News
Are budget conferees violating open meetings act?
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Curt W. Olson, Texas Budget Source
Are budget conferees violating open meetings act?
Events this week support the belief that the conference committee on the state’s 2012-13 budget could be violating the spirit of the open meetings law.
Consider the evidence that emerged Thursday afternoon.
House chief budget writer Jim Pitts postponed debate on several fiscal bills that are critical to funding the budget for the next biennium. The House will take up the companion Senate bills next week.
While under questioning from three colleagues, the Waxahachie Republican admitted that the conference committee has been meeting the past couple of days.
However, there have been no announcements of conference committee meetings. The House named its budget conferees one week ago — May 6. The Senate did not name its budget conferees until early this week — Monday.
Pitts said that the House and Senate are far apart from one another. House Bill 1 spends $164.5 billion for 2012-13 biennium and the Senate version of the budget bill spend $176.5 billion — a $12 billion difference.
Pitts also told colleagues that the Legislative Budget Board has instructed conferees that they must be finished with the word by next Tuesday or Wednesday.
How could they have such a short deadline to pull this budget together — especially with all of the issues on the table — if they haven’t had public meetings?
So, the only way for the conference committee to have these meetings is to meet in groups of less than a quorum to avoid the open meetings act. With 10 people total — five from each legislative body — they would meet in groups of less than six conferees — more likely a couple at a time.
It’s technically legal.
However, it’s a lousy way to do business — especially at a time when the state has a shortfall to fix.
With this practice, conferees lose credibility by doing the most important taxpayer business out of public scrutiny.
Pitts’ dire warnings Thursday afternoon raised the bar for openness. He said the said would run out of money for Medicaid by March 2013. He also said schools would run out of money by February 2013 without a new school funding plan.
The severity of the situation demands openness — now more than ever.
Conduct these meetings in broad daylight with public discussions about how the House and Senate will resolve their differences.
And then repeat it in two years — so it becomes a good legislative habit.
