The latest Texas Legislature news from The Texas Tribune.
In case you missed it, we mashed up Wednesday's speeches for and against the Texas Senate's hallowed "two-thirds rule," which senators ultimately preserved. Members voted to keep an exception to the rules that allows a simple majority to consider changes to voter identification laws. Full Story
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In a case that could directly affect Texas' planned budget cuts, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether states have the legal right to reduce the rates they pay to health care providers who accept Medicaid patients. Full Story
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Every chancellor of a university system in Texas knows — down to the exact, excruciatingly precise percentage point — how much worse higher education fared than other agencies when their current budgets were cut. With the state facing a massive budget shortfall in the next biennium, the chancellors know they're in for another round. But this time they're adamant that they not bear a disproportionate share of the pain. Full Story
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As House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, laid out the first grim round of proposed cuts on Wednesday, even some of his Republican colleagues couldn't stifle their objections. House Democrats went a step further, calling the cuts "akin to asking an anorexic person to lose more weight." Full Story
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The Texas judicial system can do a better job handling the cases of kids in long-term foster care, according to a study released today by Texas Appleseed. Full Story
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In this week's TribCast, Ross, Elise, Ben and Reeve discuss budget numbers, Senate rules, the U.S. Senate race and the inaugural buzz heard around Austin. Full Story
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More than 40 people crammed into the Texas Railroad Commission’s hearing today on what caused two water wells in Parker County to become contaminated by natural gas. Missing: the Environmental Protection Agency. Full Story
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Texas innocence clinics escaped unscathed from the first round of budget cut recommendations, but at the Capitol today, advocates said they aren't safe yet. Full Story
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House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, laid out the grim details of the proposed budget this morning — but said he still thinks lawmakers can be approve the budget during the regular legislative session. Full Story
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Our latest data app aims to help Texans make sense of the legislative process, tracking bills as they move through the Legislature. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry was sworn in Tuesday for an unprecedented third full term, predicting that historians will look back on this time as the "Texas century." Full Story
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The Texas House has unveiled a $156.4 billion budget that's $31.1 billion smaller than the current two-year spending plan — a drop of 16.6 percent. The proposed budget came with $1.2 billion in recommendations for savings and new revenue from the Legislative Budget Board. Full Story
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Watch this tutorial to learn how to use our bill tracker app to explore legislation filed in the Texas House and Senate. Full Story
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Full, unedited video of Gov. Rick Perry's Tuesday inauguration speech. Full Story
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The Legislative Budget Board has begun distributing (to legislators — not to the public) its recommendations for how to save money and raise money to help balance the 2012-13 state budget. They plan to distribute copies of the budget itself (again, to lawmakers only) later tonight, and all of the documents will be available online to the public tomorrow morning. The details are still coming in, but here are some of the headlines from the LBB's Government Effectiveness and Efficiency Recommendations. Full Story
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The Legislature's starting budget will apparently include proposals to cancel popular back-to-school sales tax holidays, cut discounts for retailers who remit sales taxes early, allow sales of liquor on Sundays to increase revenue from taxes on alcohol, cut the state's subsidy of dependent insurance premiums for state employees and lower the tax breaks for energy companies that take on certain high-cost gas drilling projects, sources say. Full Story
Texans heard from two familiar pols today: Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. We turned their prepared remarks into word clouds to help visualize the tone and rhetoric of their inaugural speeches at the Capitol. Full Story
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Here's the full text of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's inauguration speech, as written. Full Story
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With some top state leaders warning that Texas’ dire fiscal situation will lead to the loss of several thousand state jobs, House budget writers will release their first draft budget today. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, big job cuts may be just the beginning. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry says he and California Gov. Jerry Brown have been comparing notes on the budget, Medicaid, and the federal government. Full Story
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