Governor Greg Abbott has vetoed 50 bills that were passed during the regular legislative session. Abbott offered a number of common explanations for his vetoes, calling the bills unnecessary, too costly or too burdensome. Groundwater bills that were nixed received a response by Chairman of the House Natural Resource Committee, Representative from San Antonio, Lyle Larson.
There were bills involved in groundwater management that were vetoed such as HB 2377 that would provide funding to brackish groundwater studies in the the state, HB 1525 relating to a statewide water availability study, HB 2378 relating to improvement of groundwater management by aligning export permits with production permits, if separate, and HB 3025 relating to aligning well plugging statute language within GCD Regulation and improving GCD involvement in providing assistance with abandoned and deteriorated wells.
Thankfully, the District’s bill HB 651 carried by Representative Clardy to alter the election dates of board director’s from the month of May to November was non-controversial and passed with approval from the House and Senate side and was signed by the Governor. This provides an improvement in service to our citizens by aligning our election dates with other area governmental elections during the most common voting time of year.
For a full detailed list of vetoed bills please visit here, an article by the Texas Tribune. For direct link to Veto statements, please visit here, by Office of the Texas Governor.
For Representative Lyle Larson’s response to vetoed groundwater bills please visit here, an article by the Texas Tribune-TribTalk.