Reptile & Amphibian Forums

and spoke with Zach Covar. He understands our concerns without a doubt and explained to me how all of this was done. These little riders (and personally I cannot see how it is legal) have been attached to a favorable bill (HB 12 in this case) and got piggy backed on though. It surely will pass because there are too many other good things with this bill such as railroad funding for the Texas State Railroad, more funding for Texas State Parks etc. Governor Perry has until June 17 to either sign the bill, not sign the bill or veto the bill. It is highly unlikely that he will veto this bill and say hey, I can't do this to people who like to collect snakes from the road right of way. He is going to sign this bill because what this really amounts to is these little house bills are remoras attached to a large shark. No one, including the Governor is going to mess with them. He is going to see that HB 12 is a good thing and too much good will come out of it despite the little remoras attached to the bill. This is how Hilderbran wanted it from the beginning as well as Isett. Just like was mentioned before, this is crooked Texas Politics at it's best. It will soon be time to take this hobby underground. Even though calling Mr. Covar will do little good other than letting him know how you feel, I still hope you guys call his office. (1-800-252-9600) he will document and let the Governor know your concerns. It just is highly unlikely he will veto this bill. It's time to bring the wrath of HELL amongst Hilderbran and Isett. I wonder how much money they have pocketed for pushing these "riders" through. It's time to do whatever we can do to make these peoples lives a living hell!

Wayne H.

at this point the best we can hope for is to get it RE-REFERRED to committee and send the message that dirty politics in Texas will not be tolerated by the general public

by following Bush's example with the troop funding bill. As important as that was Bush vetoed that bill because it wasn't right (in his eyes).

I'm just using that as an example, let's not get off topic the point being that:

Governor Perry needs to send a message to the Texas House that these types of underhanded tactics will not be tolerated by RE-REFERRING the bill back to committee.

We need to make sure he gets that message.

"5.1 The Veto

One of the basic powers the Governor exercises over the legislative process is the veto, which enables governors to nullify bills, concurrent resolutions, and appropriation items. A skillful governor can use the threat of the veto to influence legislation during the session. The veto can also be used as a last resort intervention in the budget process to affect spending priorities at the end of a legislative session. Look at the "vetoes" column on the interactive governors table to review governors' use of the veto.

The power to veto specific budget items, called the line-item veto, adds another dimension to the governor's veto power. The line-item veto provides a surgical tool that governors can use to cut elements out of a bill without vetoing the entire measure. But as with other vetoes, a governor who has not laid the political groundwork for such action may be subject to criticism and can expect to be called upon publicly to justify such action in high-visibility cases.

If a governor neither signs nor vetoes a bill, it automatically becomes law without the governor's signature. This is in contrast to the process at the federal level, which in some circumstances allows a president to kill a bill without signing it or vetoing it. This process is called the pocket veto, and it is not available to Texas governors"

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I do not think that a line item Veto is an option as this is not a budget item.
And if he just puts it away with no veto or signature it will become law eventually (federal gov is the other way around with a pocket veto).

Best bet from the Governors office is to kick it back to committee with a firm threat of Veto unless some riders are removed. - Not likely, but worth the effort

A veto. - Less likely than kicking it back.

Or let it run through buy have an executive order with our amendment in it from HB 2414. - I think this might have a chance if we could get his ear. After all that part passed strongly in the House, and was to be favored in the Senate... It just ran out of time. - Long shot, but there is a chance

A nearly sure thing - If this makes it on the books and we get stuck with this bad legislation we can drum up support next session (a long wait until 2009) to fix it.

I just hope that people like Ruth and Roy in Sanderson do not have to lose their shirts over this bad legislation.

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Look at the web page here..