From the Texas Tribune: Lawmaker Job Has Lousy Pay, but Great Benefits

The previous story refers to the retirement pay for members of the Texas Legislature, which ofsets their otherwise low pay.

Here's detail.

- Click here for the article.

Serving in the Legislature, while enormously time-consuming, is supposed to be a part-time gig for the civically interested Texan. Keep the 9-to-5 job that pays the mortgage and feeds the family and, for 140 days every two years, come to Austin and legislate on behalf of your fellow citizens. In between, you and your staff can take care of constituent services, helping this one obtain vital records like birth and death certificates, helping that one with a regulatory issue in some agency.

That arrangement obviously requires some forbearance at work. At a minimum, a lawmaker will spend at least four days a week in Austin in January through May of every odd-numbered year. It’s not easy, but neither is serving on a school board or a city council or doing volunteer work.

The pay genuinely stinks. It’s $600 per month, plus a daily allowance of $150 for those days when a lawmaker is in Austin or on the road for official business. Voters have turned back various attempts to turn these into full-time jobs with full-time pay.
That doesn’t mean it’s not lucrative in the long term.

Texas legislators who serve at least eight years are entitled to start collecting pension benefits at age 60. If a lawmaker has at least 12 years of service, the benefits can start when the lawmaker is 50.

The benefits aren’t based on that $600-per-month paycheck, either, but on the salary paid to state district judges. That salary, set by the same legislators whose pensions depend on it, is $125,000. There’s a formula ($125,000 x .023 x years of service), but the bottom line is that retired Texas lawmakers get an annual pension of $2,875 for every year they were in office, as long as they have met the minimum service requirements.

It adds up. That eight-year lawmaker would get $23,000 annually starting at age 60. After 12 years? $34,500, starting at the ripe old age of 50.

Every case has particulars — adjustments and deductions for this and that — but it’s easy to figure a lawmaker’s base benefit just by knowing the years in office. For instance, former Speaker Tom Craddick — the longest-serving state legislator in office and the second-longest in state history — took office in 1969 and will have 44 years of service at the end of his current term. The Midland Republican is running, unopposed, for re-election. But if he were to retire at the end of this term, his annual pension benefit would be $126,500.

From the Austin American - Statesman: Austin state Rep. Dawnna Dukes to step down amid investigation

Texas ethics rules are loose, but not non-existent.

- Click here for the article.

Dukes drew the attention of investigators earlier this year when she was accused of misusing her staff for nonstate work.

Michael French, an employee she fired shortly after he complained, said that Dukes was forcing her employees to work on state time on a pet project, theAfrican American Community Heritage Festival. That event, launched 17 years ago and co-founded by Dukes, raised money for Huston-Tillotson University.

Dukes maintained that the directive was acceptable because the festival benefited the community.

“There is not an issue with employees working on community events that benefit the constituency,” Dukes told the American-Statesman at the time. “I take great pride in this event being well organized and being unblemished. For 17 years we have not had one problem.”

After looking into the issue, the state auditor’s office referred its concerns to the Travis County district attorney’s office, which opened an investigation. The Texas Rangers soon joined in.

During the probe, other allegations of wrongdoing came to light. A text message by Dukes obtained by the Statesman indicated that she was using state money to pay a legislative aide for gas needed to drive Dukes’ daughter to and from school and run other personal errands. The employee received a $268-per-month raise on Sept. 1, 2015, according to documents obtained through the Texas Public Information Act.

She will resign after the election apparently in order to maximize her retirement pay.

Dukes is allowing her current term to expire rather than resigning immediately, allowing her to make an extra $3,220 per year in retirement benefits from the state because serving any amount in January counts as a full year when calculating pension benefits. Dukes will make $74,060 per year in retirement, a substantial bump from the $41,000 she’s making over two years in her current term.

Dukes’ name will still appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. If she beats Republican Gabriel Nila in the heavily Democratic district, her seat will be vacant starting Jan. 10 until a special election that will probably be held in the spring, while the Legislature is in session.

Because there are no other Travis County races scheduled for the spring, the special election could cost taxpayers as much as $200,000, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said.

From the Houston Chronicle: Houston senator’s work raises questions of conflict of interests

In 2306 we discussed a central problem in amateur legislatures. where the general session s very short and legislators paid very little, the expectation being that they work full time in the real world. Legislators often have conflicts of interest. The work they do as part time legislators can go hand in hand with the work they do in their full time jobs.

This may be an example.

- Click here for the article.

Over the past 26 years, state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has voted to confirm gubernatorial appointments to the Lower Colorado River Authority, a powerful electric utility in central Texas.

During the same time, financial firms he either owned, worked for, or owned stock in have profited handsomely by helping underwrite $3.7 billion in bonds sold by the authority.

His impressive legislative record is well-known — 676 bills he has authored or served as the lead Senate sponsor have become law, including major reforms to Texas’ criminal justice system, schools and community colleges.

But because of Texas’ lax ethics law, much less is known about Ellis’ equally impressive career in the lucrative government bond business, which has repeatedly placed him in a position to exercise authority over local governments and public agencies whose bond proceeds were being used to pay Ellis’ firms.

His dual role as lawmaker and bond underwriter has left him straddling the line between politics, municipal finance and public policy, raising questions about potential or actual conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflicts.

Since first being elected to the Texas Senate in 1990, Ellis has been involved directly or indirectly in municipal bond deals totaling $120 billion in Texas, an analysis by the Houston Chronicle has found. Nearly all of those deals have involved several firms doing “underwriting” — when firms are chosen or bid to buy bonds from a government agency and then sell them to investors.

The cost of issuing government bonds is about 1 percent of the bond’s principal amount, or $1 million for every $100 million in bonds sold. About half that issuance cost, or $500,000, would go to underwriters’ fees, according to Public Sector Credit Solutions, a California-based research firm which examined 800 bond deals nationwide since 2012.

From the Houston Chronicle: Political donors paying way

Chronicle writer Patricia Kilday Hart points out the unopposed incumbent legislators still receive a healthy campaign donations and live very well off them.

State Sen. Troy Fraser’s 2012 campaign disclosure reports read like a script from “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” There’s the private airplane, the expensive automobile lease, the lush Hill Country country club, not to mention swanky dinners at Austin’s Eddie V’s, or Venice, Italy’s Trattori do Forni.

The bills were all paid by someone else, namely campaign donors such as gambling interests, payday lenders and the Koch Industries political action committee, which gave nearly $400,000 to Fraser’s political account in 2012.

There’s just one catch: Fraser, a Republican from Horseshoe Bay, didn’t have a political opponent in 2012, either in the primary or general election. He is one of 40 lawmakers identified by the Houston Chronicle to have avoided any political opposition during that election cycle.

Despite the lack of a political threat, this group of legislators collectively raised $9.4 million in campaign dollars and spent $5.8 million. Much of the money paid for cellphones, plane trips, meals, car leases, car washes and Austin apartments in a year between legislative sessions. Campaigns even picked up the tab for charitable donations, wedding and graduation gifts, and funeral flowers.

“Lawmakers are living high on the hog at their contributor’s expense,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office. “And the contributors are inevitably repaid in favors done on the floor of the House and Senate — or more frequently in back rooms where bills are scheduled or killed when nobody is looking.”

Campaign rules in Texas limit the ability of campaign funds to be used for personal purposes, but its a limit that is easily ignored. The Texas Ethics Commission has a very loose definition of personal use.

Lawmaker Explorer

The Texas Tribune has unveiled a webpage that allows you to connect the sources of income, property holdings, and top contributors of all members of the 83rd Texas Legislature. It explains the project here.

Its part of their Bidness as Usual project - and effort to increase transparency in the legislature.

Texas Senator Mario Gallegos Dies

The Texas Tribune discusses the life of the senator here, and the peculiar situation voters are in now since it is too late to remove his name from the ballot. For Democrats to hold the seat, they must vote for him so that the governor must call a special election after the general election.

How Partisan Are Texas House Members?

The Texas Tribune, a graph, based on a study from a Rice poli-sci guy, of partisanship in the Texas Legislature.

The Rank and File in the Texas Legislature

So you are a newly elected member of the Texas Legislature and by definition, you are the mercy of forces more powerful than you, and some of these pull you in different direction. That seems to be the fate of Humble Republican Dan Huberty. This story tells us something about how individual members make decisions.

The Gerrymandered Texas Senate and the Threats to the Senate's 2/3rds Rule

Rick Casey comments on what he calls the most stable job in Texas politics: Texas State Senator.

There is one Texas elected body that is so stable that it offered a safe harbor for Democrats even in the political monsoon that blew on Tuesday.

Is this good news for the Democrats? Not hardly, as we shall see. The body is the state Senate.

Consider this: While Democrats lost 21 seats in the 150-member Texas House of Representatives and most likely three veteran congressmen, the 31-member Texas Senate had 12 Democrats and 19 Republicans before the election and will have exactly the same margin after the new Legislature is sworn in next January. And only two are newcomers, one Democrat and one Republican having stepped down voluntarily.
But while Democrats are safe in body, its districts have been designed so that they underrepresent Democrats in the state -- as is the case with most other offices in the state. Republicans, who control the districting process, accomplish this feat by packing Democrats into fewer seats than they might otherwise occupy, but Democratic incumbents are hardly likely to complain because this makes their seats more secure.

Even with this small number of seats, Democrats -- and the minority party in general -- has been able to leverage this small number of seats into a type of veto power since as long as they are at least one-third of the Senate, they can block legislation from going through the floor. From the Legislative Refrence Library:

For almost half a century, blocker bills have routinely been placed at the top of the Senate's Daily Calendar, which in effect forces a suspension of the regular order of business on every bill. Blocker bills are bills that are introduced and passed out of committee as early as possible in a legislative session in order that they may occupy the first positions on the calendar. They are not intended to be worthy of serious consideration or passage. The sole purpose of a blocker bill is to ensure that at least two-thirds of the membership have an interest in debating a measure before it can come to the floor. Bills that do not enjoy substantial support cannot make it past the blocker bill.

Though it has been set aside on rare occasions, this practice -- known as the "two-thirds rule" -- has been an honored tradition in the Senate. Among other things, it is generally acknowledged that the Senate's two-thirds rule fosters civility, a willingness to compromise, and a spirit of bipartisanship.

Republican Senators have argued that this rule undermines democracy -- and certainly their agenda -- and have made efforts to remove it in the past. Similar efforts are underway currently.

- In Defense of the Two Thirds Rule.
- Bill Hobby comments on the rule.

Illegal Immigration In Texas

A large number of the bills introduced into the legislature during early filing address illegal immigration in the state. Texas Tribune has a run down.

Texas Bill Filing Begins

This Monday -- Nov 8th -- was the first day members of the upcoming Texas Legislature -- the 82nd -- could file bills. The Texas Tribune notes that there have been a large number of bill introduced, many from the newly energized Republican House majority -- they won 22 new seats in last week's election.

We can follow the daily introduction of bills in the Reports page of the Texas Legislature Online. Go to the bottom where it says "bill filing by date" and click on the date you wish. Here are a few pages:

November 8.
November 9.
November 10.

2010 Election Results

Here are a few links with last week's election results.

It's worth noting that despite the fact that Republicans did so well in U.S. House races, all area representatives were comfortably reelected. The 2003 gerrymandering seems to have been well done. Republicans did make significant gains in the Texas House though.

From the Houston Chronicle:
- Houston area representatives and state senators.
- Statewide races.
- Harris County results.
- Brazoria County results.
- Galveston County results.

Results from the Texas Secretary of State's office.

From The Hill
- New Members Guide.

Regional Texas Representatives

A list of the current members of the Texas Legislature from this general area. Click here for access to maps.

- 23rd District, Craig Eiland.
- 24th District, Larry Taylor.
- 25th District, Dennis Bonnen.
- 27th District, Dora Olivo.
- 29th District, Randy Weber.