Heated debate over the state budget is already under way, but as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, similar fighting has been playing out for at least three years across the country.
March 2011
Posted in
Economy
Video: Lawmakers React to Budget Bills; Look Ahead to HB1 Battle
State Reps. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, and Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, react to the passage of HB4 and HB275, and preview of the upcoming battle over HB1, the House’s bare-bones general appropriations plan for the next biennium.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
House Lawmakers Propose Privatizing All State Jails
House lawmakers are considering a plan to privatize all of Texas’ state jails for low-level felony offenders, a move they say could save the state up to $40 million.
Posted in
Economy
Texas-Like Budget Debates Have Already Played Out Around U.S.
Heated debate over the state budget is already under way, but as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, similar fighting has been playing out for at least three years across the country.
Posted in
State Government
Supporters Rally Around Texas Historical Commission
With the strum of a guitar and the whine of fiddle strings, Ray Benson and two other members of his band Asleep At The Wheel kicked off a rally Thursday to support the Texas Historical Commission, which faces deep budget cuts.
Posted in
State Government
House Gives Early OK to Bills Balancing ’11 Budget
House lawmakers voted this afternoon to preliminarily pass HB 4 and HB 275, two bills that together will balance the state’s budget for the remaining months of the fiscal year through a mix of spending cuts and use of the Rainy Day Fund.
Posted in
Economy
Plenty of Politics in Budget Amendments
Numbers aren’t all that’s buried in the budget. Lawmakers have filed hundreds of amendments that are political in nature, from repealing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants to trying to push Planned Parenthood out of the family planning business.
Posted inState Government
Interactive: Texas House Budget Amendments: 82nd Legislature
Members of the Texas House filed more than 400 pages of amendments in advance of a debate April 1 on the state’s biennial budget, known around the Capitol as House Bill 1. Use this interactive to explore those documents.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Guns on Campus Bill Heads to Senate Floor
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee today approved a controversial bill that would allow students to carry concealed handguns on college campuses.
Posted inState Government
The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 31, 2011
Your afternoon reading: slew of amendments go down in House budget debate; freshman Republicans break ranks on funding for deaf and blind