The Texas Legislature convened a special legislative session July 18, 2017. Property tax was a topic Gov. Greg Abbott immediately put on the agenda for the session.

House Bill 4 and Senate Bill 1 both, among other things, require a special election be called if any municipality plans to increase property taxes on land and buildings by more than 4 or 5 percent. Senate Bill 1 was passed by the Senate this week.

City and county leaders have stated such automatic election requirements would limit their budget for basic services and force them to hold costly elections.

The special session can run for up to 30 days.

The Texas Legislature convened a special session Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Gov. Greg Abbott selected 20 bills for the agenda to be discussed by lawmakers during the session.

The priority for the session is sunset legislation to allow select state agencies to continue operating.

Among the other subjects on the agenda are bathroom privacy, property tax, and multiple education issues.

The special session comes a week after Gov. Abbott announced his bid for a second term.

Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session of the Texas Legislature on Tuesday in an effort to push through a bill package necessary to keep some state agencies from closing.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick intentionally kept the legislation, known as a sunset bill, from passing in order to force a special session to discuss other items that did not pass during the regular session of the Legislature.

Gov. Abbott announced a 20-item agenda for the session but stated no other legislation would be looked at until the sunset bill is passed in full. Some other items listed on the agenda include school finance reform and mail-in ballot fraud.

The special session is scheduled to convene July 18, 2017.

Texas adjourned the 85th legislative session sine die Monday May 29, 2017.

Just hours before the House adjourned, Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would be making a decision later this week about whether to call the Legislature back into a special legislative session this summer, largely because lawmakers failed to pass a bill to keep the Texas Medical Board and related agencies open.

A special session could be avoided if the governor uses an executive order to extend the life of agencies involved in health and safety issues.

The Texas Legislature is not scheduled to convene until the 2019 regular session.

Effective June 1, 2017, Ordinance No. 20160922-005 repealing and replacing Chapter 4-8 of the Austin City Code relating to lobbying will go into effect. Among other things, the ordinance establishes new registration requirements, changes the method of reporting, and requires lobbyist compensation to be reported.

Additionally, the registration threshold will no longer hinge solely on an expenditure or compensation amount, but will also include time compensated for lobbying as a registration trigger. In a memorandum released this week, the City Clerk announced the office will create new lobbyist registration and reporting forms to be available on the its website by June 1. Existing and outdated forms will not be accepted moving forward.

Photo of the Austin skyline by Argash on Wikimedia Commons.

On Wednesday, Dallas City Council voted unanimously to overhaul the city’s ethics laws after months of work to tighten rules on lobbying and reduce political influence in City Hall.

Among other things, the new ethics rules bar successful campaign managers from lobbying city officials for one year after a campaign, require association leaders as well as attorneys and law firms representing clients to register as lobbyists, lower the gift disclosure threshold from $500 to $250, and broaden the scope of those covered by the law to include city board and commission appointees.

The ordinance will take effect July 1, 2017.

After a 2016 federal court decision blocked Austin’s blackout period restricting candidate fundraising to only during the six months preceding an election, campaign finance regulation supporters in Austin’s Ethics Review Commission are pushing a new ordinance to limit the contribution period and withstand the same type of legal challenges.

As the city appeals the 2016 ruling, candidates can raise money year-round.

The proposed ordinance, created by Council Member Leslie Pool, allows candidates to raise money for a full year before an election and to continue fundraising for a for up to six months after the election to pay off campaign debts.

The drafted ordinance is under review until the Commission meets again in April and aiming for action by the City Council by June.

This month, the Austin City Council unanimously voted to exempt City Council and their staff from being subject to punishment for interference with personnel matters with a clause in the city charter aimed at preventing elected officials from pressuring city staff to go against their professional and unbiased judgment in making official decisions.

This vote came one year after City Council asked for amendments to the city code to give the City’s Ethics Review Commission authority over the interference clause which were unanimously approved in November 2016.

Under the new ordinance approved this month, allegations of City Council ethics violations will go to the Auditor and Ethics Review Commission and any issues arising under the City Charter Clause will be decided by the Council and City Manager.

Texas ethics overhaul, Senate Bill 14, passed unanimously in the Senate this week and is headed to the House.

Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement praising the Senate’s swift movement, stating his confidence the comprehensive reforms will be passed.

An identical bill, House bill 1238, as well as six separate back-up bills duplicating each of the six articles in the reform package, were filed to avoid replicating the failure of a large ethics reform package during the 2015 legislative session.

A special election has been set for May 6, 2017, to fill the vacant seat for the Mayor of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Dan McQueen, former mayor, resigned on January 18 after just 37 days in office. His resignation came after being the subject of intense media scrutiny for criticizing city council and local media members on social media.

During such time, it was revealed that McQueen, who had no previous experience with public office, hired his live-in girlfriend as his chief of staff without disclosure to the city manager in direct conflict with the city’s policies.

Since McQueen’s resignation seven candidates have entered the mayoral race, including the City’s current Ethics Commissioner, Larry White.

Corpus Christi, Texas City Council will meet Tuesday to discuss new recommendations to the ethics code to further tighten rules for City Council members. The Council unanimously approved the new code during a first vote last week.

If approved on the second vote, it will be formally adopted by City Council. If adopted, the modified code would ban council members from appointing people to city committees and boards if the appointee contributed more than $2,700 to the council member’s campaign in the previous election. This would not ban the contributor from appointment, but would require a council member who did not receive contributions meeting the threshold to appoint the person.

Additionally, the prospective code broadens who falls within what is called the circle of influence and indicates a conflict of interest if a person with a specific relationship to a council member would profit from a council member’s vote. The current circle of influence includes direct family members but could be expanded to cover employers of family members and household members if the new code is adopted.

Legislators will attempt to pass a major ethics reform for the second time after their effort during the 2015 legislative session failed. The plan gained wide spread support in 2015 but was ultimately defeated in the House due to a provision increasing donor disclosure requirements for dark money groups.

The new reform package, Senate Bill 14, has four main provisions to:

• Prohibit politicians convicted of felony corruption charges from collecting state pensions
• Require disclosure if companies a lobbyist is tied to have received government contracts or served as bond counsel to a governmental entity
• Decrease the amount of money lobbyists can spend on food and drinks for legislators without triggering disclosure
• Ban registered lobbyists from running for elected office

Sen. Van Taylor who is sponsoring Senate Bill 14 has said reform is needed beyond the provisions of the reform package and will continue to file additional ethics bills. While Senate Bill 14 has not yet been filed, Taylor has filed Senate Bill 137 aiming to prohibit state agencies from using state funds to employ a person who is registered as a lobbyist or who engages in lobbying activities.

Gov. Greg Abbott supports the passage of an ethics package.

Photo of the Texas State Capitol By LoneStarMike via Wikimedia Commons

This month, the Texas Ethics Commission adopted a new rule adjusting the compensation and reimbursement threshold for lobbyists.

The new rule eliminates an exception not requiring a person to register as a lobbyist if he or she lobbied no more than five percent of his or her compensated time during a calendar quarter. Under the new rule exception, a person is not required to register as a lobbyist if the person spends not more than 40 hours during a calendar quarter engaging in lobbying activity for which the person is compensated or reimbursed.Time spent on preparatory activity is included in determining whether the 40-hour threshold has been met.

This rule goes into effect January 1, 2017.

Texas State House District 118 Rep. Dawnna Dukes announced she will resign January 10, 2017, citing health issues stemming from a 2013 car accident.

Dukes is running for a 12th term and will remain on the November ballot. If she is successful in the general election, the seat will remain vacant until a special election is called next year. Her Republican opponent is calling for an immediate resignation to eliminate the possibility of the district’s residents remaining unrepresented for months.

The resignation comes amidst allegations and an investigation regarding her alleged use of state resources for non-governmental purposes. The current allegations are the most recent in a string of ethics and campaign finance controversies throughout her 22-year career.

Photo of Rep. Dawnna Dukes courtesy of the Texas House of Representatives website.