State and local leaders give talks
 

State and local government representatives invited to informal lunch discussions with students this year included Texas State Senators Gonzalo Barrientos and David Sibley; Texas Public Utility Commissioner Brett Perlman; Texas Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott (who was paired with court critic Craig McDonald), and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson.

Three of their talks are summarized here.

Utility deregulation and HMOs
Texas State Senator David Sibley, a Republican from Waco, gave a behind-the-scenes look at how he worked to pass legislation that has now taken effect in the state.

During his January lunch talk, Sibley spoke of his efforts to pass legislation to deregulate electric power companies in Texas, as well as a first-of-its-kind bill that allowed health maintenance organizations to be sued in some circumstances.

Sibley said that past electric utility regulation set up monopoly electricity providers in metropolitan areas and gave the utilities the ability to charge rates guaranteeing a certain percentage of income above the costs they incurred. The new legislation involves several plans to phase in competition for electricity in Texas cities. Once there are more players in the industry, the plan is to stop regulating the rates and allow utility companies to charge a market rate.

The Texas HMO liability law backed by Sibley passed in 1997 and has since been followed by similar bills in other states. The Texas law says that HMOs can affect quality of care through their decisions about which treatments to cover, and that they should not be exempted from lawsuits that hold them accountable for these decisions. There have been three lawsuits under the new law, Sibley said.

Austin's growth and quality of life
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson brought humor and perspective on Central Texas to the LBJ School during a February lecture. His talk centered on the importance of maintaining Austin's quality of life and the city's ability to accommodate a knowledge-based economy.

Watson said that the city must adopt a long-term strategy toward such issues as traffic, growth, and wage equity. "Unless we have equity and unless we do a better job of achieving equity, this booming economy will fail," Watson said. He supported plans for light rail and a new state highway that would bypass Austin and divert trucks and other through traffic from clogging Interstate Highway 35 in downtown Austin.

Judicial selection reform
Following up on a controversy that was aired last year in a "60 Minutes" news show segment, members of the speakers committee arranged a debate between court critic Craig McDonald (who was interviewed on the television segment by Mike Wallace) and Texas Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott.

The pair discussed the pros and cons of replacing the current system of electing judges with an appointive system.

On one side of the issue are allegations that opinions delivered by the court can be "tainted" when justices are allowed to accept campaign contributions from someone with close ties to a party or lawyer involved in a particular case.

Those who defend the present system counter that McDonald's group (Texans for Public Justice) and other court critics, such as Texas Watch, cannot prove their allegations and are merely siding with the plaintiff's bar.

Comments to lbjwmast@uts.cc.utexas.edu