A very curious proposal

Senate Bill 690, sponsored by Jeff Wentworth (R) of San Antonio, would nearly quintuple the number of signatures needed to trigger a referendum to amend the charters in the two largest Texas cities and at least double the needed signatures in the rest of the 346 home rule Texas cities.

This is an assault on the rights of 20 million Texans. Why would any legislator want to do this? On March 18, 2009, the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee heard testimony on SB 690. The hearing seems to have exposed arrangements involving multiple taps into the taxpayer purse by various real estate developers. The taxpayer dollars involved are unknown - it is probably billions. A problem for developers used to getting public subsidies is that the public is waking up. Citizens are starting to use their right to propose amendments to their local charters --- amendments to prohibit the diversion of taxpayer money to insider interests. SB 690 is a retaliatory strike crafted by politically connected real estate interests in the Austin and Dallas areas to raise the hurdle, already too high, for citizens to amend home-rule charters in Texas. The higher threshold makes it unlikely that citizens can ever place another charter amendment proposal on the ballot.

The current law was adopted in 1973 because the old threshold was too high. SB 690 takes Texas back to the old threshold of 10% of registered voters. Passage of SB 690 means insider developers can keep their gravy train going. The hearing raised another question: Did these interests in Austin and Dallas who seem to be pulling the strings behind SB 690 misinform Sen. Wentworth about how much charter amendment elections actually cost taxpayers? Testimony from activists who have used the law showed clearly that taxpayer costs to hold referendums hover around $0 because they can be held simultaneously with other elections.

Take action!
Call Senator Wentworth at 512-463-0125. Dallas Rep. Dan Branch (R), has sponsored a companion House Bill 3458. To reach Rep. Branch, call (512) 463-0367.

This Press Advisory was furnished by:
Mike Ford
www.InitiativeforTexas.org
1750 Timber Ridge Road #116 Austin, TX 78741
512-447-2086
mikeford@quik.com