Legislature to look at parks funding, boat safety
The 86th session of the Texas Legislature convenes Tuesday, with proposals that would affect outdoor recreation and the natural resources underpinning those activities certain to be among the more than 6,000 pieces of legislation expected to be filed for consideration during the biennial, 140-day flurry of lawmaking.
Even before the session begins, legislators have pre-filed bills that would allow Texas voters to decide if the state’s park system should have a funding source insulated from political whims, require boaters to use emergency engine cutoff switches when operating powerboats, allow hunters and anglers to prove they hold appropriate licenses by showing game wardens a digital image of the document, and allow bowfishers to target freshwater catfish.
Legislation that would affect an increasingly popular deer management program, the state’s oyster fishery and other outdoors-related issues also are expected to be filed in coming weeks.
A proposal that would ensurestable, predictable funding for Texas’ chronically underfunded state park system promises to be one of the most highprofile outdoors-related proposals during the coming session.
Two pieces of legislation — Senate Joint Resolution 24 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and House Joint Resolution by Rep. John Cyrier, R-Bastrop — would allow Texans to vote on an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would dedicate all revenue generated by state sales tax paid on items defined as sporting goods to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Historical Commission.
Currently, a law originally passed by the 1993 Texas Legislature and modified during the 2007 session allows the Legislature to appropriate as much as 94 percent of revenue from the state sales tax paid on purchases of sporting goods to TPWD to fund the state parks system and the remaining 6 percent to the Texas Historical Commission to fund that agency’s operations.
Dedicated fund needed
The so-called sportinggoods sales tax annually generates as much as $150 million or more that could be appropriated for funding Texas state parks. That appropriation accounts for the vast majority of funding for the state park system as well as TPWDmanaged grant programs for local parks.
But the Legislature seldom has appropriated the full amount of the sales tax revenue to the agency. From 1993 to 2017, the sales tax paid on purchases of sporting goods has generated almost $2.5 billion. But past Legislatures have appropriated only about 40 percent of that to state parks funding, channeling the rest of the revenue to other uses.
Lacking reliable, sufficient funding, Texas’ state park system has struggled. The 95-unit state park system faces a backlog of tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance. Parks also have been hit with tens of millions of dollars in damages caused by a series of natural disasters — wildfires, hurricanes, floods — over the last few years. And, even as several state parks have been temporarily wholly or partially closed because of damages, visitation to state parks has boomed as Texans flock to the sites. Visitation at some state parks has been so high that some parks regularly are forced to turn away visitors because of overcrowding.
Under terms of the proposed constitutional amendment, all state sales tax revenue generated through purchases of sporting goods automatically would be annually appropriated to TPWD and the Texas Historical Commission. This would guarantee a stable funding stream not subject to the vagaries of the current appropriation process.
If the resolution is adopted by the Texas Legislature, Texas voters would decide the fate of the proposed constitutional amendment during the Nov. 5 statewide election.
Kolkhorst’s proposed resolution has garnered considerable early bipartisan support, with 11 of the Texas Senate’s 31 members signing on as co-sponsors.
Also already in the hopper for the coming session is a second try at mandating use of engine cutoff switches by operators of powerboats. Two identical bills — HB 337 by Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio and SB 210 by Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels — would require the operators of powerboats less than 26 feet in length and equipped by the manufacturer with an engine cutoff switch to have that switch attached to them when the boat is underway.
Engine cutoff-switches — often called kill switches — are designed to shut off a boat’s engine when the switch is activated. The switches usually are attached via a lanyard attached on one end to the boat’s electrical system and the other to the operator’s wrist, belt or life jacket. If the operator is thrown from the boat while it is underway, the lanyard pulls a plug that immediately kills the engine, preventing severe and often fatal injuries caused when persons thrown out of the suddenly driverless vessel are struck by the craft or the engine’s propeller.
Larson introduced a similar bill during the Texas Legislature’s 2017 session. That bill passed the Texas House of Representatives but saw no action the Texas Senate.
High-tech license
House Bill 547 by Rep. Terry Canales is a proposal that aims to address the ubiquitousness of Texans’ use of smartphones as a repository for everything once kept in wallets. Under HB 547, TPWD would be mandated to change its regulations to allow a digital image of a Texas hunting or fishing license — an image downloaded from a TPWD website or a photograph of a physical license to serve as verification that the person holds a valid license. If the bill passes, hunters or anglers could show such a digital image on a “wireless communications device” to a game warden instead of having to produce the paper license.
Bowfishers would see freshwater catfish added to their list of potential quarry under HB 346 by Rep. Justin Holland, R-Rockwall. Current regulations limit bowfishers to taking only non-gamefish species such as shad, carp and buffalo. A little more than a decade ago, TPWD allowed bowfishing for catfish for a couple of years but rescinded that rule. Holland’s bill would allow a person with a valid fishing license and freshwater fishing stamp to bowfish for catfish in Texas public freshwater.
Expect several other outdoors-related bills to be filed soon after the session opens, with oysters and TPWD’s Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP) certain to be subjects.
Look for bills tightening commercial oyster-ishing regulations, focusing on increasing penalties for taking oysters from closed areas and addressing oyster mariculture.
Also, expect legislation that would allow TPWD to charge a fee for participation in the agency’s Managed Lands Deer Program. That program, which allows landowners who enroll in a department approved wildlife management plan to have more liberal deer hunting regulations than on land not enrolled in the program, including much longer deer hunting seasons and, in many cases, more liberal bag limits. Modest fee a necessity
Over the last 20 years, the MLD Program has seen phenomenal growth in participation, increasing from 813 properties covering 3.1 million acres in 1998 to 10,250 private properties covering almost 25 million acres in 2016. Currently, 300 to properties are being added to the program annually.
With MLDP’s explosive growth, administering the program — processing applications, visiting sites, helping landowners develop management plans and issuing permits — has greatly increased the work load of TPWD wildlife division biologists, reducing staff time to address other duties.
Currently, landowners are charged no fee to participate in the program. But charging a modest fee is seen as a necessity to help TPWD address the additional demands the program is placing on the agency.
During the Texas Legislature’s 2017 session, a bill that would have allowed TPWD to charge a fee for participating in the program passed the Texas Senate, cleared a House committee and was awaiting a vote in the Texas House when the session ended. Look for proponents of the bill to make another run this session.