A lawyer we know was out drinking with a lobster the other night and saw a group of the House’s anti-Tom Craddick rebels sitting at a big table having a good time. Nothing wrong with that, he said, except that he was guessing Craddick was sitting next to a telephone somewhere, writing notes in his tiny scrawl on a legal pad, talking to people, working.
Tenacious C
Posted inState Government
Did Anybody Bring Their “A” Game?
Gov. Rick Perry’s agenda was DOA this session, caught in the swivet over HPV vaccines.
Posted inState Government
All Fall Down
He’s still the lead gorilla, but House Speaker Tom Craddick is no longer a 900-pounder. More like 300. And the adage about 900-pound gorillas sleeping “wherever they want to” applies here, too. A 300-pounder has to pick his way through the band, lest one of his 250-pound colleagues turn into an open rival.
Posted inState Government
Minority Rules
The strongest tool in the box for House minorities — and here we’re talking about political minorities — is the rulebook.
Posted in
Health care
Unexpected Endings
A House committee bungled its votes on divorce and abortion bills, killing a couple of the session’s most controversial issues.
Posted inState Government
The Briar Patch
It’s hard to explain just how things in the Senate got the way they are, but you can mark the beginning. Last Spring, senators figured out how to maneuver around Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst while they were passing a new business tax bill and approving legislation to replace local property tax money in public schools with state money.
Posted in
Health care
Catch and Release
Corrections to a tax bill could save thousands of small businesses in Texas from the gross receipts tax approved by lawmakers a year ago. Lawmakers might raise the minimum revenue requirements, letting more companies escape the new levy.
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Health care
Crunch City
When this last break of the legislative session is over next week, there will be seven weeks left in the 80th regular session of the Texas Legislature. And you know, even if you’re new to this, that the rules start killing things before the last day.
Posted inState Government
Spending Time
The House kicked out its budget early Friday morning after 18 hours of debate; the Senate Finance Committee planned to send its version to the printers a few hours later. Put the Senate plan in play the week after the Easter break, and the conference committee that really writes the budget will get started.
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Health care
Record Spending, Record Restraint
A $150.1 billion state budget is on its way to the full House, which already approved another $14.2 billion spending plan for school finance. Those bills, along with a “supplement” appropriations bill to patch thin spots in the current budget, would bring state spending for the next two years to about $164.3 billion, up from $144.6 billion in the current budget.
