Back in Texas, Bush's Legacy Comes Under Fire
" His signature environmental initiative is regarded as weak, and legislators are
debating how much it should be toughened. Lawmakers also are considering easing
enrollment requirements in Medicaid — a move resisted during Mr. Bush's tenure —
so more poor children can be covered.And lawmakers are moving forward on several death penalty fronts,
including a bill similar to one Mr. Bush vetoed two years ago that sponsors say would help provide
better lawyers for indigent defendants."
April 24, 2001
By JIM YARDLEY
From The New York Times
AUSTIN, Tex., April 23 — Even though
he is no longer governor, George W.
Bush is having an unusually tough time with
the Texas Legislature. Many of the same
lawmakers who passed tax cuts championed
by Mr. Bush are now talking about future tax
increases. Legislators in both parties agree
that the state's charter schools, one of Mr.
Bush's pet programs, need to be fixed.
His signature environmental initiative is
regarded as weak, and legislators are
debating how much it should be toughened.
Lawmakers also are considering easing
enrollment requirements in Medicaid — a
move resisted during Mr. Bush's tenure — so more poor children can be covered.And lawmakers are moving forward on several death penalty fronts, including a bill similar to one Mr. Bush vetoed two years ago that sponsors say would help provide better lawyers for indigent defendants.
Just today, the Texas House of Representatives gave preliminary approval to a bill
that would ban the execution of mentally retarded inmates, a measure that failed in
the House two years ago after Mr. Bush spoke out against it.
These days, of course, Mr. Bush's attentions are on Congress, not the Texas
Capitol. But only three months after Mr. Bush left for Washington, the agenda he left
behind in Texas is under varying degrees of repair and re-examination, with some
lawmakers attributing the changes to pressures brought by the negative attention
focused on the state during the presidential race.
"The presidential campaign made us take a good look at ourselves in the mirror,"
said State Senator Rodney G. Ellis, the Houston Democrat who has emerged as a
power broker on budget and criminal justice issues. "And we didn't like everything
we saw."
Not even Mr. Bush's enemies would argue that his agenda is being rolled back,
particularly since many of the bills wending through the Capitol could stall before the
Legislature adjourns on May 28. His allies say the rhythms of the Legislature, which
only meets every two years, make such tweaking typical.
But the differences between this legislative session and the 1999 session are striking.
Then, lawmakers in both parties agree, Mr. Bush's unannounced but looming
presidential campaign cast a shadow over every legislative vote as his Capitol allies
sought to protect him from politically sensitive bills.
Most notably, Mr. Bush's supporters in the State Senate quashed a contentious bill
increasing penalties for hate crimes that was opposed by many conservatives
because it included protections for gays.
This year, though, any inhibitions on considering controversial legislation appear to
be gone under Mr. Bush's successor, Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Republican. This
morning, the Democratic-controlled House passed the hate crimes legislation, setting
up another showdown in the Republican-controlled State Senate.
Legislative committees have endorsed previously unthinkable resolutions calling for a
public referendum on whether to impose a two- year moratorium on the death
penalty. The resolutions are given little chance of final passage, but supporters say
the committee votes signal a major shift in attitudes.
"The climate is different basically because Perry is not running for president and
Bush was," said State Senator Eduardo A. Lucio, Jr., a Democrat from Brownsville,
who is sponsoring a bill that would allow juries to impose sentences of life without
parole. "Bush's actions and the way he handled some things reflected that."
During the presidential campaign, Mr. Bush repeatedly defended the fairness of the
capital punishment system in Texas, which leads the nation in executions. But this
year the Legislature has already passed — and Mr. Perry has signed — a measure
providing access to DNA testing for prison inmates and criminal defendants. (During
the campaign, Mr. Bush said he supported DNA testing.) The bill to improve
indigent legal defense — similar to the one Mr. Bush vetoed — has passed the
Senate and is given a good chance in the House.
Last week, the Senate passed a bill increasing the amount of money paid by the
state to anyone wrongly imprisoned. Mr. Lucio's life-without-parole bill, which
languished in committee in 1999, is expected to be voted on soon by the full Senate.
Lawmakers have also focused attention on some of the environmental issues that
former Vice President Al Gore tried to use against Mr. Bush in the campaign. In a
marathon debate on Thursday, the Texas House considered two amendments to
tighten a loophole that has allowed roughly 700 outdated industrial plants to operate
without pollution permits for three decades. In 1999, Mr. Bush pushed through a
plan — written largely by industry representatives — that allowed these plants to
apply voluntarily for permits. But state statistics have shown that only one company
has obtained a permit so far.
In the House debate, members argued that tougher enforcement was needed but
ultimately approved the weaker of the two amendments. The measure will require
the so-called grandfathered plants to seek pollution permits by 2005 or 2007,
depending on their location.
Two of Mr. Bush's signature educational initiatives are also having problems. On the
campaign trail, Mr. Bush often talked about passing a law that would end social
promotion in Texas by 2003. But a House committee has already passed a bill that
would delay that law to give students more time to adjust to the new, tougher
statewide standardized test.
Meanwhile, the full House has already passed a bill that would place a moratorium
on new charter schools and require stricter oversight of existing ones after a spate of
fiscal scandals.
"What happened was we gave too much leeway," said Representative Kip Averitt, a
Waco Republican who said he voted for the charter schools moratorium as a
corrective measure. "Leeway is what we want, but we also want fiscal
accountability."
Like most other Republicans, Mr. Averitt said he still supported initiatives
advocated by Mr. Bush, including the $2.9 billion in tax cuts passed in 1997 and
1999. Of the legislative activity now under way, he added, "I would submit to you
that we'll do some stuff this time that we'll have to come back a fix in a few years."
The fundamental change now facing lawmakers is the suddenly pinched state budget
and the increasing demand for state services like Medicaid, road improvements,
water projects and a statewide health insurance plan for teachers. Republicans like
Mr. Averitt say the slowing economy, not the tax cuts, are to blame. But State
Senator Chris Harris, a Republican from Arlington, has introduced a bill proposing a
constitutional amendment to repeal the 1997 tax cuts, while Mr. Lucio has offered a
bill to roll back the tax cuts from 1999.
Neither bill is expected to pass, but some political analysts believe that the tax cuts
are hampering the state's ability to meet pent-up needs.
"We left ourselves no margin of safety," said Dick Lavine, a senior policy analyst
with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonprofit group in Austin, that
examines budget issues. "Texas has failed to make the long-term investments it
needed for many, many years. But now we don't even have the money we need to
maintain the low level of service we needed in the past."
In fact, the Senate has already passed a bill that would streamline Medicaid
enrollment requirements to help bring coverage to the 600,000 poor children in the
state who are eligible but not enrolled. But Mr. Ellis, who is chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, said the problem was finding the money to pay for such an
expansion.
A final budget is currently being hammered out by a joint House-Senate committee.
Mr. Ellis and other lawmakers are already talking quietly about tax increases, if not
this year, then in 2003.
Mr. Perry, who is positioning himself to run for governor in 2002, has a complicated
job as the protector of Mr. Bush's legacy. He has already signaled that he does not
want a moratorium on charter schools, even as the bill appears to be moving toward
passage. On the other hand, he has suggested that he might sign an indigent defense
bill and support other changes in death penalty legislation.
After a recent public appearance, Mr. Perry deflected any suggestion of an erosion
of support for Mr. Bush's policies.
"I think there's always folks who try to second-guess concepts and ideas," he said.
"That's kind of standard territory. So, I think the test will be, does any of this
transpire, which I don't think it will."
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