July 07, 2005
HB 3 Fails 73-74 on Second Reading...But Then the Games Begin ***UPDATE***
By Damon McCullar
After hours of debate on some 600+ amendments HB 3 died on a vote of 73-74. If only that's were the story ended. Upon verification of the vote the absences of Rep. Eiland and Rep. Martinez-Fischer pushed the vote to 73-72, so HB 3 passed upon its' second reading. Rep. Dukes and Rep. Delwin Jones were the only excused absences yesterday.
Speaker Craddick's vote pushed HB 3 over the top after Reps. Eiland and Martinez-Fisher were not in the chamber upon the verificaiton of the vote. Speaker Craddick is confident that "We will retain the votes and get more" when HB 3 gets its' final vote during its' third reading today.
***UPDATE***
Pink Dome seems to have an inside track on today's third reading. Check it out!! http://www.pinkdome.com/archives/2005/07/have_you_seen_t.html
Speaker Craddick is leaning on Reps. Edwards and Baily to reverse their votes on HB 3 during the third reading today.
Speaker Craddick had made it his goal that a terrible tax bill gets through the house that will cost about 90% of Texans. This is because the average family will see about $200 in property tax relief but between the sales tax and everything else that's in it, it's all a wash.
It appears that Rep. Delwin Jones and at least one of yesterday's missing Democrats will be back on the floor for the third reading vote on HB 3....stay tuned.
***UPDATE***
Two of the R's that voted against HB 3 last night, Reps. Hegar and Truitt, have been excused by the speaker, seems their arms have been twisted. Also, Reps. Martinez-Fischer and Dukes were also excused for the day. Hopefully, Rep. Eiland will return, and Reps. Edwards and Bailey won't leave.
Posted by Damon McCullar at July 7, 2005 10:45 AM
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Seems like Rep. Dukes was in France. That's more important to her than school finance. Apparently she's checking out their toll roads.
Trey is also out of the country on vacation... so looks like he will not be at work today.
We welcome Rep. Eiland back to the floor, and truly appreciate him coming back!
do we think eiland is going to be voting with the Ds? I am suspicious.
What about Luna? She always votes with the leaderships on tight votes... We cant count on her.
i know i have seen it somewhere on the web this morning...probably a blog. can someone point me to the list of those voting AYE, NAY, PNV, and absent for the second reading?
thanks
All of the Democrats that were present voted No on HB 3, in addition the following Republicans voted No on HB3: Goodman, Griggs, Haggerty, Hegar, Hildebran, Hunter, Laubenberg, McCall, Merritt, Reyna, Solomons and Straus.
Can BOR post the vote on HB1 amendment # 2? Thompson’s amendment.
Thanks
The record votes are normally posted on the House website, but the site is going a little slow. I'll post a link to it later, once the record vote is online.
If you want to check on your own, it should be at www.house.state.tx.us. Click on bills, search for HB 1, look under the Actions tab, and look for Thompson's amendment. Once the site is updated, there should be a link to the record vote.
Thanks Phillip. I havent been able to get the House Web site to load all morning. But, I did just find another post of the vote. TSTA has the votes posted on their web site in case anyone else is looking.
