This is OUTRAGEOUS!! I need these folks fired, Now

[KBCraig]

Folks, we don't have a full time legislature. They only meet for a few days every 2 years. All of the states business must be conducted during that time.

Then they need to conduct less business!

The New Hampshire legislature (they call it the "General Court") has 400 representatives and 24 senators. State reps only earn $100 per year (an amount set in the Constitution, and not subject to vote by the legislators).

NH only has 1.3 million residents. If Texas had the same citizen:rep ratio, there would be over 7,800 state reps, and every single one of them would live within a ten miles of every one of his constituents (some parts of West Texas excepted). Talk about ear-bending access!

Don't kid yourself that the Lege only works during the regular session. All the major legislation is written well in advance, alliances are formed, deals made.

I believe the legislature should have to conduct itself by strict rules of parliamentary procedure: no business may be done unless a quorum is present at all times. All items of business must be introduced (and read in their entirety) on the floor. All amendments must be made, debated, and voted on on the floor, in order.

I have no problem with this crippling the state government. The less they do, the better!

[BoneDigger]

I am totally against this practice. And, if you look at the video, it doesn't look like they are asked to vote a certain way for a missing member, they just start scrambling arpound looking for anyone that isn't present and then they vote the way THEY want. You could see Democrats casting votes for republicans and vice-versa. There were even instances where two different people tried to cast a vote on the same machine. I'm sorry, that's just wrong folks!

Regardless of how long the legislature meets, this is their job for the time that the legislature is in session. They knew it before going into the position. It looks like Craddick is one of the worse because he is the speaker and allows it to happen. I followed the legislature this year and there was more blatantly WRONG things going on, including blackmail, than I ever imagined. this WHOLE GROUP needs to be fired and put in jail!!!

[Liberty]

Folks, we don't have a full time legislature. They only meet for a few days every 2 years.

And thank the Good Lord for that! The less they meet, the less harm they can do.

And the less good can be done. The parking lot bill for example didn't die because it got voted out, but because of stalling actions caused by just a few members. I believe if it went up for a vote it would have got voted on.

As Nazrat mentions for most people the job would be a financial hardship. and the system benefits incumbents who are in the business where favorable bills effect their clients. Complex issues often get temporary solutions. Think tax relief and school financing.

My district rep. is a lawyer. Some of his clients are Moody foundation (Moody Gardens) and Landry foods Tilman Fretitta. He also has a reputation for supporting the food and hospitality industry

Its not gonna happen, because the current system favors the incumbants who manage to suppliment their incomes in creative ways. I can't help but believe we wouldn't have a better government if we actually paid them a living wage. and had them meet once a year.

[frankie_the_yankee]

I can't help but believe we wouldn't have a better government if we actually paid them a living wage. and had them meet once a year.

You mean like Massachusetts?

[Liberty]

I can't help but believe we wouldn't have a better government if we actually paid them a living wage. and had them meet once a year.

You mean like Massachusetts?

No place is like Massachussetts. I dare say the problems in Massachusetts isn't that they don't follow the will of the people, but precisely because they do. They don't think like normal folks up there.

Maybe its just me but it seems to me that bills that are important are the controversial ones, things like School funding and property tax relief always get put on the back burner and the solutions are allowed to die because of the lack of time. Because of the time restraints covert bills like the ones one creating The Trans Texas Corridor are allowed. We can't open up the process of government and making laws without allowing more time for the process.

I take it a little personal because I had to make a decision not to run for the State house this time, to winning would mean i would have to take about 2 years income from my retirement account.(this doesn't include any funds to actually campaign) It wouldn't have been fair to my family. Maybe next time. In the mean time the Democratic lawyer that currently holds the position will likely run unopposed.

[frankie_the_yankee]

I mentioned MA because they have a full time legislature that meets throughout the year. Of course, they pay themselves nice full time money, and many of them have businesses going on the side.

Yes, it's true that the people of MA are fools and elect a government that fleeces them blind in a relentless march towards socialism. (FWIW, I lived in next door and just as bad RI for 50 years before moving to TX, so I know the people of MA pretty well.)

But to me, just the fact that the legislators are there 12 months a year scheming how to enhance their own power is a scary thought.

I'd hate to see that here in TX.

[OnTexasTime]

I am for keeping the part time legislature and not interested is seeing a bunch of $100,000 a year jobs.

***
I agree it looks very bad for another legislator to be voting in someone's place. In this day of electronic voting, I would rather see them change the system. All bills that are called for a vote would be put on the next business days electronic ballot and state representative would have all day to come to their desk and sit down and vote on the bills from the day before.

With use of the Internet they could have the vote showing during the day so you could watch and see how its doing. They would also show which way your representative voted when he or she does. At the end the day the clerk would read the vote totals for each bill into the record.

[stroo]

One of the worst things that has happened to our democracy was the institution of full time, fully paid legislators. It has created "professional" politicians who know little of the real world or how their legislative actions affect people. My experiance with full time legislators is that 90% don't have any expertise in anything other than getting elected.

While I don't like the practice depicted here and don't think it ought to happen, there are a lot worse things that happen in the legislative process. For example, I once had a bill killed because the committee chairman had a lover on the side and was worried that the bill would set in place technologies that would allow his wife to find out. He of course did not have to publicly state that as the reason for killing the bill. As a result, the people of that state still doesn't have the fully enabled technology that we in Texas use everyday to our benefit.

So I would live with this practice rather than moving to a fully paid "professional" legislature.

[Venus Pax]

With use of the Internet they could have the vote showing during the day so you could watch and see how its doing. They would also show which way your representative voted when he or she does. At the end the day the clerk would read the vote totals for each bill into the record.

This sounds reasonable.

[srothstein]

I guess I am the only one who sees a real ethics problem with the legislature voting on a rule at the beginning of the session, then consistently violating it withou any enforcement. This may be why they pass so many laws we do not like.

And I did notice that there was no way of knowing if the person who cast the vote did so in the way that representative would have wanted. It is impossible for them to have voted that way when there are multiple people trying to get to the empty desk to vote.

[KBCraig]

I guess I am the only one who sees a real ethics problem with the legislature voting on a rule at the beginning of the session, then consistently violating it withou any enforcement. This may be why they pass so many laws we do not like.

*ahem*

No, you're not the only one.

And I did notice that there was no way of knowing if the person who cast the vote did so in the way that representative would have wanted. It is impossible for them to have voted that way when there are multiple people trying to get to the empty desk to vote.

Yet another reason that every rep should cast his own vote, in person, after having heard the bill introduced and read and all amendments debated.

[NcongruNt]

There have been a lot of good points made in this thread.

Overall, I disagree with this practice. Here is why:

1) It's against their own rules, which they enacted. It's awfully hypocritical to pass a set of rules for your own conduct and then blatantly violate them.

2) There is no accountability in this practice. There is no definite way to know whether a vote was cast properly in the absence of the rep who was supposed to cast it.

3) If there is truly a problem that causes a large number of our legislators to be absent from voting calls, then those problems should be addressed.
a) If there simply is not enough time to fit all needed business into the legislative session, then we ought to look at making a change to the length of our session or review the lawmaking process.
b) If there are financial issues which cause our legislators to be simply unable to serve as elected officials without performing other work in tandem, then we should look at ways of addressing the problem. Although I don't want becoming a lawmaker financially appealing in and of itself, $600/week seems well below a reasonable amount of compensation for the type of work our legislators do and be able to actually support themselves during the process.
c) If there are actions committed by some legislators that delay the lawmaking process outside of due process, then the actions of those legislators need to be addressed.

4) It makes us look bad as a state. This video is evidence of that. This isn't the first place I've seen it posted, and the others were not forums/sites local to Texas.

[frankie_the_yankee]

2) There is no accountability in this practice. There is no definite way to know whether a vote was cast properly in the absence of the rep who was supposed to cast it.

You make some good points. Regarding the above, let me just say that this is only true if there are cases of legislators running away from their votes. Like if someone said, "I didn't really mean to vote that way. Another legislator pushed the button for me while I was away from my desk."

But absent a claim like that, they are fully accountable, IMO.

[Paladin]

Some good points NcongruNt.

I strongly agree with #1, 2 and 4.

They could get "keys" for each desk. That way there can only be a vote if a key is used.

Then legistature either decides to enforce the voting rule or change it to allow other legistators to vote after having been "given" the keys.

[Liberty]

b) . Although I don't want becoming a lawmaker financially appealing in and of itself, $600/week seems well below a reasonable amount of compensation for the type of work our legislators do and be able to actually support themselves during the process.

Its $600 a month. $7000 a year.. While I don't believe many of them are starving. My biggest problem with it is it attracts the type of candidates that will use their position to make a whole lot more money than $14000 a 2 year term. Lawyers who part time as as Legislatures manage to get the most lucritive of clients. Funny how so many of their clients have so much at stake with what bills get passed.