At Wednesday's TribLive conversation, House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, talked about the likelihood of withdrawals from the Rainy Day Fund and whether the state can meet its obligations under the spending cap.

For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked for the legislative odds on some of the ideas in Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State speech. According to the insiders, he had some winners and some losers.

The $1.8 billion in tax relief that Gov. Rick Perry called for this week was short on details, but the few that are out there are already sparking questions.

At Thursday morning's TribLive conversation, state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and state Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, talked about the possibility of withdrawals from the Rainy Day Fund.

The state's top budget authority, the Legislative Budget Board, says lawmakers will have trouble accessing billions of dollars in the Rainy Day Fund without busting the state's spending cap.  

At this morning's TribLive conversation, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst talked about how much it will take to jump-start the state's as-yet-unfunded water plan.

The state agriculture commissioner on the state's water crisis, why the Rainy Day Fund should be used to pay for a state water plan and how the money should be spent.

For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about big-ticket infrastructure issues — whether lawmakers will approve any of them and where they might look for money. 

At this morning's TribLive conversation, Comptroller Susan Combs talked about the billions cut from the state budget during the last legislative session — and whether kicking the can down the road on health care costs was a sound financial decision.

One 2012 presidential candidate wanted to sell a government-run lottery to finance a health insurance program. He wanted to deregulate college tuition, and then freeze it. He proposed leaving the state's Rainy Day Fund alone — or, sending the money back to taxpayers. Hint: He's from Texas. Another hint: He's not Ron Paul.

Gov. Rick Perry likes to rail against the Obama administration's "failed" federal stimulus program, but he and state lawmakers have more than $17 billion in fed-stim dollars to thank for the last two balanced Texas budgets.

An amendment from Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, that would have directed surplus money from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for enrollment growth in public schools perished in conference committee, but came up again in debate before the final vote on a fiscal matters bill to which it was attached.

Gov. Rick Perry’s neon-light promotion on the national stage of the $6 billion left in the Rainy Day Fund exposes a disconnect with the conservative lawmakers battling for his principles at home, where his party is working to divert negative public sentiment about the deep budget reductions.

At this morning's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story explained why they put Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the Ten Worst list.

With less than two days left in the legislative session, lawmakers set out to pay for the budget by passing  SB 1811. Without it, the budget doesn't balance and lawmakers will be forced to come back in a special session. It passed in the House, but was undone by a Senate filibuster.

The 82nd Texas Legislature’s regular session ends as it started, with lawmakers arguing about a shrunken state budget and redistricting.

His nickname around the Texas Capitol is "mucus." It’s a play on Michael Quinn Sullivan’s initials — MQS — but the moniker underscores how much of an irritant the conservative activist has become to politicians who dare buck his Tea Party orthodoxy. It also says something about his staying power.

When Texas lawmakers said they wanted to run government like a business, they left out the part about using Enron and Countrywide as their models.