The Texas House yesterday debated HB3361, the bill to continue the functions of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs after its review by the Sunset Commission. The main topic of conversation was scoring legislative support support letters for Low Income Housing Tax Credit developments. For those just joining this conversation, we’ve discussed those letters in these classic Texas Houser posts:
- Dallas Tax Credit Corruption Case Continues
- Official Letters on the 2011 LIHTC Round
- Opportunity to tame public corruption lost in veto of TDHCA Sunset bill
Anyways, this time around Representative Riddle put forth an amendment to keep the letters, stating they were needed so that Representatives could “keep bad actors out” of their districts. Representative Riddle’s amendment passed after further amendment, although that amendment was again reworded today on third reading–(final language here — allows local entities to provide letters if a legislator declines to do so). A few other amendments passed on second reading as well, including one limiting penalties for non-compliance with TDHCA rules if the problems are promptly corrected after they are identified by TDHCA.
Video of yesterday’s floor debate is embeded below in two parts (lightly edited to reduce off-topic interruptions and extended periods of silence):
[…] members of the texas House understood the impact of the Riddle amendment when they voted this week. Watch the video of the House floor debate we posted earlier and judge for […]