Perry vetoes texting while driving ban, 22 other bills
Gov. Rick Perry vetoed more than 20 bills late Friday afternoon including a bill that would have banned texting while driving in Texas.
“I support measures that make our roads safer for everyone, but House Bill 242 is a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults,” Perry wrote in his explanation of one of his vetoes.
Perry said in his veto statement that the key to stopping people from texting while driving is “information and education.”
Perry vetoed nearly two dozen bills Friday, in addition to an earlier veto of an online sales tax bill.
“After thoroughly reviewing all legislation that reached my desk, there were some bills that would have done more harm than good to Texans, and I have used my authority to veto them,” Perry said in a statement.
Two of Perry’s vetoes were so-called “sunset bills” of state agencies. The bills were needed to allow the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and Department of Information Resources to continue functioning. Perry said he would add measures continuing those agencies to the agenda for the current special session.
Perry also vetoed Senate Bill 408, authored by Sen. John Estes, R-Wichita Falls, which would have banned most airboats on a stretch of the Brazos River in Palo Pinto and Parker counties. Supporters said the bill would protect the ecology of the 113-mile portion of the river designated the John Graves Scenic Waterway but airboat owners viewed it as a power grab by wealthy landowners.
Perry said he vetoed the bill “at the request of the bill’s sponsor, and I am directing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to study and report the potential effects of a prohibition of the commercial or recreational use of these types of boats on the riverway.”