The Midday Brief: Jan. 10, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Texas is expected to collect $72.2 billion in taxes, fees and other general revenue during the 2012-13 budget, down from the $87 billion used in the current two-year budget, Comptroller Susan Combs announced Monday. That puts the shortfall at $27 billion given that maintaining services would run $99 billion for biennium." — Revenue estimate puts shortfall at $27 billion, Postcards

• "Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this afternoon is supposed to make a statement to the court before being sentenced on political money laundering charges." — DeLay to make statement before sentencing, Texas Politics

• "Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s curious silence about her 2012 plans have Texas Republicans increasingly convinced she’s rethinking her decision to retire and quietly plodding ahead toward a fourth term." — Kay Bailey Hutchison's silence has 'em talking, Politico

• "The state's higher education agency, the governor's office and business-oriented groups are sending an increasingly clear message to faculty members at public colleges and universities in Texas: Step it up." — Pressure building on faculty to boost graduation rates, Austin American-Statesman

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "The state will collect $77.3 billion in general revenue during the next two-year budget cycle, Comptroller Susan Combs said this morning. The comptroller estimated the Rainy Day Fund will have $9.4 billion in it at the end of the 2012-2013 biennium and that the size of the current deficit is $4.3 billion. This leaves lawmakers with a net of $72.2 billion to spend." — Comptroller Estimates Available Revenue