Gridzilla is back - Call your Rep & Senator NOW!

We thought we had a deal with the author of Gridzilla (HB 3298) to include some of our concerns about protecting aquifers for future generations. Turns out that this was just a “prevarication” — a fancy word for lie.

We are sorry to impose, but we want to ask you to write an email or to make a quick phone call tonight or tomorrow before noon. (Instructions are at the end of this message.)

This letter, from East Texan, retried teacher, Martha Estes, to her State Representative, says it all.

Dear Representative:

TODAY Representative Larson (R-San Antonio) used a BAIT and SWITCH tactic in “adding an amendment” to Senate Bill 1301. This transformed SB 1301 into a study of a statewide water marketing and transfer system at a time when so many bills are being heard in the House facing an imminent deadline. (SB 1301 had been a simple bill to reduce the number of directors of the Texas Water Resources Finance Authority.)

Apparently many representatives didn’t even realize what the amendment was, and it passed overwhelmingly!

My request of you, when this comes up for a final vote in the HOUSE tomorrow, is to refuse to approve it unless Representative Larson’s amendment is stripped out.

As a body I believe that you should resent Rep. Larson’s attempt to “pull a fast one” on the TX House members and slip this by you.

If he cannot do it in a forthright manner he should not resort to trickery! It represents an insult to the process of deliberating the serious mandates before the members of the Texas House.

At my age, having observed many generations of Texas legislators at work, I have no respect for such actions when the results can impact generations to come.

Honorable behavior matters! Hold him accountable to a higher standard.

Cut him off at the pass!!

Martha Estes, Waller County

Write your own letter or call your Rep & Senator tonight
(you can leave a message anytime) or tomorrow before high noon!
(Here is the unofficial record vote from today —
our Austin area Reps need to hear from you!)

Find your State Representative and Senator here.
Call your State Representative and your Senator to urge him or her to vote NO on SB 1301 unless the water marketing amendment is stripped out.

If you prefer email to phone calls, you can email your legislators using this formula:

Representative: Firstname.Lastname@house.state.tx.us

Senator: Firstname.Lastname@senate.state.tx.us
If you use email, keep your subject line short and clear: “Oppose SB 1301’s water marketing amendment”

Get after it Austin pals!