A representative for the Texas Legislative Council, which helps lawmakers research and draft bills, won’t speculate on why proposed and passed legislation has risen sharply in the last two decades. But it’s one reason the agency has expanded its legal division over the years, she says.
Matt Stiles
Matt Stiles covered government and politics for the Tribune, with a focus on data journalism, from 2009 to 2011. He oversaw and developed the Tribune’s library of web applications and interactive graphics. Previously, he was a government reporter at the Houston Chronicle. While there, he won the newspaper’s Jesse Award for service journalism and beat reporting and was its reporter of the year in 2007. Before joining the Chronicle, Stiles worked as a reporter for nearly four years at The Dallas Morning News.
Posted in
Politics
Interactive: Government Unlimited
Legislative filings increased in the Texas House and Senate by 70 percent from 1991 to 2009, records show, and the number of bills and resolutions passed by both chambers climbed at a higher rate. Resolutions alone numbered about 4,000 last session, or more than half of all legislation. Explore our interactive graphics.
Posted inState Government
Interactive: Texas Legislation History
This interactive chart visualizes the roughly 90,000 bills and resolutions introduced by members of the Texas House and Texas Senate since 1991. Click through the tabs to see visualizations of legislation that introduced, passed by both chambers or vetoed by governors Ann Richards, George W. Bush and Rick Perry. The colors in the charts represents the various types of legislation.
Posted in
State Government
On the Records: Lottery Maps, Part II
Using data compiled by the Austin American-Statesman, we’ve produced county-by-county maps visualizing Texas Lottery sales by game type. A higher percentage of lottery revenue in Hill County counties, for example, came from Lotto sales in 2009. Many counties in West Texas, however, appear to prefer instant scratch-off tickets.
Posted in
Demographics
On the Records: Mapping Lottery Sales
Earlier this week, the Austin American-Statesman published an interesting series about the Texas Lottery. We mapped the data, which the paper’s editors graciously released, to visualize fiscal year 2009 sales and residents’ income characteristics by zip code.
Posted in
Economy
On the Records: Mapping Foreign Investment
Texas.gov, the state’s clearinghouse for services like driver’s license renewals and vehicle registrations, has launched a new page featuring numerous raw government data sets — including a list of foreign companies doing business here.
Posted inState Government
2010: Perry’s Debate Deadline
Gov. Rick Perry delivered an ultimatum to his leading challenger, Bill White: Release your tax returns by Sept. 15 or “the people of Texas will not get the opportunity to see the candidates debate.”
Posted in
Transportation
The 100 Most Congested Roads
A new Texas Department of Transportation study names Texas’ 100 most congested roadways, which are heavily concentrated in Houston and the Dallas Metroplex; Bexar is the only one of the big five counties without a top-10 trouble spot. Policymakers hope the study will focus the public and lawmakers on the state’s problem areas.
Posted inState Government
Data: Texas’ Most Congested Roads
The Texas Department of Transportation ranked Texas’ 100 most-congested roads using traffic data collected during 2009. Use this table to sort through those records.
Posted in
State Government
On the Records: Democrats’ “Stealth Influence”
Rice University’s political science chair concludes that the minority party’s legislative influence rivals the days in which it controlled the Texas House chamber and the speaker’s chair.
