Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced he will name the Senate’s committees on Thursday or Friday of this week, with one exception. He wants the Senate Finance Committee to get going right away, and named that panel this afternoon.
TribBlog: Senate Starts Right Away on Budget
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Senate Would Cut $28.8 Billion from Budget
The Senate’s version of a starting state budget is, at $158.7 billion, $2.3 billion bigger than the House’s, but still would chop overall state spending by $28.8 billion, or 15.4 percent, from current levels.
Posted inState Government
The Midday Brief: Jan. 24, 2011
Your afternoon reading: voter ID delayed, Elizabeth Ames Jones to kick off Senate campaign, and Tom DeLay’s regrets
Posted inState Government
The Brief: Jan 24, 2011
The governor calls it an emergency. His critics call it crying wolf.
Posted in
Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: Our Next U.S. Senator is…
For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked who will succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate, who else might jump into the race, what factors are most likely to affect the outcome and what effect the political maneuvering will have on the legislative session.
Posted in
Politics
The Kids Aren’t All Right
The budget draft filed last week provided the first glimpse at the kind of deep cuts that state agencies could see in the next biennium. As Matt Largey of KUT News reports, advocates are particularly worried about what the final budget could hold for the agency that protects children from abuse and neglect.
Posted in
Economy
A Chicken Little Budget
Whatever budget lawmakers eventually approve will serve as the working blueprint for the state for the two years starting in September. But the budget released last week isn’t a blueprint — it’s a political document. It marks the shift from the theoretical rhetoric of the campaigns to the reality of government.
Posted in
Public Education
Closing Time
Texas public schools are facing what could be $10 billion less in state financing — a stark prospect that could empty school buildings across the state as districts consolidate campuses to reduce costs. What should happen to these structures, which are built with taxpayer money?
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: Charles Miller Has a Plan
If you were $10 billion in the hole, would you fork over $6 million for a chance at billions in savings? That’s the modest proposal that businessman and former chairman of the UT System regents is offering the state’s public education system.
Posted in
Health care
Pick Your Poison
In the House, it’s the nastiest, ugliest budget anybody’s seen in a zillion years. In the Senate, they’ll start on Monday with voter ID, the issue that froze the Legislature two years ago.
