News For Friday, April 8, 2011

It's Senate vs. Austerity in Fight Over Budget

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan and Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie.
Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan and Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie.

The betting game has already begun on whether the budget battle between a more moderate Senate and a far stingier House will lead to a standoff — and a special session in the summer. The two budget committee chairmen refuse to say whether one body may have more sway than the other in the final outcome. 

Interview: Speaker Joe Straus on the Budget and Session

House Speaker Joe Straus
House Speaker Joe Straus

House Speaker Joe Straus was interviewed eariler this week by Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, government prof and half of the Tribune's polling team, about the session so far, the budget, gambling, rewriting state taxes, federal stimulus money and what he thinks about the tempest over research and teaching at the state's top universities.