Margo’s First Session a Failure (by his own definition) Part 2

So let me lay out the situation with State Rep Dee Margo’s TRB Amendment the way I understand the situation.

Senate Bill 1048 is a bill on public-private partnerships to build stuff through public-private partnerships and give agencies the ability to enter into public-private partnerships.

Someone made the decision (likely the Parliamentarian) that TRB (Tuition Revenue Bond) amendments were germane to the bill, so members started loading the bill up with amendments relating to institutions in their area. Margo put his TRB amendment for the Texas Tech Med School on SB 1048.

TRBs are the way Texas builds structures at public universities. They use student fees and/or tuition to pay them off, and the state funds debt service for them. The legislature typically does this every other session. But Texas doesn't have money for them in this session as we all know.

Rep Kolkhorst, a conservative Republican from Brenham, who represents Sam Houston State wanted to know if this was becoming the bill to add TRBs towards. If so, she wanted to put one on for Sam Houston State.

Sources in Austin say when told that wasn't the case, Kolkhorst asked Speaker Straus if the proposed budget (House Bill 1) had any money for TRBs.

Speaker Straus said NO.

Rep Sylvester Turner, Democrat from Houston, asked what the House was doing if there was no state money to fund these buildings. 

They postponed the bill and when SB 1048 was brought back up again; all the TRB amendments were withdrawn.

Essentially, this was a way for Dee Margo to pull the wool over the eyes of El Pasoans.

This bill would have given Margo the ability to go back home and say he passed a bill to get that additional building for the med school. And then not have to worry about the fact that the state wouldn't fund construction of the building- or that El Pasoans wouldn't even see the building actually undergo construction until 2015 - at the earliest.

Couple these actions with the video from News 7 Extra where he says he's talked to the Gov, Lt. Gov, and Speaker - and he'll "make sure it gets there." 

Well he failed.

He tried to pass something that had no real meaning anyway and couldn't even do that!

But Margo and all his connections and backroom wheeling dealing failed. And now he's ended up with one bill passed and nothing to show for 140 days of session, except voting for a budget- that he helped write as a member of Appropriations- that cuts billions of dollars to public schools, cut funding to UTEP, Texas Tech, and EPCC (which by the way will cause tuition to go up).

All of this reminds me of something. I think I remember an article in the El Paso Times shortly after the election in which he says something along the lines that if he’s ineffective, he’ll resign.

With the session basically over with, he might want to get started writing…