rainfall, Higginbotham
explained. To hold that runoff,
the soil the pond is situated in
should contain enough clay.
“These are important con-
struction concepts for land-
owners to remember whether
they are watering livestock or
if fish are an important recre-
ation use of that pond,” he said.
“Fish remain a primary con-
cern to many owners of small
ponds, and there are more
Obviously, Higgibotham
said, when ponds are not
much more than mud wallows,
there’s little that can be done
about saving fish.
“Certainly, when pond lev-
els reach this point, I hope they
have done something about
fish populations already, hope-
fully harvested them,” he said.
But even if a pond is well-
constructed and its water level
has only dropped a foot or two,
it still behooves pond owners
to pay attention to fish man-
agement and water oxygen
See DROUGHT, Page 5A
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Reddell, Valerie. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 50, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 26, 2011, newspaper, June 26, 2011; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth658556/m1/3/?q=green+energy: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.