[ TX ] No Front Plate - Last Shot

If you live in Texas, read on and spread it around.

Governor Perry vetoed a $35B education budget and called a special session, so we may have another chance to get Article 9 of the original House Bill 3540 considered to help fund some of the education budget.

I would suggest contacting your senator and house representative and pointing out that their own fiscal analysis showed a $5M/year savings associated with not requiring a front license plate. That fiscal note assumed the savings would go back in to the transportation budget, but there is no reason some can't go to education also.

This time, I also copied our local news investigation team at WFAA. Not sure they will care much about this, but I would have to think that $5M/year will get someone's attention. Please have a look at your own local news website and see if they have an email ID you can copy. It just might yield interesting results.

Details on the bill can be found here:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/cgi-b...LLSUFFIX=03540

In case this is new for you, it was passed by the House and sent to the Senate, where it was also passed, but Senator Steve Ogden introduced an amendment to remove Article 9 (see last item on last page). The House & Senate versions were different and both sides didn't reach agreement before running out of time. Never went to the governor, but wouldn't have mattered to us with Article 9 removed.

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/data/...B0354023F1.PDF

My email is short and to the point. I'm not counting on much attention from my legislators, but wanted them to see that the news team was copied also. I'm hoping that triggers a reaction.

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To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]

Senators & Representatives,
If in any way possible, please consider including the original article 9 from HB3540. Per the fiscal note, "Regarding the issuance and display of license plates in Article 9, the Department of Transportation estimates net savings in Fund 006 of approximately $5,000,000 each year for reduced license plate manufacturing costs; however, it is assumed that any savings realized from the implementation of the bill would be used for other eligible transportation related expenditures.", maybe some of the savings can be applied to school funding.

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Crap! I thought this thing had been signed and ready to go! I will write my letter, but sadly in the whole scheme of things, 5 Million ain't a whole lot when you figure one school district can waste that much in one school year. :-(

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Originally Posted by OzCop

Crap! I thought this thing had been signed and ready to go! I will write my letter, but sadly in the whole scheme of things, 5 Million ain't a whole lot when you figure one school district can waste that much in one school year. :-(

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But at least it is $5M we are not wasting in two places.

Emails submitted.

http://www.petitiononline.com/txplate/petition.html

Dont know where to send it or what to do with it, but mabye one of you can send it to the right person.

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Originally Posted by blackzx3_13

http://www.petitiononline.com/txplate/petition.html

Dont know where to send it or what to do with it, but mabye one of you can send it to the right person.

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Thanks for that link. I signed it long ago -- I think it had 5,000 "signatures" or so -- and I said at that time that I thought it was a lost cause. You'd need something like 250,000 signatures to get anyone's attention, and after circulating for what... nearly a year?... we have 11,739. :neutral: It's only going to go through if it's a [small] part of some bigger bill. On it's own, it doesn't save enough money each year and the police / municipalities are undoubtely fighting this under the banner of "protecting and serving" (read: it'll be harder for my revenue generating speed traps to work...).

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Originally Posted by Kestrel

....It's only going to go through if it's a [small] part of some bigger bill. On it's own, it doesn't save enough money each year and the police / municipalities are undoubtely fighting this under the banner of "protecting and serving" (read: it'll be harder for my revenue generating speed traps to work...).

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Agreed, and that's how they tried to get it through during the regular session, as part of a large appropriations bill.

If there is any hope for it to be included as part of a special session school funding bill, it has to be seen as chipping in a piece of what they need in funding.

That's why I sent the email, in hopes they would see it that way. And to point out the wasted savings by continuing to run two plates. They've confirmed that with their own analysis (see the fiscal note).

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Originally Posted by TooManyIDs

Agreed, and that's how they tried to get it through during the regular session, as part of a large appropriations bill.

If there is any hope for it to be included as part of a special session school funding bill, it has to be seen as chipping in a piece of what they need in funding.

That's why I sent the email, in hopes they would see it that way. And to point out the wasted savings by continuing to run two plates. They've confirmed that with their own analysis (see the fiscal note).

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I just saw the Gov on the news saying that the special session school funding bill will be introduced tomorrow.