Arkansas Passes Equal Parenting Bill - Texas Still Waiting for Hearing on HB 803 Equal Parenting Bill

Right over the Texas border, Arkansas, has signed into law an Equal Parenting bill that is the strongest in the nation. 

Texas has an Equal Parenting Bill, HB 803. It passed out of committee last year nearly unanimously. This year it has 21 bi-partisan authors and has the support of voters across all political spectrums, minority groups, all genders, all parts of Texas, and supported by the science and university and psychological studies all showing equal parenting is best for kids and even best for women. 

Texas HB 803 has not gotten a hearing yet and time is running out before the bill dies, which would seem unheard of for such a popular, bi-partisan bill that will greatly help children, to not even be given a hearing in time to get an up or down vote. It would seem to defy the very intent of democracy.

On April 7, 2021, Arkansas became the second state in the nation to pass a law for a rebuttable presumption of joint custody, defined as equal parenting time. Not only that, but we became the first to require clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption. SB18 passed the House with a vote of 71-16 and the Senate 33-2, and gave us the strongest joint custody law in the country.

Equal Parenting is the future, and Texas should lead and make history, instead of just following the coat tails of other states who have passed it with great success, such as Kentucky.

If you are a legislator who has not signed up for the bill as an Author, please do so. And please reach out to fellow State Rep, Chairwoman Victoria Neave, and ask her to set the bill for a hearing Next Week in the JJFI Committee.

New Texas Law Will Prohibit Cities, like Lumberton, TX, from Secretly Using Eminent Domain

By, David Bellow

Earlier this year I uncovered that the City of Lumberton, TX had secretly used Eminent Domain to take over 100 acres from a man and told the man he was only going to get $2000 per acre. This man took the city to court and the city lost and was ordered to pay over one million dollars to the man. None of the residents knew about the use of Eminent Domain and no residents knew that there was a judgment against the city for over one million dollars because it was all kept secret by the city. To put a one million dollar judgment into perspective, the yearly budget for the city is only about three million dollars.

This secret use of Eminent Domain really bothered me, especially since the City of Lumberton has had problems with eminent domain in the past. I even contemplated doing a petition for the people to vote on creating a city ordinance that would prohibit the City of Lumberton from secretly using eminent domain and would help protect the property rights of the people of Lumberton.

It looks like I will not have to do any petitions.

In 2011, the Texas Legislature passed a new law, SB 18, that strengthens Private Property Rights. This new law includes a requirement that public entities must take a public vote to initiate eminent domain proceedings.

Texas State Representative Charles Perry had this to say about SB 18:

Private Property Rights were strengthened by Senate Bill 18, which requires governmental entities to take a public vote to initiate eminent domain proceedings.  It also requires condemning entities to make bona fide offers in writing, or if they fail to do this, it requires the entity to pay the landowner's expenses and attorney's fees.  SB 18 also levels the playing field by requiring that a condemning entity compensate landowners for damages from a loss of access to their property, as well as provides relocation assistance if a landowner is moved off of their property due to the eminent domain process.   It goes further to include buy-back provisions and clarify that the land may only be used for a public use.