The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 25, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "You have to feel sorry for the Legislative Budget Board. The LBB came out with a required report titled “Dynamic Economic Impact Statement” on the effect of the House budget, and you have never heard such squealing in the pink building." — Help! Help! There’s a pig in this room! Quick, get the lipstick!, BurkaBlog

• "An estimated 28,000 of Texas' smallest businesses might lose their exemption from paying the state's primary business tax." — Some small businesses could lose tax break, legislator says, Austin American-Statesman

• "The Ex-Students’ Association of the University of Texas has a stout e-mail list: 206,000 alumni, supporters and other friends. The association, also known as the Texas Exes, sent a message Thursday evening urging those on its list to contact the UT System Board of Regents in opposition to any efforts to diminish the importance of research and tenured faculty." — UT alumni mobilize to defend research, tenure, Austin American-Statesman

• "U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told the Louisville Courier-Journal Thursday that he is interested in seeking his party’s presidential nomination, but he would only run if his father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) decides to sit the campaign out." — Rand Paul says if dad doesn’t run for president, he likely will, The Texas Independent

• "The 32 men and women who represent Texas in the House together spent $42,667,257.42 in 2010, according to numbers calculated from new data released by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation." — Study: Texas Republicans spend most on congressional office expenses, Texas on the Potomac

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "The Texas Senate isn’t allowed to raise money. It’s right there in the state’s Constitution, which says all revenue bills must originate in the House. But there it goes, looking for “non-tax revenues” that could be used to put enough meat on the skimpy proposed budget to get senators to vote for it." — State Senate, Facing Tight Budget, Hunts Revenue

• "A recently introduced bill would make Texas one of only a few states to require natural gas companies to disclose, for a public website, what chemicals they use in the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing." — Texas Could Require Disclosure of Drilling Chemicals