Neighbors organized, a website and petition was started NoiseFreeTexas and a whole lot of other activity has gone down since. Isaac's proposed HB 2180 is one successful outcome of their efforts
Note: Friday, March 11 is the last day for lawmakers to file regular bills. The 82nd Legislature convened on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 and will adjourn its regular session Monday, May 30.
Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Rep. Isaac at Jason.Isaac@house.state.tx.us (512- 463-0647) or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the page. For electronic updates from Isaac, visit his political campaign website here. Isaac (R-Dripping Springs/Belterra) represents District 45, Hays, Blanco and Caldwell counties.
By Bob Ochoa
Editor
Here's a quick update on State Rep. Jason Isaac's legislative activity taken from the Texas House of Representatives website.
According to the website, Isaac has issued no official House press releases nor has he sent out a constituent newsletter since he was sworn in for his first term in January. No problem there, as press releases and newsletters from elected officials usually are a waste of good paper and money. He has been busy, however, in the authorship (and joint authorship) of 20 pieces of legislation that are in various stages of the legislative process. (Check this link for bills and resolutions co-authored by Isaac.)Mr. Isaac has filed some interesting bills, but one in particular caught our attention, HB 2180.
Two other bills (HR 2182 and HR 2183) were transmitted (fast tracked) to the governor on Friday, March 4. They relate to "the Ranch at Clear Fork Creek Municipal Utility District No. 1 (Hays and Caldwell counties); providing authority to impose a tax and issue bonds . . ." What jumped out in this pair of bills was the "authority to impose a tax." They look like they are amended or corrected versions of previously existing legislation. If so, does it take Isaac off the hook for a big violation of his "no new taxes" pledge?
[As many already are informed, Isaac took his pledge to an extreme recently by refusing even to allow an up or down vote by voters inside the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District in western Hays County to impose an ad valorem tax (up to 5 cents) to fund the financially strapped district. At last check, the staff of State Sen. Jeff Wentworth was working on a draft bill (a by-product of the Hays County water stakeholder group initiated by Patrick Rose) but no bill has appeared as yet. It may be that Isaac's stiff opposition to a tax referendum option (and perhaps other recommendations of the stakeholder group to strengthen the district's authority) has knocked the wind out of that bill's sails. The time to file a bill is fast running out.]
Isaac's HB 2180 relating to "the prosecution of the offense of disorderly conduct involving unreasonable noise," was filed on March 3.
Some of you may recall reading in the RoundUp (exclusively) about the irritating noise-related issues emanating from a couple of North Hays County outdoor entertainment venues, and neighbors' efforts to try to do something to reduce the noise. Neighbors organized, a website and petition was started (see NoiseFreeTexas) and a whole lot of other activity has gone down since. Isaac's proposed HB 2180 is one successful outcome of their efforts.
We're happy to see that Rep. Isaac is making good on a campaign promise made to certain citizens. Isaac, who has two young sons, is probably keenly aware of the detrimental effects of excessive noise on young, developing brains – sleep deprivation, exhaustion and interference with school performance among them.
The biggest proposed change in HB 2180 – a real sea change for outdoor concerts, parties, wedding receptions and such – is in drastically lowering the maximum legal noise decibel level to 60 from 85:
"SECTION 1. Section 42.01(c), Penal Code, is amended to read as follows: (c) For purposes of this section: (1) an act is deemed to occur in a public place or near a private residence if it produces its offensive or proscribed consequences in the public place or near a private residence; and (2) a noise is presumed to be unreasonable if the noise exceeds a decibel level of 60 [85] after the person making the noise receives notice from a magistrate or peace officer that the noise is a public nuisance."
It would help the bill's chances if a) the local DA offices would go on record as willing to prosecute noise abatement complaints/cases (at least one locally, we are informed, will NOT) and b) the Sheriff's deputies and Constables (who are off duty and hired for security at these outdoor venues) can agree to use a standard decibel meter AND the position from which to measure the offending noise. Some claim is it at the offender's property line and some claim it is inside the complainant's property.
Legislation can go down many Capitol corridors with no exit. It will be a good sign if HB 2180 is voted favorably out of committee and even better if it clears the Calendars Committee for a vote of the full House. But with so many big business and donor interests at stake (and the Lege's dismal record at passing pro consumer and community interest legislation), a savvy odds-maker might give it 20 to 1 against that it lands on Gov. Perry's desk. Still, it is good to see citizens take a direct and active role in positively affecting their local quality of life.
We'll have more updates on this and other legislation of local interest as they develop.
47 comments:
TX House Rep. Jason Isaac is listed
as the author of both HB 2182 and
HB 2183, which were filed in the
House on March 3 and then flew on
to Gov. Perry's desk on March 4.
Both bills concern the creation of
Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs),
which are passed frequently in the
Texas Lege via a you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours
mechanism. Patrick Rose did this
commonly, and it seems Isaac is
following in his tracks. I doubt
that Isaac even truly wrote HB 2182
and HB 2183, which create MUDs in
Caldwell County (on 192 and 87
acres, respectively). I'm sure
Patrick Rose was working on these
deals when --surprise!-- he was
voted out of the office which he
seemed to feel he was born to. Isaac apparently has taken up the
bills and is now shepherding them
through the Lege. The reps and
senators don't even read these MUD
bills. Patrick Rose co-sponsored or
co-authored one bill for a MUD out
in West Texas, and the West Texas
guy helped Rose get the Driftwood
Economic Development District
passed for the Salt Lick owners.
And, yes, Issac is breaking his
pledge not to help create any new
taxes by "authoring" these bills.
Both bills contain authority to
impose a tax, to issue bonds, and to have limited power of eminent domain. (As did Rose's bill for the
Salt Lick.)
I'm sad to see Isaac's first (probably) successful proposed legislation be concerned with 2 Caldwell County MUDs. Would be nice to know what the groundwater district there recommended.
So, now Jason can get back to
helping push a Pro-Life license
plate for Texas and to voting for
intrusive sonograms for pregnant
women.
Isaac has submitted 19 bills to the
Texas Legislature that he authored;
he has submitted 20 that he co-
authored. Here are some:
AUTHORED
HB 1596 - prosecution for unreasonable noise
HB 2182 and HB 2183 - creation of
2 Municipal Utility Districts
CO-AUTHORED
HB 238 - for issuance of "Choose
Life" license plates
HB 15 - sonogram required (woman
required to watch) before a pregnant woman can have abortion
HJR 22 - for AMENDMENT to TX
Constitution to prohibit any government entity to provide support for abortion.
HB 2180 appears to grandfather existing noisemakers, per Section 2, if I'm reading that right.
I would like to see our new State Representative author some legislation to help us protect and preserve our groundwater in Western Hays County.
I realize that once people get elected to offices like this that do not pay any money, big money comes a'calling the first day on the job, but we who do not have any money to add to Mr. Isaac coffers were looking for a change from the Pay-To-Play games we had been treated to for all those years with Patrick Rose and his big money friends.
Representative Isaac, please don't spend your term on things that don't help us much like license plates or anti-abortion legislation, please help us save our land and water from degradation.
Unfortunately, Jason Isaac is already showing his true colors as an intrusive big government conservative by co-authoring these three anti-women rights bills HB 238, HB 15, and HJR 22. These bills are typical of big government conservatives - who arrogantly think they know what is right for women, while indirectly imposing their "social" agenda on all Texas citizens.
Real true conservatives, like in the Wyoming State Legislature, just recently voted down similar legislative bills there. In fact, Wyoming has the nation's largest State Senate Republican majority, and they courageously killed this same type of out-of-touch social engineering state legislation because the majority of Wyoming Republican State Senators are true to their values - which is SMALL GOVERNMENT CONSERVATISM.
Isaac apparently believes he has God's will behind him - and that that it is government's right to essentially treat women like public brood mares.
It is totally antithetical to what true conservatives stand for when they violate the privacy and rights of women by forcing them to do anything that is against their own personal, moral, and legal decision making. The relationship a woman has with her doctor is her own private affair and is no one's business but hers. It is especially NOT the Texas State government's business.
Isaac's three anti-women's rights bills are pure and simple a violation of the separation of church and state, but more important, a violation of his campaign pledge to represent sane, cost-effective small government values.
It is already time to vote Isaac out next go around. He has lied to us. He is not a small government conservative.
exactly how many of those bills related to the issuance of some kind of special license plate? LOL I'm unimpressed by Mr. Isaac.
My thought is that abortion legislation should NOT be the business if the Lege or any other level of government either for or against. If you don’t believe in abortion, don’t get pregnant and if you do, don’t have one. We have more pressing problems than these nanny state issues that they like to work on. With the little time left they should come up with some real meat not legislate license plates, family issues, school books for private schools and such. While I don’t see the separation of church and state in the US Constitution I wish it were there in bold print in the Texas Constitution. Fat Chance! I would like to see some tax reform and more efficient education by reducing the duplication of (admin) efforts by reducing the number of school districts. Hays County should only have 1 school district headquartered in the largest population center. There is no such thing as “local control” as most parents use to argue the issue. I’d also like to see more teacherless schools.
Also, many of his authored bills
are merely resolutions to praise
some citizen or other. I realize
that all state reps and senators do
that, but I'm merely pointing out
that Jason doesn't have much
substance among his 19 authored
bills.
And on his very first vote in the
TX House - an important one to elect the Speaker of the House -
he abstained.
When will Isaac get to work on
doing something meaningful for us?
Where do men get off to telling women whether they should have a baby or not?
The nerve.
I propose, Mr. Isaac, that you confine your legislative actions to those that have something to do with improving the lives of your constituents, not getting the State involved in very private matters like whether a woman should or should not become a parent.
Why is it that some men feel that they need to tell women what to do?
I guess they just don't think women are smart enough to make their own decisions, is that it?
Well, Representative Isaac, I have news for you, the women of Texas do not need your advice on how to make their life choices, especially something as important as having a baby. Or not.
If you are against abortion, then don't have one, but please don't think for an instant you get to tell a woman that she cannot or should not.
Stay out of my uterus, Sir. It really is none of your damn business.
Having a baby is not at the sole discretion of the woman since it takes a man to complete the groundwork and pay through the nose for at least 18 years to support it if THEY decide to carry it to term. It is not ever part of a woman’s body in the first place; it is half and half his and her DNA but not part of either’s body. Having a baby is not an amputation.
I personally have received several contacts from Jason since he was elected. Perhaps Bob O is on the wrong list.
Jason is cosponsoring the Anti-Naked Body Scanner Legislation.The bill, HB 1938, makes it a civil penalty for anyone working in a locally owned airport to install or operate whole-body imaging equipment -- "including a device that uses backscatter x-rays or millimeter waves, that creates a visual image of a person's unclothed body and is intended to detect
concealed objects." which I feel is a great bill.
I'm not sure stuff like anti-smoking bills get him anywhere.
Jason. How 'bout a bill that a woman must keep all of her clothes on during a gynocological visit?
Or maybe that every home in Hays County must display a "cross with flag" in the yard?
You were nothing but a protest vote, dude. But the lifers and the developers have already snagged you.
And leave the Nutty Brown Cafe alone. Mike is an honest, generous-to-the-community man, his music is below the legal limit, he's cut down on the number of yearly concerts, and the music ends early. His backers outnumber yours, sir, 10-1.
We have met the enemy, J-boy, and it is you. Texas Monthly is going to have a field day with you. As the lady so elequently said, "stay out of my (wife's) uterus".
Anonymous of 11:39 AM must be a man - or a woman who has never had a baby. And his/her apparent support of Isaac's bill is even less humane and compassionate than Isaac's thinking itself.
Referring to the fetus and the baby as "it" is a sure sign that this person has never thought out such an important and very heavy decision of whether to abort or not.
Some people just do not have the intelligence or spiritual insight to comment on such topics. Just like Jason Isaac.
I would like to see an elected woman State rep put up a bill that forces all male Republicans in the Texas Legislature to have a colonoscopy whenever they have a simple rectal exam during an annual medical check-up. Fair is fair. That way they can see if the cancer of the brain they used to draw up these abortion laws has spread to their other brain.
Sadly, Isaac and his fellow women hating colleagues prove that evolution is valid. They are much lower on the human intelligenct scale.
As a father of two, let's speak as adults. The prevention of abortions is not entirely up to the woman since she is carrying within her womb another human. Doesn't the child have a right to life? Those who speak out so vehemently for abortion are the same as those who oppose the death penalty, yet they are firmly in support of a person deciding the fate of person's right to live who cannot speak for themselves.
And more so ladies, if you choose to get pregnant by having unprotected sex, than by all means there should be someone around to tell you wrong from right in regards to unprotected sex, and/or semx outside of the bonds of marriage. You seem to think that you are free to do as you like and I agree but the moment you go shagging and get pregnant, now you are carrying another humans' life in your hands. What gives you the right to kill an innocent life?
I wonder some time if anyone from this district will ever be elected to the Legislature and please this bunch. The hate is so thick here you couldn’t cut it with a knife. Granted, the Legislature is sometimes a joke as it has always been, but it won’t get any better if we keep this unwarranted criticism going. Why don’t you give Rep. Isaacs a call sometime and discuss these issues with him, rather than snipe at him anonymously from this Blog. You would be doing both of us a favor. Rehashing the abortion debate here on the Net is not going to do any good. It won’t change anyone’s mind and abortions will continue. It is settled law according to the US Supreme Court and like it or not, no State Government is going to change that.
Father of two: you are all over the place yet nowhere at all. In short, you're a real nowhere man.
You're in favor of the death penalty. Let me get this straight. It's OK to execute a grown human being but it's not OK to abort a fetus. And it's OK to tell a woman exactly what to do.
Thanks for being straight forward enough (or foolish) to admit this publicly.
Go hiking, biking, play ball or read. Use your time wisely, please, instead of trying to convince me you care for the unborn. Shagging? Your comment is kinda creepy, goob.
60 db is the level of normal conversation.
so if you mow your lawn (80-90 db), someone can file a complaint and demand that you not mow your lawn anymore? .. and you are at risk of a criminal sanction moving forward?
Could be fun in those half acre subdivisions with the unscrupulous HOA management companies
Those who are so adamant about imposing ad valorem taxes on properties within HTGCD territory are free to contribute their own money to the district. Let's be clear that the objective was to force everyone else to have to pay money into the district - a proposition that was dispensed with as part of the compromise of having a district in the first place.
60db?!?
Say goodbye to your lawnmowers, weedeaters, chainsaws and dogs. Turn down the TVs and replace those old Cerwin Vegas, JBL and Infinity speakers with earbuds.
And who owns the property tath will be developed with those MUD taxes? I bet we all know, just look at the major contributors.
A bill we water sprites want to support is HB 451 -- to prevent
illegal dumping into the surface
waters of the state by establishing
a toll-free phone line to report
such dumping.
That bill is stuck in the Natural
Resources Committee of the House
right now. You can find names of
the reps on that committee by
going to www.legis.state.tx.us
and searching for HB 451. Our
rep, Jason Isaac, is not on that
committee.
Concerning MUDs, 2 of which Isaac
has authored bills for on behalf of
land developers:
Make no mistake about it: creating
a MUD creates taxes. MUDs are a
gift of the State of Texas (specifically, from TCEQ) to land
developers to allow them to tax others to pay the cost of providing utilities to the land they are going to develop. Not fair to all other citizens who want to start a business.
Let's say you want to open a
hamburger joint on a county road.
Do you think for one instant that TCEQ will allow you to add
an extra tax to your burgers to
help you pay for building your
joint? --WAIT! That can be done.
Just get a rep or senator to do
for you what Patrick Rose did for
the Salt Lick. Rose developed what
I think of as a MUD+ ; he got the
Lege to pass what is called a
Development District, which allows
a tax on customers, plus other
benefits -- just calls itself a
Development District instead of
a MUD. -- But I digress.
Point is that MUDs are created
by reps and senators who usually
are given by land developers as much money as the law allows, in
the form of "campaign contributions" [read "bribes"]
and probably more money under the table or in forms of cruises, golf course fees, etc.
Hmmm. I wonder how Isaac is going
to repay the Dripping Springs
businessman who loaned him a pile
of money to run Isaac's campaign
against Patrick Rose? Not from his
$7,200 yearly salary as state rep.
Isaac's noise reduction bill is a no-win situation for him. If I were a neighbor of the noise makers, I would applaud the bill. If I were an entertainment business owner or some unlimited property rights advocate, I would find the bill to be intrusive and pandering to some.
Isaac's abortion bills are the same. However, the abortion bills are big government social conservatism, which is simply wrong. They invade one's very personal and individual liberties.
The noise reduction bill is big government, but not physically or morally instrusive to an individual's physical rights.
As to the Anonymouses who asked about the fetus's rights, I suggest they advocate for the born baby's rights with specific taxation to pay for the unwanted (but born) child's life if the parent(s) are unable or unwilling to take care of the child.
Or, set up a pro-life movement adoption agency that walks the talk and doesn't just cavalierly shun abortion with no real life economic and social solutions that might encourage a mother or family to have an unwanted baby.
I don't support abortion, but I am not God and it is not my role - or the states' - to force a woman to undergo an invasive procedure to satisfy some politician's desire to get into the reproductive rights business.
Same old argument? Well obviously it needs to be discussed again.
the bill will be amended once it gets to committee.
the new wording will be 60db, sundown to sunup.
rep. isaac submitted the correct wording to the filing committee, who dropped the time limit phrase.
thank you rep. isaac for helping us.
House Bill 15 passed the House
today. It requires a pregnant woman
to submit to a sonogram before she
may have an abortion.
Jason Isaac voted in favor of the
bill.
House Bill 15, which Jason Isaac
voted for today, has many provisions in it which have nothing
to do with keeping abortion safe, and everything to do with 1)making it as mentally tortuous as possible
for a pregnant woman to choose abortion and 2)with trying to destroy Planned Parenthood and
other organizations which offer
contraception, venereal disease
testing, and, yes, a relatively
small number of abortions compared
to all the other services they
provide.
Under this bill, the pregnant woman must undergo a sonogram before she may have an abortion. If she cannot afford a sonogram, she will be given a list of
providers who will perform the
sonogram for free, BUT the list cannot include any provider which
either performs abortions or even
makes referrals to providers which
perform abortions (aimed at Planned
Parenthood).
The pregnant woman can opt not to
watch the sonogram in progress, but
she must listen to the provider who
describes what is on the screen
(arms and legs present?, size of
fetus, so on), and she must certify in writing that she had the "opportunity" (bill's language) to view the sonogram; that she heard the doc's
description of the fetus; and that she heard the heartbeat, if present, of the fetus. Does all
this put you in mind of the
Spanish Inquisition?
Lastly, if this bill has as its
purpose the making of abortion less
likely, it has done quite the
opposite. The best way to prevent
the possibility of abortion is to
prevent conception. Without Planned
Parenthold available to counsel
about and provide contraception,
there will be many more unplanned
births than before.
All of those objections are
sufficient reasons for this bill
not to have been passed. But the
galling part is the hypocrisy of
its passage. Most of the same
legislators who voted for this bill
to permit unwanted children to be
born will, with straight face, turn
around and vote for bills which
cut funds for child health care, cut funds for enforcement of child
support payments, cut assistance to abandoned wives and children. As is often said of these hypocrites, "They put great value on a fetus, but they don't want to spend a dime on the children who result."
Jason's own web-site points to what be believes needs to change in our state. Yet instead of acting on what he claims to be "vital" issues he's wasting our time with wedge issues.
Mr. Isaac please read your own web-site and tackle real issues that affect all of us like taxes and school funding. The following is taken directly from his web-site, get to work or be prepared to be voted out next time around. I beleive Isaac hasn't done a thing to help/protect Hays County, but judge for yourself if he's followed through on any of his "vital" issues.
http://www.isaacfortexas.com/issues/
"Although I will deal with multiple issues, the following will be vital during my first term as your representative:
Education –
Governor Perry ordered schools to spend 65% of tax dollars directly in the classroom. The legislature, however, failed to enact law requiring school districts to comply with his order. The legislature must act to mandate this requirement with considerations for school districts with extensive transportation expenses. Educational resources and curriculum must focus on classroom instruction to learn rather than simply testing well.
Taxes –
The appraisal cap on property taxes must be reduced from 10% to 3%. Texans are being taxed out of their homes. In this difficult economy families are finding it necessary to re-write their budgets and priorities. Local governments must learn to do the same. Taxes on small businesses must be cut to encourage job creation and investment. Tax cuts create jobs and economic expansion. Egregious taxes stifle growth."
Barbara Hopson is exactly right about the Planned Parenthood hypocrisy.
Planned Parenthood (PP) uses less than 5% of their budget for abortion services and do not encourage abortion without a sensible and in-depth discussion that explores all the options.
That said, 95% of the PP's work is to help woman and families to do the right thing - especially to not get pregnant in the first place, including abstainance if that is appropriate.
These totalitarian right wing social conservatives are simply self-righteous asses - and criminally irresponsible when they legislate their fascist morality and then proceed to block the funding for a responsible support system to help women who choose to NOT have an abortion.
Isaac and his brood are pathetic and morally corrupt elected leaders.
Any doctor who adheres to this SB 15's clear ethical violation of doctor-patient confidentiality is a cowardly Dr. Mengele type and should be exposed publically and boycotted with a statewide information campaign.
Observing Bad Karma and Dr. Do the Right Thing sound like the same person - both of which are too mean-spirited with nasty rhetoric for their own good.
Although I understand their indignation at these abortion legislations, his/her/their attitude is counterproductive.
In the end, Isaac and his colleagues believe what they are doing is right. And that is why it is so dangerous. It is a very bad slippery-slope government intervention, one the true small government conservatives should show the courage to strongly condemn. If they don't, they are not true conservatives and they should stop calling themselves such.
Common sense and courtesy take care of the noise issue. Rep. Issac looks to be one of those big government republicans who want to stick the goverments nose into my music and womb.
Senate Bill 16 is the companion bill in the Senate to HB 15 which
passed the House yesterday (with
Rep. Jason Isaac voting in favor).
It's the bill to require a
sonogram before abortion.
SB 16 did pass in the Senate on Feb. 21, but I'm happy to say that
our state senator, Jeff Wentworth,
voted against it.
None of these "vital" bills --
authored or co-authored by Jason--
have made it out of committee yet:
HB 1514 -relating to the issuance of special driver's licenses to
veterans
HB 1516 - relating to excused
absences from public school for
purpose of enlisting in the armed
forces
HB 1593 - relating to the inclusion of a candidate's email
address on ballot application
HB 182 - reltaing to the issuance
of Bronze Star Medal license plates.
Wentworth would have voted for the bill if they would have needed his vote to pass it. Don't be fooled by the NO vote. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain by voting NO.
Don't be so naive.
To preceding Anonymous:
Of course Wentworth had something to lose by voting no! He set himself up as a potential target for Tea Party types.
I applaud his willingness to
vote his conscience.
Jason Isaac bills "left pending in
committee" = dead :
HB 1514 - relating to the issuance
of special driver's licenses to
veterans
HB 182 - relating to issuance of
Bronze Star Medal license plate.
Guess the committee didn't think
those bills were worth advancing from committee....
Always seems to me the best way to prevent pregnancy, for those who are sexually-active, would be for the man to make very sure he did not leave any genetic material somewhere that could end up becoming a baby.
Why is is always the woman who has to be so careful about birth control? Takes two to tango and the simplest form of birth control (aside from abstinence) is using a condom.
Don't wait for the woman to get her courage up to ask you to do the right thing, if you are not ready to become a parent yourself tonight, wrap that rascal.
It is so simple, boys, just keep your genetic material to yourself and nobody is faced with a baby they may not be ready to raise or the spectre of an abortion.
State Rep Jason Issac ran for his
House position as a read-my-lips-no-new-taxes Republican. Here's a
bill he authored and introduced to
the House just a few days ago
(March 10):
"HB 2893 - Relating to the Ranch at
Clear Fork Creek MUD No.1; providing authority to impose a
TAX and issue BONDS; granting a
limited power of EMINENT DOMAIN."
So, did Jason lie or is he incompetent?
Or, is he just too busy attending EVERY SINGLE lobbyist sponsored lunch and reception/happy hour in Austin?
Mr. Isaac's chance to do anything at all beneficial for D45 is over, the bill filing deadline has passed. And what did we get for it? A few silly bills, repeats of the same exact bills with slight word changes (what is his staff doing up there to allow that to happen?), a new taxing district, and a apparent disdain for women's rights.
It's obvious that Mr. Issac ran for this office for all of the perks that come with it, and he got lucky riding the red wave last November. If you don't believe me, haunt any of the lobbyist sponsored happy hours/dinners/lunches and see for yourself the frat boy grin on Mr. Isaac's face. He attends every one of them, and he floats that room with the air of a dignitary, staying far later than he should. It is HIGHLY inappropriate for Rep's and Senators to attend these events. They are for hardworking staff who spend 12+ hours up at the Capitol 7 days a week and enjoy a little bit of a fun every so often with their coworkers. Every Capitol employee expects to see Mr. Isaac at all of these events, having far too good of a time. What did people expect of Patrick Rose and his staff? That they were there 7am-8pm every single day guaranteed, that you would get a quick response from their staff, and they would always be open to helping their constituents. His office had a reputation for being one of the hardest working offices in the entire capitol. And you can bet Mr. Rose never attended those lobby sponsered events.
Why isn't Mr. Isaac in his district listening to the concerns of his constituents? Better yet, why isn't he at home with his family?
Yes, Rep Isaac got one more
land-developer bill under the
filing wire -- HB 2893, which
creates a taxing MUD in Caldwell
County.
ALL of his bills are inconsequential, and many are so
useless or inane that they won't even get out of House committee.
So Isaac can just coast for the
rest of the legislative session,
free to attend all the lobbyist events he gets wind of.
I'm thinking about "taxation without representation."
HB 15/SB 16, which both passed
their houses, is the draconian
sonogram bill. How can it be
reasonable that both committees
(State Affairs, not Public Health)
were top-heavy with men? The Senate
committee was men by 7 to 1. The
House committee was men by 12 to 1!
How can this setup be "representative" when women were
greatly under-represented on the
committees?
I'll bet back in the old Jim Crow
days there weren't any black men or
women on committees that passed
apartheid laws. (Of course, there
probably weren't ANY persons of
color in the Legislature.)
Could this law -- when put into effect -- be challenged on those
grounds?
Similarly, how can the HTGCD not
enact regulations and adopt resolutions which a majority of their constituency favor?
Funny that was brought up.. I too have seen Isaac at far too many happy hours. In fact, I saw him at The Hangar downtown on Friday smoozing with AT&T lobbyists and staff with his frat boy grin on. Someone call and see if he denies being there.
Im surprised nobody has brought up the fact that Isaac has filed at least 4 bills that allow Martindale to become a state-sponsored speed trap... if that is not a tax increase of the worst kind I dont know what is.
The preceding anonymous is correct.
Isaac has authored a series of
bills that will enable Martindale
to become a speed trap for part
of its revenue.
Isaac authored House Bills 1516,1517,1518,1519,and 1594 which,
while not naming Martindale by name, allow municipalities which
meet some strangely unique
conditions (i.e. one border of the
city must be a river which separates 2 counties) to keep part
of the speeding fines collected.
You have to read all 5 bills to
get the whole picture. I don't
know why Isaac didn't just include
the stipulations in one bill. Maybe he either thought we wouldn't
be able to put all the facts together if he scattered them in
5 bills, or maybe he's not able
to write a bill of more than 10 or
12 sentences.
You can read the text of the bills
yourself at www.legis.state.tx.us.
My guess is that Jason knows that
his days as a legislator are numbered. The date for filing bills
in the Legislature has passed, and
the bills he filed are silly or
inconsequential or harmful. He knows that we know that, and so he's just going to live it up with the lobbyists for the time he has left.
Taxes proposed in the Legislature by Rep. Jason Isaac so far:
HB 2182,2183,2893,3813 - bills for
MUDs, which allow taxes, bond issues, and eminent domain
HB 1517,1518,1519,1594 - bills which allow speed traps (fines,fees) at Martindale and
similar towns.
What happened to "no new taxes?"
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