Tree bill in trouble near end of session

Abortion restrictions, annexation approval primed to advance.

Legislation to limit city tree ordinances ran into a potentially fatal problem and House Republicans scrambled to overcome trouble for the long-sought conservative goal of capping state spending as the Legislature, entering the final sprint of the special session, worked into the night again Sunday.

Several of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities were primed to advance, including a bill prohibiting insurance plans from paying for abortions and another requiring voter approval when large cities and counties raise property taxes above a certain level — 6 percent in the House version, 4 percent in the Senate, a disagreement expected to require a conference committee to resolve.

The Senate also sent to Abbott a bill requiring cities in large counties to gain approval from residents in areas to be annexed.

Despite protests from Demo-

crats, who said the bill could handcuff cities in planning for growth and financing roads and utilities, senators voted 21-10 to require annexation elections in counties with at least 500,000 residents.

Several of Abbott’s special session agenda items, however, ran into trouble, including a high-profile attempt to limit city authority to regulate tree removal.

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, returned House Bill 7 to the Senate late Saturday, saying it needed to be changed because senators had made changes that were inconsistent with its “sole purpose” — to create tree-planting credits to offset local mitigation fees.

In a written statement to the Senate, Straus took exception to a ban on cities regulating trees in their extraterritorial jurisdictions. A Senate amendment also prohibited cities from regulating the removal of trees that are less than 10 inches in diameter.

Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, RBrenham, the Senate sponsor of HB 7, said Sunday that she was weighing her options. Both changes were the result of hard-fought negotiations to gain support from senators, and finding the votes to remove them will be difficult, if not impossible, she said.

“I don’t know if I can secure the votes to unwind it,” Kolkhorst told reporters.

During the Senate debate on HB 7, Kolkhorst said the changes were made to bring the bill more in line with the wishes of Abbott, who pressed the Legislature to void all tree removal ordinances put in place by local governments.

Another unexpected problem befell HB 208, which would allow state government to increase spending only to keep pace with inflation and population growth, when a Democrat’s point of order was sustained because of inaccuracies in the written bill analysis.

HB 208 was returned to the Appropriations Committee, which met twice Saturday night in hopes of getting the measure — now known as Senate Bill 9 — to the floor in time for votes on Monday and Tuesday, so the bill could go to the Senate on Wednesday, the special session’s final day.

School finance

For the second day in a row, lawmakers met later than normal Sunday — with the Senate beginning at 5:20 p.m. and the House around 7:45 p.m. — because some bills were not eligible for a vote any earlier.

The Senate was expected to begin debate on HB 21, which would inject at least $311 million into public schools over the next two years, with higher amounts possible.

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing shortly before the Senate convened, Senate Education Chairman Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, said HB 21 was not a meaningful fix to the state’s beleaguered school finance system. Taylor has stripped nearly $1.5 billion from the House version, eliminating a major provision that would have given all schools an increase in the base money that they get per student, from $5,140 to $5,350.

Taylor said that instead of throwing money at the problem, the Legislature needs to pass SB 16, which would create a commission to study the school finance system and make recommendations.

“This is a window of opportunity, and we have to come in and really look at school finance, top to bottom,” Taylor said of SB 16. “House Bill 21 does not fix anything.”

Abortion restrictions

The Senate also was scheduled to vote on two new abortion regulations Sunday night, including a measure that would prohibit abortion coverage in private insurance plans as well as coverage offered to state employees and under the Affordable Care Act. Women who want abortion coverage would have to purchase a supplemental plan, if available, under HB 214. Pregnancies that threaten a woman’s life could be covered, but pregnancies resulting from rape or incest would not be.

A second measure, HB 215, would require additional reporting to the state on abortions performed on patients under age 18, including how consent was obtained.

Final passage, expected late Sunday, would send both bills to Abbott.

In the House, final approval was expected on a bill to require specific patient approval for hospital do-not-resuscitate orders, sending SB 11 to the Senate, where its author has promised to approve changes made in the House.

The House also was expected to take initial votes on bills to create separate commissions — one to study the state’s high rate of pregnancy-related deaths and another to study and recommend changes to the school finance system — with final votes likely on Monday.