Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 24

B4 Austin American-Statesman Wednesday, May 24, 1989 71st Legislature Rider offered to prevent DHS 'revolving-door' conflicts any limitation." He also questioned' the fairness of applying such a rule to only one state agency. But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Kent Caperton, a key budget conferee who agreed to the- rider, said he thinks the provision is proper. "It's going to keep someone from developing a plan for the state, and then going to work for a company that gets the contract for that plan profiting off their state Caperton, D-Bryan. "I don't think it's too broad. I think DHS is where some of the abuses have -been in the past, frankly, and this is -designed to check that." earlier considered by the Legislature covered state contracting activity for only two years after the employees left a state agency.

Acting DHS Commissioner Charles Stevenson said he had not seen the rider, and planned to have DHS attorneys review it today to determine what effect it could have. Stevenson said he was unsure how many DHS contracts could be affected by the mandate. "I don't think there will be very many," he said. Vowell said he is concerned that the rider covers "anyone who ever worked for DHS ever without tracts for "goods, services or products" in which the former board member or employee played a role while at the agency, he said. "It gives the budget board the right to review each of those contracts and stop them, stop that revolving door," said Williamson, D-Weatherford.

"I think it's a great step forward." Officials said the provision, called a rider, will cover tens of thousands of contracts at DHS, which has an annual budget of more than S3 billion and more than 13,000 employees. "It's vast and it's sweeping," said Rep. Jack Vowell, R-El Paso, on any contract linked to a former employee or board member until the department had given 30 days notice to the LBB and the Governor's Office of Budget and Planning. If the LBB did not object, DHS could proceed with awarding the contract. In addition to general contracts, the rider also covers DHS contracts with consultants and professional service firms "every contract out there," according to Williamson.

And, he said, the provision covers anyone who ever worked at the agency or was a board member. Most of the revolving-door bills chairman of DHS budget oversight in the House. "It's a very significant disclosure provision, significant because it covers everyone who has ever been a board member or ever worked for the agency." Williamson said the rider was initially added to the budget bill because of criticism that former DHS Board Chairman J. Livingston Kosberg had an interest in a computer firm courting a DHS contract. But Williamson said budget conferees agreed late last week to broaden the rider to include all DHS contracts.

Under the rider, DHS would be prohibited from spending money By Mike Ward American-Statesman Capitol Staff Even though "revolving-door" legislation is dead, a provision in the massive appropriations bill could prohibit employees at the Texas Department of Human Services from profiting from their jobs, officials said Tuesday. Rep. Ric Williamson, the provision's author, said it requires DHS to notify the Legislative Budget Board before contracting with any company in which a former board member or employee holds a substantial interest. The provision covers DHS con House approves 'utility welfare bill' Plan allows collection of hypothetical taxes Amendments irk workers' comp measure's author I fef fL AP liff said after the Senate session. During Senate debate Ratliff said there were "thousands and thousands" of employers who have dropped workers' compensation insurance because of the high rates.

But health insurance is as much as percent cheaper, he said, and while it may not offer as complete coverage as workers' compensation, it would be better than nothing. But Parker and other Senate critics said Ratliff bill could undermine the workers' compensation system, detract from the main reform bill passed by the Senate on Monday, and mislead employees about what kind of protection they had. Parker, a Port Arthur Democrat, put up his amendment to require employers to have either workers' compensation or health insurance coverage, and the Senate accepted it on a 16-14 vote. Montford, a Lubbock Democrat, then sent up an amendment that would limit the option to employers with fewer than 150 employees the group Ratliff most wants want to help. After adding several other Parker amendments on the bill, the Sen.

Bill Ratliff votes for his bill to let employers use health Insurance to replace workers' comp, but he says he may kill the bill later. By Debbie Graves and Mike Ward American-Statesman Capitol Staff Despite one lawmaker's warning that the proposal was a "public utility welfare bill," the House overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday that consumer groups say will result in a $1 billion windfall for utilities. The bill by Rep. Buzz Robnett, R-Lubbock, would negate a 1987 Texas Supreme Court ruling stating utilities can charge ratepayers for only those taxes that the utilities actually paid. The measure, which won tentative approval by a vote of 92-47, would allow utilities to revert to the previous policy allowing utilities to collect "hypothetical" or "phantom" taxes.

Those are taxes that would have been paid if the utility had no tax deductions. Robnett said the legislation follows federal accounting policies. But Rep. Betty Denton, D-Waco, said, "It's the public utility welfare bill because it gives them something for nothing." Assistant Attorney General Scott McCollough, who represents state agencies before the Public Utility Commission, estimates that this measure will add $288 per year to the bills of Gulf States Utility customers. Houston Lighting Power customers would see their rates increase $111 annually, while Southwestern Bell customers' bills would increase by $50 a year, he estimates.

The legislation will add $10 million to the utility bills paid by state agencies, McCollough said. Opposing this legislation is Consumers Union, the Gray Panthers, Public Citizen, American Association of Retired Persons, Texas Consumer Association and the National Association of Social Workers. The bill will allow utilities to "increase profits unfairly," their representatives say, adding that their conservative estimates indicate it will cost $1 billion in additional telephone and electric rates. After the House takes a final vote on the measure today, it will go to the Senate, where its future is uncertain. The original Senate sponsor, Bob Glasgow, D-Stephen-ville, announced May 12 that he has decided not to support the legislation.

"I do not feel it appropriate for the Legislature to change suddenly a law that has passed and Killeen college growth By Bruce Hight American-Statesman Capitol Staff Sens. Carl Parker and John Montford performed some legislative plastic surgery Tuesday on a workers' compensation bill by Sen. Bill Ratliff. But the altered bill looked so ugly to Ratliff, R-Mt. Pleasant, he said he probably will kill it.

Ratliff original bill would have encouraged employers without workers' compensation insurance to buy 24-hour health insurance coverage for their employees by giving them certain legal rights should they be sued for negligence by an injured worker. But the original version did not require workers' compensation or health insurance. Parker and Montford, both veteran Democratic lawmakers and chairmen of major committees, went to work on the bill in their favorite operating theater, the Texas Senate. When they stepped back from the table, the bill required employers with less than 150 employees to get either workers' compensation or health insurance. "I'm not sure I want the small employers of Texas to blame me for having mandatory comp," Rat Senate OKs Bill to expand school By Bruce Hight American-Statesman Capitol Staff Sen.

Kent Caperton, trying to stop a new flood of four-year universities, saw his objections buried by the Senate on Tuesday as it approved a bill to expand Central Texas College in Killeen to a four-year school in 1994. The Senate even removed an amendment by Caperton that it had accepted Monday to subject the expansion to approval of the Higher Education Coordinating Board. The bill is authored by Rep. Stan Schlueter, D-Killeen and chairman of the House Calendars Committee. Many senators have bills headed for or already in that committee, which decides which bills will reach the House for a vote.

Under his bill, Central Texas College, a junior college, would be- come a four-year school with the closing of the privately operated, upper-level American Technologi School finance By Debbie Graves American-Statesman Capitol Staff 30 all Senate gave it preliminary approval. Ratliff said he may sit on the bill "a day or two" before deciding whether to push for final approval. In other action Tuesday the Senate: Approved a House bill setting up a ground water protection clean-up program for underground and above-ground storage tanks. It also created a fund for cleaning up "We amend statutes every day," Dickson retorted. He argued that the expansion was justified by the lack of a public four-year university within almost 100 miles of the Killeen area, which has an area population of 400,000 and is near Fort Hood, one of the world's largest military bases.

He said Killeen was the largest metropolitan area in Texas not served by a four-year school. Caperton said the willingness to vote for expanding Central Texas College, as well as the recent expansion of the University of Texas at Dallas to a four-year school, without Coordinating Board action showed a return of "logrolling" to the Legislature. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, numerous state schools were opened or expanded as legislators rushed to help their districts. But Schlueter, after the Senate approved his bill and sent it to the governor, said it was easy for Caperton to talk about further study when the Bryan senator's district includes Texas University. tank pollution that would be supplied with fees from bulk facility operators and several other sources.

Approved and sent to the House a bill to create the Texas High-Speed Rail Authority. The authority would study the feasibility of establishing a high-speed rail system in Texas, but it could not issue bonds. Rep. Stan Schlueter And, Schlueter said, there was nothing new about lawmakers trying to help their districts get more and bigger state schools. "It's always been that way.

It's nothing different from what's happened on the floor of this House every session," Schlueter said. "It's the people from fighting for what they want, the people from (the University of) Texas fighting for what they want, and everybody else gets what's left over. "That was my complaint to begin with. The only people that have ever complained about any additional schools have been those that already got it." witmm -stemmm stood the close scrutiny of our state's and our nation's highest -courts," Glasgow said. In other House action Tuesday, an attempt to adopt the federal Fair Housing Act into Texas law' was temporarily sidetracked over a dispute about whether anti-discrimination provisions should cover homosexuals and transvestites.

At issue was an amendment offered by Rep. Dick Waterfield, R-" Canadian, which would exempt people from the definition of handicapped because of their sexual orientation or because they are transvestites. Rep. Hugh Shine, R-Temple, the bill sponsor, delayed further consideration until today to try and resolve the flap. He said he did not think Waterfield's amendment would change the bill's intent.

Rep. Debra Danburg, D-Hous-ton, contended Waterfield "tried to slip (the amendment) through and trick people into thinking it was just some cleanup wording, which it is not. He couldn't resist the temptation to insert his own bigotry." Waterfield denied that. "My amendment just tracks current federal law," he said. In other House action: A parliamentary issue scuttled an attempt to prevent members of state regulatory boards and commissions from talking privately among themselves without violating the state Open Meetings Act.

The 3rd Court of Appeals issued the ruling last week in a case involving the Texas Water Commission. Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, tried to amend a bill to mandate that all agencies and boards comply with the Open Meetings Act but that was blocked because the amendment was ruled non-germane to the bill. Hinojosa said he was seeking another bill to attach the same amendment. By an 85-52 vote, the House on final passage approved a bill that will allow day-care programs for children of state employees who work in state-owned buildings.

The Senate has already approved it. Approved a bill which would allow the Texas Department of Public Safety to buy the Austin Independent School District's headquarters building at 6100 N. Guadalupe St. for office expansion. The DPS headquarters is adjacent to the school site.

Deadline Noon, Thursday, May 25 Noon, Thursday, May 25 Noon, Friday, May 26 Thursday, May 25 4:00 p.m., Friday, May 26 Friday, May 26 into 4-year institution cal University and the American Educational Complex. The university and complex have been criticized for financial irregularities in recent years. The Senate gave preliminary approval to the bill Monday after adding Caperton's Coordinating Board amendment, but Sen. Temple Dickson, D-Sweetwater, sponsor of the bill in the Senate, moved Tuesday to remove the amendment. Through a series of votes, he won preliminary approval of the bill again, and received final approval 23-8.

Caperton fought every step of the way, complaining that a state law requiring the Coordinating Board to review state university growth plans had been "totally ignored, totally circumvented." When Dickson moved to remove the Coordinating Board amendment, Caperton called on the Senate to keep it as "the one thing that might save this proposal, and put honor into this proposal." proposals targeted for millions in cuts Memorial Day 1989 EARLY DEADLINES 'We've got to figure out a way to take almost $100 million out of this Sen, Carl Parker more money to poor districts than does the House bill. Larger urban and suburban districts fare substantially better under the House bill, a cost analysis shows. The House bill also mandates a $114 a month pay raise for Texas' approximately 190,000 teachers, while the Senate bill does not require districts to raise teacher pay. Rep. Paul Colbert, a Houston Democrat who added the pay raise provision to the House bill, estimates that it will cost Texas' 1,060 districts about $430 million over the next two years to provide the pay raise.

Officials from some poor districts have complained that providing the pay raise will eat up all the funding increases they will receive through the new equity plans. But Colbert said, "There is a lot of smoke being blown in terms of this being a heavy burden suddenly being put on the local districts." Many districts will approve pay raises of about this size for their teachers whether the Legislature mandates it or not, he said. Asked why a teacher pay raise was included in a school finance bill, Colbert said, "Part of the purpose of equalization is to equalize those poor districts' ability to compete for teachers. If you can pay more, you hold on to your better teachers rather than seeing them disappear and go elsewhere. No.

2, you have the ability to tract good teachers." Run Date Monday, May 29 Tuesday, May 30 Wednesday, May 31 Neighbor, June 1 FoodUfestyle, June 1 Thursday Main, June 1 As much as $101 million must be slashed from school finance proposals approved by the House and Senate because the plans are too expensive, legislative negotiators learned Tuesday. A proposed compromise 1990-91 state budget sets aside $450 million in public school equity funding. However, the 10-member conference committee on school finance received updated cost estimates during its first meeting showing that the equity plan approved by the House would cost $550.8 million to implement over the next two years while the Senate plan would cost $527 million in 1990-1991. That means $77 million to $101 million must be cut from the proposals. "We've got to figure out a way to take almost $100 million out of this bill," said Sen.

Carl Parker, chairman of the Senate negotiators. The costs of both bills have risen due to several factors but primarily because of a $30 million increase caused by updated property value figures issued by the State Property Tax Board. Parker said the committee will begin examining ways to reduce the costs of the plans today. Rep. Ernestine Glossbrenner, chairman of the House negotiators, said she believes a compromise plan with a $450 million price tag can be worked out before the legislative session ends Monday night.

But she added, "You know me, I'm always an optimist." David Thompson, a Texas Education Agency attorney who is defending the existing funding system in the Edgewood vs. Kirby school finance lawsuit, said, "It appears that all versions (of the funding bills) do equalize to a great extent." He said he could argue before the Texas Supreme Court that either the House or Senate plan is constitutional. As one of the state's attorneys, that is a legal position he has also had to take about the existing system. He did say that "a long-term plan might be persuasive" to the court, indicating that the Legislature is trying to address funding inequities. The Senate has adopted a six-year funding plan, while the House has endorsed a two-year plan.

Negotiators must somehow merge these two very different bills. Deputy Education Commissioner Lynn Moak said the bill sends disproportionately Contact your Sales Representative Call 445-3742 (Retail) or 445-3527 (Classified) Austin American-Statesman.