Having a governor directly involved has made some difference in school finance, but the two halves of the Legislature are still locked up over some of the issues that doomed earlier compromises. They are closer than they were, particularly after the Senate fell on its sword on business taxes, but there’s plenty left to fight over.
Is There a Closer in the Bullpen?
Posted in
Health care
Just Enough
What do you call the student who finishes last in medical school? A doctor. And what do you call legislation that passes by just one vote? A law, or one step closer to it.
Posted inState Government
Refrigerate After Opening
A handy July 4 tip: You shouldn’t leave chocolate cream pies or potato salad or tax bills sitting out. They have notoriously short shelf lives and what’s good at first sours quickly in open air.
Posted inState Government
Castaway
Skip the bit where your plane crashes into the ocean in the middle of a rainy night and strands you on the desert island. Ignore the time you’re out there living on sushi and coconuts. Think, instead, about coming home.
Posted inState Government
Grandma Hits the Pool First
Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who bills herself as “One tough grandma,” is expected to announce her candidacy for governor in Austin this Saturday (June 18).
Posted inState Government
Brother Can You Spare A Dime? A Quarter?
Looking for a newspaper clip on the Internet the other day, we stumbled on what appeared to be the story we sought. It was about Gov. Rick Perry telling a Tyler audience about the prospects for a special session of the Legislature. But instead of what we expected — an account of Perry’s efforts to negotiate a deal the House and Senate could swallow — it said Perry had given up trying to solve school finance until legislative leaders had a viable plan.
Posted inState Government
Control-Alt-Delete
On the biggest issue of the legislative session, lawmakers and their leaders went home empty-handed.
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Health care
The Bell Lap
The formula here is just as it was at the beginning of the session: Failure to get results on school finance and property cuts would be horrible news for Rick Perry, less troubling for David Dewhurst and Tom Craddick, and of very little political consequence to the average member of the Texas Legislature.
Posted inState Government
Don’t Say ‘Boom’
Until this is over, it’ll be impossible to say whether legislative leaders sent their tax and education bills to conference committees or to bomb squads.
Posted inState Government
Convergence, or Something Like It
The Texas Senate dropped its state property tax, overhauled its overhaul of business taxes, and approved a school finance bill more in line with what the Texas House approved earlier this year. Big differences remain to be worked out in that package, and also in companion legislation that includes some school finance and some new education law. But the Legislature is closer to a deal on school finance now than it was a day, a week, or a year ago. Upgrade the condition of the patient from impossible to merely improbable. That’s an improvement, and previous legislatures have overcome bigger differences.
