The Evening Brief: June 5, 2012

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Rumors Fly After Spanish Debate Proposal for Dewhurst, Cruz: "A suggestion by a Univision reporter that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz debate in Spanish has taken on a life of its own. Though neither of the two U.S. Senate candidates in the July 31 Republican primary runoff are actively working to organize a Spanish-language debate, the idea has gained attention from national media and sparked erroneous reports that such an event is actually in the works, a claim both campaigns deny."
• State Agencies Ordered to Propose Budget Cuts: "The Legislative Budget Board — headed by House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — is asking state agencies to assume they'll have 10 percent less to spend in the next budget than they have now. No programs or services are being cut, but the agencies are supposed to show lawmakers what those cuts, if made, would do."
• Texplainer: Why is the Runoff Period So Long?: Hey, Texplainer: Why are the Texas runoffs being held nine weeks — rather than the usual three to six weeks — after the end of the first balloting?

Culled:

• Mitt Romney, in Fort Worth, blasts Obama for taking American economy ‘forward over a cliff’ (The Dallas Morning News): "Mitt Romney blasted Barack Obama on jobs and the economy on Tuesday, using both humor and harsh words to hammer the president on the marquee issue of the campaign. 'It’s surprising to me that the president has chosen a campaign slogan of "Forward,"' Romney, the all-but-official Republican nominee, said to a partisan crowd packed into an office warehouse here. 'Forward over a cliff?'"
• Chisum and friends try to close gap (Houston Chronicle): "When a young Sam Rayburn was running for the Texas House in the early years of the 20th century, he and his opponent often campaigned together. … Longtime Texas House member Warren Chisum, now a Republican runoff candidate for the three-member Texas Railroad Commission, is trying a variation on that theme. Campaigning to make up ground against the winner of his race, Austin attorney Christi Craddick, he’s flying around the state this week with two of his five former opponents in tow."
• Texas’ business tax exceeding expectations (Austin American-Statesman): "Texas businesses have paid almost $4.3 billion in franchise taxes this year, a figure that exceeds expectations and provides yet another signal of the improving health of the state budget. Comptroller Susan Combs had estimated that the franchise tax would bring in just over $4 billion in the first year of the 2012-13 budget so the May collections have already beat that mark and more payments will roll in come August."