As the clock ran out on the opportunity to pass House bills last night, a little drama took place as the Democrats tried to stall proceedings long enough to kill a bill by Phil King. The bill was insignificant; the author was not. King was the author of the voter registration bill, and this was an opportunity for the Ds to send him message indicating their affection for him. So they chubbed the bill immediately before King’s on the calendar. It was the enabling legislation for a constitutional amendment to provide property tax breaks for disabled veterans. Coleman and Dunnam discussed the fine points of the legislation with McReynolds, the author. The carriage was about to turn into a pumpkin when–bang!–Craddick’s gavel fell. “The gentleman’s time has expired.” King leaped to the microphone. Craddick: “The Senate bill is over and eligible.” “King: I move to postpone Senate Bill [whatever] to Monday.” Bang! The gavel fell again. It was midnight. The Ds got outmaneuvered. I’m scoring the play as an error on Dunnam for not having an amendment ready that would have killed the clock.
The official scorer has revised the error on Dunnam. The error is on Burka. The Democrats were trying to kill a Hopson bill. Once Heflin worked out an amendment on the King bill, which will be put on the Senate bill on Monday, they had no further problems with King.
