Like many other Texas groups, faith organizations that lobby lawmakers are bracing for a brutal budgetary session. It’s not only a moral issue for the religious groups; it concerns their own bottom lines, too. Because when the government doesn’t provide for the needy, the needy look to the church.
Keeping the Faith
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Guides
Texplainer: Why Are Bills Read Aloud?
Back in the day, not all public officials could read, so clerks would read the bills aloud in the House and Senate. We’re reasonably confident they all can read now, but the clerks keep the tradition alive.
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Health care
Gil Kerlikowske: The TT Interview
The Obama administration’s “drug czar” on the federal drug control strategy, curbing drug addiction in the United States, helping to end drug-related violence in Mexico — and why legalizing illicit drugs is not the answer.
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State Government
TribBlog: Voter ID Advances
Late Tuesday, in what was a foregone conclusion, the Texas Senate passed its version of voter ID legislation out of the chamber’s committee of the whole.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: LBB Makes Criminal Justice Recommendations
Criminal justice in Texas got a fourfold performance review from the Legislative Budget Board today. From incarceration projections to the cost per bed for prisoners, the board broke down the state’s public safety performance in cold, hard numbers.
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Health care
John Zerwas: The TT Interview
John Zerwas: The TT InterviewTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted inState Government
The Midday Brief: Jan. 25, 2011
Your afternoon reading: traffic ticket amnesty, Burka on Kelso, and voter ID rages on
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Guides
Texplainer: Is It Raining Yet?
The Texas Constitution says that money from the Rainy Day Fund can be spent to “prevent or eliminate a temporary cash deficiency in general revenue.” With the state facing a budget shortfall estimated somewhere between $15 billion and $27 billion, some say if it ain’t raining now, it ain’t ever going to.
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State Government
TribBlog: DPS Giving Drivers a Break
Some of the 1.2 million Texas drivers whose licenses have been suspended because they failed to pay expensive traffic ticket surcharges can catch a big break right now from the Department of Public Safety.
