Texas Senate Hearing on Eminent Domain Bill

There will be a hearing with the Texas Senate, State Affairs Committee, on Monday March 9, 2015 at 9:00 AM.  Senate Bill (SB) 474 is on the agenda for this hearing.  SB 474 deals with eminent domain, and requires the condemning authority to pay the legal fees of the victims.  This bill could certainly be stronger, but it does go a long way in protecting people from eminent domain abuses.  Also, this is probably our only chance in getting something like this passed this session, and there seems to be broad support for this bill.  Below is a copy of the bill, along with the agenda that shows the location of the hearing. 
If possible we need as many people as possible to testify in support of this bill.  If you are unable to make it to the hearing, please consider picking up the phone and calling the committee members listed below in support of this legislation.  Please share with your list, so that maybe we can actually come out of this session with something positive. 

84R7147 AJA-F
	By: Kolkhorst	S.B. No. 474

	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to the recovery of costs and fees in connection with
	certain eminent domain proceedings.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Section 21.047, Property Code, is amended by
	adding Subsection (a-1) to read as follows:
	(a-1)  If the amount of damages awarded by the special
	commissioners is at least 10 percent greater than the amount the
	condemnor offered to pay before the proceedings began or if the
	commissioners' award is appealed and a court awards damages in an
	amount that is at least 10 percent greater than the amount the
	condemnor offered to pay before the proceedings began, the
	condemnor shall pay:
	(1)  all costs as provided by Subsection (a); and
	(2)  any reasonable attorney's fees and other
	professional fees incurred by the property owner in connection with
	the eminent domain proceeding.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
	to an eminent domain proceeding commenced on or after the effective
	date of this Act. An eminent domain proceeding commenced before the
	effective date of this Act is governed by the law applicable to the
	proceeding immediately before the effective date of this Act, and
	that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.

 

 

 

SENATE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

COMMITTEE:    State Affairs  TIME & DATE:  9:00 AM, Monday, March 09, 2015  PLACE:        Senate Chamber  CHAIR:        Senator Joan Huffman

To consider the following:

SB 60         Nelson Relating to children's advocacy centers.

SB 450        Schwertner Relating to the liability of a political subdivision of this state for certain claims relating to land acquired by the political subdivision under certain circumstances.

SB 462        Huffman | et al. Relating to authorizing a revocable deed that transfers real property at the transferor's death.

SB 474        Kolkhorst Relating to the recovery of costs and fees in connection with certain eminent domain proceedings.

SB 512        Zaffirini Relating to the promulgation of certain forms for use in probate matters.

SB 610        Perry Relating to limited liability for an agritourism entity involved in an agritourism activity.

SB 779        Huffman Relating to the access to certain medical test results by a grand jury.

At the Chair's discretion, the Committee may also consider any pending business.

Public testimony will be limited to 3 minutes. If submitting written testimony, please provide 20 copies to the committee clerk with your name on each.

 

 

Senate State Affairs Committee

Clerk: Ashley Brooks

Phone: (512) 463-0380

 

Chair:

 

Sen. Joan Huffman

District: 17

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0117

District Phone: (281) 980-3500

 

Vice Chair:      

 

Sen. Rodney Ellis

District: 13

Capitol Office: CAP 3E.6

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0113

District Phone: (713) 236-0306

 

Members:        

 

Sen. Brian Birdwell

District: 22

Capitol Office: EXT E1.706

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0122

District Phone: (254) 772-6225

Sen. Brandon Creighton

District: 4

Capitol Office: EXT E1.606

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0104

District Phone: (409) 838-9861

 

Sen. Craig Estes

District: 30

Capitol Office: CAP 3E.18

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0130

District Phone: (940) 689-0191

 

Sen. Troy Fraser

District: 24

Capitol Office: CAP 1E.12

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0124

District Phone: (254) 939-3562

 

Sen. Jane Nelson 

District: 12

Capitol Office: CAP 1E.5

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0112

District Phone: (817) 424-3446

 

Charles Schwertner

District: 5

Capitol Office: EXT E1.806

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0105

District Phone: (979) 776-0222

 

Sen. Judith Zaffirini

District: 21

Capitol Office: CAP 1E.14

Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0121

District Phone: (956) 722-2293

 

The Need For Speed Trap Reform in Texas

I must begin this with saying that I have the utmost respect for our police officers.  For the most-part they are risking their lives and health to protect us from harm.  Police should be held accountable for their actions, but under no circumstance should violence against police be condoned or tolerated.

There are also thousands of deaths on our roads each and every year.  Therefore, there needs to be traffic laws, and those laws need to be enforced.  That is a far cry from local police departments that are designed to bring in revenue for the city, it is these rogue departments that must be reined in.   

Speed traps are something that happens all across the country.  This happens when small police forces rack up huge revenue from traffic citations handed out to unsuspecting out-of-towners.  These are typically set up on a highway that is a major thoroughfare like an interstate or other major highway.  Here tickets can be doled out without fear of reprisal from the voters, and there is a low risk of the citation being fought in court.  If the local police force writes too many tickets to the citizen's from the local community, both the politicians and the police would find themselves out of a job.  So it is the unsuspecting out-of-towner that pays the salary of the police and city staff. You might ask yourself, well how much could a city really make off a speed trap? 

Someone has already answered that question for us, you can find the answer here: 

http://arencambre.com/blog/2010/03/04/texass-worst-speed-traps/

As you can see, some of our Texas cities make significant revenue off of traffic citations.  For the most part you can't fight whatever you are given a citation for, or least within reason.  The reason you were given a citation, was that you live out of town.  If you choose to fight the citation in court, you can plan to take three days off work, travel back and forth to the court, and face court cost should you lose.  Judges are hired by the same group that hires the police department, so the judge will be out of work if he doesn't help support the mission.  So you are given a bogus ticket and then ran through a kangaroo court, so most people pay the fine, take the loss and move on, which amounts to nothing more than legal thievery. 

Texas has a requirement that cities give a major portion of the fine to the state.  That is supposed to be the deterrent from local police departments implementing speed traps.  That tactic is obviously not working, but rather makes the municipality write more citations to make up the difference.  The only way to truly solve this problem is to have reasonable controls in place to de-incentivize speed traps.  It is up to our Texas legislature to protect us from the opportunistic police departments and if they do not get back to their mission to protect and serve, they can essentially be shut down. 

When looking for ideas on how to handle this, I found a very good template from

Oklahoma.  Even though I grew up in Oklahoma, I did find it a bit shocking that

I would find model legislation there.  Under the Oklahoma law, if a city gets a large enough portion of it's annual budget through traffic citation revenue, then they can no longer write citations on any road that is maintained by the state or federal government.  Therefore, if they get too out of line with their citation revenue, they will be shut down as a speed trap.  They can still respond to accidents or emergencies, but no citations.  If they continue to write citations, they will have to write them on their own streets to their own citizens, and the scenario above will play out and the police and the politicians will be out of work. 

 

You can see the Oklahoma law here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0P-oym-MTKzY2Rjem0zVTJPZkk/view?usp=sharing

What can you do?  Call your Texas (or any state for that matter) State Representatives and Senators urging them to sponsor or support legislation to reform speed traps.  I will be presenting this to several legislators myself in hopes of getting this into a bill.  If you do not know me, I am persistent, and will keep at this until we get something moving.  This is coming at a time when police departments across the nation have come under scrutiny for this very action.  Furthermore, police seizures and red light cameras are also a hot topic.  So it is time for Texas to take decisive action, and protect Texans from overreaching police departments.