May 29, 2005

State Senator Abandons Opposition
to Conference Report with Golf Resort

Fate of Special Tax District Hinged on Whether Bill
Sponsor Could Block Will of Nine Other Conferees

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

How many conference committee members does it take to submit a report for final votes in the House and Senate?

In the case of a county government cleanup bill on which the fate of a PGA golf resort in the north San Antonio area depends, nine signatures on the conference committee report didn't appear to be enough to move the measure beyond the one senator who wouldn't sign it.

In a session where strange twists have become par for the course, the story of House Bill 2120 provides yet another one as a special tax district for the envisioned golf resort appeared to be sailing toward the middle of a lake by the 18th green as time ran out on the deadline for adopting conference committee reports.

The PGA development proposal was resurrected once and then survived what looked like an impending second death this weekend before it appeared to finally be on track as one of more than two dozen amendments added late in the game to House Bill 2120 by State Rep. Ray Allen. But there was one last glitch.

The Senate sponsor, State Senator Jon Lindsay, had added an amendment that would help a company that owes its lawyers several million dollars in connection with a dispute over hazardous materials it cleaned up and covered after a wreck involving a truck hauling Zenith television sets. Once back in the lower chamber, the House parliamentarian ruled the amendment to be no germane to the county government bill, which had swollen from what Allen described as "a leaf in the wind" to a 110-page monster with the flood of amendments.

So the amendment was removed from the bill, all five House conferees signed the report and the House adopted it. That's when Lindsay, a Houston Republican, threw up a red flag and refused to agree to the compromise package without the amendment dealing with the legal fight involving the hazardous waste disposal firm and the materials from the smashed TVs. And then that's when State Senator Jeff Wentworth, who's been fighting to win support for the tax district that's a make-or-break proposition for the PGA golf resort, filed the conference committee report that had signatures from four of the five conferees to HB 2120.

Conference committee reports normally are good if they have at least three signatures from each chamber. But rarely are they adopted without support from a bill's sponsors. Lindsay is the Senate sponsor - and he says Wentworth filed the report without his permission or knowledge. Lindsay threatened to kill the entire bill up until the last minute - then he finally dropped his opposition and moved to concur with House amendments at 11:25 p.m. - 35 minutes before it would have been too late.

Before clearing the House, State Rep. Lon Burnam, a Fort Worth Democrat, was about to kill the bill with the special improvement district for the PGA resort because he thought it would be a threat for the water supply. But when he went to the mike to raise a fatal point of order, a handful of other members gathered around the podium and wouldn't let him get to it before time ran out.

And who says golf isn't a contact sport?