The Austin American Statesman
www.austin360.com

Air-quality bill passes after much feuding

By Maeve Reston
Tuesday, May 22, 2001

State representatives were locked in fierce debate late Monday over a plan to reduce air pollution in Texas by providing $150 million in grants and other incentives for construction companies, car buyers and businesses.

After nearly three hours of debate in the House, the outlook for Senate Bill 5 was grim.

Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, led the charge to eliminate fees in the proposal. The bill by Sen. Buster Brown, R-Lake Jackson, would have created the Texas Emissions Reduction Program to help companies retrofit diesel engines and pay for research on new technologies to reduce pollution. The $150 million fund would have been paid for through fees on car inspections, a $1 charge on a nightly hotel stay and fees on the rental, lease and purchase of construction equipment.

Dallas Democratic Rep. Steve Wolens' impassioned reminders that Texas could lose federal money for highways if certain regions of the state do not meet national clean air standards by 2007 did not appear to be swaying representatives.

"The federal government is going to say Texas is closed for new business," Wolens said.

Bonnen succeeded in striking the suggested surcharge on car inspections - $5 for cars in high-pollution and affected areas and $1 in other areas - slicing a third of the money out of the program. The next amendment, by Rep. Ron Lewis, D-Mauriceville, stripped the $1 hotel and motel tax in high-pollution areas.

Democrats and Republicans argued that the fees place a burden on poor people and could hurt Texas tourism. Lewis then agreed to put millions of dollars back into the bill by raising the fee for people who move to the state from $1 to $150 when they register their cars for the first time.

Four areas in Texas - Houston-Galveston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Beaumont-Port Arthur and El Paso - do not meet national air-quality standards set out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Three others - Austin, San Antonio and an area in East Texas - are in jeopardy of becoming nonattainment areas. The state has developed a plan to meet the standards, but it is the subject of several lawsuits.

The discussion followed lengthy debate on an environmental bill that was approved by the House. Senate Bill 2, also by Brown, would continue study and management of the state's water resources without allocating money to help start projects identified in the past four years of study.

Water planners have told the state that they need $17 billion - mainly to build reservoirs - to meet the needs of the state's population, which is expected to double over the next 50 years.

As originally proposed, the bill would have raised the money through a mixture of taxes, including sales taxes on household sewage and water bills; fees on farmers, ranchers, industrial plants and other holders of surface water rights; and $1 collected for every resident of the state. Brown removed some of the fees when the bill was considered by the Senate. A House committee removed a 5 percent tax on bottled water that would have raised about $23 million a year, Lewis said.

Lewis, the bill's House sponsor, and other sponsors hope some of the projects can be paid for through a proposal approved by both chambers for a bond issue of up to $2 billion for reservoirs, pipelines, brush control and other water projects. It would go before voters in November.