Hallelujah! A raft of bills that would dramatically alter the way beer is sold and consumed in Texas sailed through tentative approval from the House on Friday after a lengthy and disputatious process between brewers and beer distributors. If finally approved next week, the legislation will go straight to the governor’s desk without another stop. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘John Carona’
Payday lending prospects look grim in the House
From the Observer: Late into the night on Monday, the payday loan industry strutted its stuff before a very friendly House committee. The hearing came just a week after the Senate passed a surprisingly tough bill that the industry insists would shut down most of Texas’ 3,400 payday and auto-title storefronts. Even though the legislation [...]
Improved payday lending bill passes the Senate
Good news, if it goes anywhere. The Texas Senate approved a bill to regulate short-term lenders on Monday night, a milestone some thought the chamber wouldn’t reach after a personal and divisive floor fight on Thursday. But with the measure’s author, state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, calling the highly-altered bill an “ugly baby,” it remains [...]
That’ll just about do it for gambling this session
Sen. Carona calls the chances “slim”, but it sounds like slim just left town to me. [Sen. John] Carona, chairman of the Senate’s Business and Commerce Committee, said last week he expected to vote his sweeping gambling bill out of his committee Tuesday. But the morning committee hearing came and went, and Carona declined to [...]
Division over the payday loan bill
Quite a heated little fight in the Senate yesterday. An ugly scene erupted in the Texas Senate today, with Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) suggesting that some of his Republican colleagues were “shills” for the payday loan industry and worrying that the GOP would be seen as “the party that is backed and bankrolled by payday [...]
More on the potential Coushatta casino
The Houston Press cover story from last week is about the Alabama-Coushatta tribe’s efforts to get a casino again. It covers a lot of the same ground as that Chron story I blogged about on Sunday, but it also reminds us of a very sordid aspect of the original casino and why it was closed. [...]
Senate to consider expanded gambling
I didn’t really take it seriously when I heard that Sen. John Carona had filed his own gambling expansion legislation, but it seems it’s got some traction. A proposal from Dallas Republican Sen. John Carona would establish a commission that licenses 21 casinos throughout the state, including three mega-resorts in Bexar, Dallas and Tarrant counties [...]
Somewhat improved payday lending bill passes Senate committee
I still don’t think it’s good enough. Breathing new life into a proposal that was doomed by the opposition of consumer groups only last week, a Texas Senate committee approved strengthened legislation Tuesday that imposes restrictions on the payday loan industry that could save desperate Texas consumers some $220 million a year. Sen. John Carona, [...]
Payday lending legislation may go nowhere
I can’t say I’m surprised, since Sen. John Carona’s most recent version of a payday reform bill was not met well by advocates for consumers and the poor. Among other things, Carona’s proposal would limit the maximum size of loans to a percentage of the borrower’s monthly income and cap the number of times a [...]
Craft beer bills pass out of the Senate
A good day indeed. The Texas Senate voted Monday to give craft brewers and brewpubs new opportunities to sell their beer. “To see that happen was amazing,” said Scott Metzger, a San Antonio brewpub owner who worked with other brewers, legislators and wholesalers in negotiating a compromise. Brock Wagner, owner of Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewing, [...]
It’s good to be a payday lender
Bleah. Earlier this legislative session, a chief of staff for a senator noted that the $4 billion Texas payday and auto-title loan industry would soon grow powerful and lucrative enough that the Texas Legislature would be unable to take it on. That time may have already come. At a legislative hearing this morning, state Sen. [...]
Why do we give tax breaks to country clubs?
As you know, I’ve talked before about sunsetting tax expenditures. Sens. John Carona and Rodney Ellis have filed a bill to require a periodic review of the many exemptions, exceptions, and other special cases in the tax code, with the aim of requiring legislative approval to renew or extend them. This is a good idea [...]
Gambling interests narrow their focus
This is usually how it goes. Let Texans Decide, a pro-gambling organization that is fronted by former state Sen. John Montford, was aligned at the beginning of the 2013 legislative session with big casino interests in a call for full-scale casino gambling in Texas, whether at horse and dog tracks or at yet-to-be-built destination resort [...]
Craft beer legislation advances
Moving forward. Legislation authorizing the most significant changes in 20 years to the way beer is bought and sold in Texas passed a key Senate committee Tuesday with broad support. Under terms of the bills, Houston’s Saint Arnold and other Texas craft breweries could sell a limited amount of beer on site and brewpubs like [...]
More on sunsetting tax expenditures
I say again, this is a good idea that really needs to happen. The Texas tax code is rich with tax breaks. There are tax breaks for industries relocating to the state and for anyone with an Internet connection. Tax exemptions for groceries and bottled water. Tax holidays for back-to-school supplies. Tax exemptions for golf [...]
Craft beer bills get their hearing
From the Trib: The Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Tuesday acted as legislative referee over bills that would allow craft breweries to sell on their premises and self-distribute in Texas, but critics said the legislation would hurt the state’s system of alcohol production and distribution. “It’s two different visions of where the beer industry [...]
I knew all this beer harmony couldn’t last forever
We have some legislative beer controversy on our hands. Texas brewers would lose a potential source of capital and some flexibility in negotiating sales under a bill before the state Senate. The Texas Craft Brewers Guild immediately opposed the legislation, as did one of the state’s two major groups representing wholesale distributors – which called [...]
Here come the craft beer bills
From Brewed and Never Battered. Senator Kevin Eltife (R-District 1) introduced bi-partisan legislation along with Co-Authors, Senators Brian Birdwell (R-District 22), John Carona (R-District 16), Eddie Lucio (D-District 27), Leticia Van de Putte (D-District 26), Kirk Watson (D-District 14), and John Whitmire (D-District 15) to modernize the state’s alcohol regulatory system to make more competitive Texas’s small, [...]
Sunsetting tax expenditures
Sens. John Carona and Rodney Ellis have the right idea. Over the past 18 months, many of our constituents told us they have trouble finding a reliable, accurate and up-to-date source of information on these tax breaks, exemptions and special treatments — often called tax preferences or loopholes. Unfortunately, so do we. The Legislature makes [...]
What does it mean to be a “craft” beer?
The Chron has a Q&A with beer aficionado Jenn Litz that raises an interesting question. Q: How are the major breweries responding to the craft beer trend? A: Mostly through the acquisition route. They know the milliennials are drinking craft, and the margins are good with craft beer. The majority of craft beer drinkers either [...]
The payday lenders won’t go without a fight
Where there’s a fight, there’s sure to be lots of money. Payday lenders were big spenders in the most recent Texas political campaigns – contributing more than $1.6 million to state races in the 2012 election cycle and giving most generously to Republican committee members who soon will be reviewing proposed reforms for their industry. [...]
The payday lenders’ new tricks
You really need to read Forrest Wilder’s story about the latest scheme by payday lenders to skirt regulation. As serendipity would have it, I had stumbled onto the latest mutant creature in the wild and wooly world of Texas payday lending. “What you’ve come across is really important,” said Ann Baddour of Texas Appleseed, an [...]
The Lege will take another crack at payday lending
I’m glad to see this, because the Lege definitely left business unfinished last time. About 83 percent of customers in Beaumont and 75 percent in the Houston and San Antonio metro areas are locked in a loan renewal cycle, latest lender reports show. State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, and state Sen. John [...]
Carona comes out for equality
I have three things to say about this. In a rare if not unprecedented move for a Republican state legislator in Texas, Dallas Sen. John Carona expressed support for three key pieces of pro-equality legislation on Monday. Carona told Instant Tea he would support bills in Texas to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and [...]
We got those bad road blues
So many bad roads, so little funding to maintain them. Issues including traffic congestion, damage to vehicles from roads needing repair and costs incurred in accidents caused by insufficient safety features on roadways cost drivers in Texas $23 billion annually, according to a study released Tuesday by a national transportation research group. “Texas has fallen [...]
Senate slap fight
Hilarious. The quiet race to be the next lieutenant governor of Texas spilled into a nasty email exchange between two senators with aspirations for that post. In an email apparently sent to all of his Senate colleagues — and obtained and published by a political news website, the Quorum Report — Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, [...]
Crowdsourcing legislation update
Back in October, I noted an effort by the Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce, which is presided over by state Sen. John Carona, to crowdsource its upcoming hearings on payday lending. The Statesman has a report on how things have gone so far. Several times in recent months, the Senate panel and the [...]
The state of water in Texas
The Statesman has a long story about the state of water in Texas and its outlook for the future. Short summary: We’re going to need more than what we’re capable of getting now, and it’s going to cost a lot of money to bridge the shortfall. “For most of our recent history, we just treated [...]
State not appropriating red light camera funds to trauma centers
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Sandy Greyson drove away from an Arlington meeting eight years ago, and 2 tons of irony wiped her off the road. A red-light runner struck her passenger side, pushing the Dallas City Council member’s car into a field. Greyson suffered a broken wrist and a head wound [...]
Payday lenders face new regulation
New regulations aimed at curbing the excesses of payday lenders are now in effect, but they will not be the last word on the subject. Proponents of the new regulations passed by lawmakers during the 2011 session say they’re needed because the practice of offering short-term, high-interest loans to consumers has led thousands of Texans [...]
DC court denies summary judgment on preclearance
It’s official, the maps the Lege drew for itself and for Congress will not be used in the 2012 election. A Washington-based federal court on Tuesday rejected Texas’ request to approve new political districts without a trial. In a brief ruling, the court agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice that the GOP-led Legislature used [...]
Crowdsourcing legislation
Perhaps the wisdom of crowds might help shape better legislation. It’s worth a shot. [Steven] Polunsky is the director of the Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce, which is presided over by state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas. In anticipation of the next legislative session, in 2013, the committee intends to try to crowdsource legislation [...]
TWIA deal apparently reached
If this pans out we can definitely put a final wrap on the legislative season. Two key state House and Senate negotiators said today that they have reached an agreement on a bill to govern the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, said today that he and his Senate counterpart, Sen. John Carona, [...]
Senate approves TWIA bill
Reform of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Agency was the original reason for this special session. It may yet be the reason for the next special session. Like ringing the bell at the boxing ring, the Senate today approved a bill that is all but certain to restart a brawl with the House over how to [...]