Your afternoon reading: more emergency items, Medicaid and the Supreme Court, and The Daily Show
The Midday Brief: Jan. 20, 2011
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: A Voter ID Emergency
Today, Gov. Rick Perry added two more issues — voter ID legislation and a call for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget — to his list of “emergency items” that state legislators can begin deliberating on right away.
Posted in
State Government
ICYMI: The Senate Two-Thirds Debate
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.
Posted in
Transportation
TribBlog: Report: Texans Wasted Nearly $9 Billion In Traffic Jams
Road rage and fender-benders aren’t the only reasons to hate traffic jams — Texans wasted $8.96 billion on congested roadways in 2009, according to the Urban Mobility Report released today by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Can Texas Cut Medicaid Payments?
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.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: Jan. 20, 2011
It’s getting messy, and lawmakers — even the budget writer’s fellow Republicans — aren’t keeping quiet.
Posted in
Higher Education
A Plea For Fairness
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.
Posted inState Government
Growing Government
In a move seemingly at odds with the state’s budget woes, the Texas Facilities Commission voted Wednesday to consider expanding the Capitol complex in downtown Austin. But as Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, the commission says it could actually save the state some money.
Posted in
Economy
Budget Blues
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.”
Posted in
Higher Education
All UT, All The Time
In a match made in Longhorn athletics heaven, the University of Texas and ESPN have struck a deal to launch a 24-hour TV network that’s all UT, all the time. As Ian Crawford of KUT News reports, it’s a lucrative venture for UT, which says it’ll use the network for more than just athletics.
