Mediocrity in Austin

The 85th legislative session shows yet again that the state lacks statesmen and women.

Thanks in part to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s extended bathroom break, lawmakers approach the end of the 85th legislative session not only in sniping, squabbling mode, which is not unusual, but also derelict in their essential duties — coming together on a farsighted state budget, for example, or fixing the state’s broken system of school finance. Patrick’s vengeful effort to keep transgender Texans out of bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities isn’t the only reason lawmakers are behind, but it symbolizes the faux-conservative approach to lawmaking, an approach that finds lawmakers more interested in social engineering and appeasing their base than meeting the mundane needs of everyday Texans, in addition to making prudent investments in the state’s longrange future.

For the moment a “closed for cleaning” stanchion has Patrick’s favorite bill in stasis, but there’s no guarantee some version of it won’t miraculously reappear as an amendment to another piece of legislation. Be on the lookout for some version of the scheme promulgated by the far-right Freedom Caucus earlier in the session, when its members attempted to inject language from the bathroom bill into legislation renaming the Texas Railroad Commission.

More important bills also remain in limbo, making the possibility of a special session more likely. For example, Patrick and other Senate leaders are weighing down urgent school finance legislation with new language favoring school vouchers, even though House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly earlier in the session to ban voucher funding because of its drain on public school finances. House Bill 21, the school funding vehicle sponsored by state Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, would revise the state’s funding formula, add about $1.8 billion in new spending and — of note to Houston taxpayers — roll back local taxpayerfunded payments to the state, known as “recapture,” by $380 billion in the next biennium. The bill deserves passage, minus the voucher component.

Perhaps the most egregious example of legislative shortsightedness this session is the higher-education starvation diet lawmakers have imposed. The state’s colleges and universities are likely to see a funding decrease of at least 6 percent, despite enrollment increases and federal funding decreases. “We’re kind of crippling them as we go,” state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, told the Chronicle not long ago (more in sorrow than in joy, we presume).

Among the worthy bills still alive as of this writing is the so-called Sandra Bland Act. Written by state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the bill mandates that county jails divert people with mental health and substance-abuse issues into treatment. Having passed the Senate, it’s on its way to the House, where state Rep. Garnet Coleman has filed a similar bill.

We regret the demise of “raise the age” legislation by state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, the bill that would have raised the age for criminal responsibility from 17 to 18, the age most states use to mark adult responsibility. The Texas age has been 17 since 1913.

One measure that deserves to die is Senate Bill 2, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s bill to cut the amount by which local governments could increase their property taxes without a special election. The Houston Republican’s bill is one of several this session that seeks to impede local control over taxes and spending, thus violating the basic democratic — and cardinal conservative — principle “that government is best which is closest to the people” (Thomas Jefferson).

With hundreds of bills still to consider, lawmakers lurch toward sine die. As usual this session, Patrick is ever eager to exploit divisive social issues, House Speaker Joe Straus is being forced to fend off the radical fringe known as the Texas Freedom Caucus and Gov. Greg Abbott is evaluating legislation through the prism of being primaried by that same rightest element. The 85th legislative session illustrates yet again that the state lacks statesmen and women. We settle instead for muddled mediocrity.