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Associated Press
AUSTIN — The Senate’s $36.8
billion version of a 1986-87 state
spending bill was approved Wednes
day with the warning it can be fi
nanced only if lawmakers also ap
prove about $700 million in so-called
“non-tax” revenue raising bills.
Sen. Grant Jones, D-Abilene, Sen
ate Finance Committee chairman,
said he would seek debate next week
on the measure, which is a rewrite of
the $36.4 billion bill passed by the
House.
The Texas State Employees
Union immediately served notice it
would oppose the Senate bill because
it does not contain a state employee
pay raise that was in the House bill.
The House proposed a 3-percent-a-
year pay increase, provided the pen
ding revenue-raising bills pass.
Members of Senate committee
said it would be up to the 10-mem-
ber conference committee, which
will settle Senate-House differences,
to see if there is a pay raise.
“This bill can be afforded without
new taxes only if we pass these other
bills,” said Sen. Ray Farabee, D-Wi-
chita Falls. “Otherwise the money is
just not there.”
The major revenue-raising mea
sures, none of them finally passed,
include:
• At least $275 million the next
two years from state college tuition
increases.
• More than $220 million from
increased state fees, permits and
court costs, including a hefty in
crease in oil and gas regulation
charges.
• A net revenue increase of $72.5
million by decreasing the state’s con
tribution to the retirement funds of
state employees and teachers.
The Senate’s proposed appropria
tions from all sources is 4.35 percent
above 1984-85 spending and would
require $26.2 billion from state gen
eral revenue funds, an increase of
$1.37 billion or 5.5 percent above
current spending.
The Senate committee also unani
mously approved Wednesday a
package of increased fees, permits
and court costs that would raise
more than $220 million.
Child abuse
Proposed bills protect parents' rights
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Associated Press
AUSTIN — Rep. Bill Blackwood,
R-Mesquite, has two legislative pro
posals he says will protect parents ac
cused of abusing their children after
being “outragecl by cases of parents’
rights being violated in suspected
child abuse cases.”
"Child abuse is indeed a shocking
crime,” Blackwood said Tuesday.
“But equally disturbing is the fact
that innocent parents have been ha
rassed and even had their children
taken away without knowledge of
who took them and why.
"Taking a child from his or her
parent without notifying the parent
who took the child or why is a clear
and blatant violation of the parent’s
right,” Blackwood said.
The bill proposes requiring the
agency to present written notice to
the parents explaining why the child
was taken, who reported the case,
who to contact in the agency for in
formation and a summary of the
parents rights.
The second bill would hold peo
ple who make a false report of child
abuse liable for damage to the child
and any other person affected by the
report.
It also allows false reports made
by a parent involved in a custody suit
to be introduced as evidence against
the reporting parent.
“Persons wno report child abuse
are presently immune from both
civil and criminal liability unless the
report is made with malice or in bad
fatth,” Blackwood said.“Nowhere is
false reporting more prevalent than
in cases involving a custody suit.”
Agencies would be allowed to in
vestigate the child abuse reports
made by one parent against the
other and could terminate the inves
tigation if the complaining parent
refused to sign a statement of liabil
ity if the reports are false.
Lawmakers OK bill to entice Navy
Associated Press
AUSTIN — The Legislature ap
proved Tuesday a $25 million pack-
! age aimed at enticing the Navy into
picking Corpus Christi or the Hous-
i ton-Galveston area as the home port
| for the battleship Wisconsin.
Senators, in a 23-1 vote, approved
| an amended version of a House-ap-
proved, home port bill. Later Tues
day, the House voted 121 -9 to accept
the Senate version.
The Navy is expected to pick the
home port for the battleship by the
middle of this month.
The Senate version of the bill
makes $17 million available from the
water assistance fund in fiscal 1986.
Another $8 million would go to the
home port trust fund the following
year.
That money would come from the
1-cent-a-pack cigarette tax that is
now dedicated to the state local
parks fund, which receives about
#18.5 million a year.
The House had proposed taking
$15 million from the state’s water as
sistance fund, $5.4 million from the
state leasing program and $600,000
from the operator and chauffeur’s
license fund for a total of $21 mil
lion.
Sen. J.E. “Buster” Brown, R-Lake
Jackson, said he believed the House
could live with the Senate proposal.
House members approved the Sen
ate changes with no debate.
Brown said the state funding was
contingent upon whether the Navy
selects a Texas site.
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