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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.” โ€” 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.” โ€” DeLay to make statement before sentencing, Texas Politics
  • “Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchisonโ€™s curious silence about her 2012 plans have Texas Republicans increasingly convinced sheโ€™s rethinking her decision to retire and quietly plodding ahead toward a fourth term.” โ€” 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.” โ€” 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.” โ€” Comptroller Estimates Available Revenue

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David Muto was the editor of TribTalk, The Texas Tribune's opinion page. He is also the Tribune's copy editor. A Richardson native, he attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned degrees...