Now that he’s been briefed, Gov. Rick Perry isn’t sufficiently impressed with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s school finance plan to push it during the regular session. Perry has been putting off the school finance issue since early in the session—he said then that legislative leaders weren’t experienced enough to pull it off. Now that Dewhurst is gathering Senate support for a fairly specific plan, Perry says there’s not enough time to deal with it during the regular session.
Framing the Issues
Posted inState Government
Let the Big Cats Eat
Democrats in the Texas House are starting to look like the Christians who appeared in the Roman Coliseum–they speak their faith quickly and to an inattentive audience, and then the lions eat them.
Posted in
Health care
Scarce Resources, Abundant Discord
Budgets are unhappy things, even when oodles of money are available: They’re designed to put a collar and a leash on spending. It’s worse when there is no money, because you can’t feed the dog on the other end of the leash. Even if you don’t like dogs, that is unpleasant business.
Posted inState Government
A Sneak Attack on Sherwood Forest
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is working on an overhaul of the state’s school finance system, lowering local property taxes by billions of dollars and raising new sales taxes on service businesses in Texas.
Posted in
Health care
Feeding the Bears
And now, a non-surprise: If you keep doing things that are interesting to prosecutors, prosecutors will stick around. If prosecutors are hanging around, people will begin to talk about it, and start noticing things that might be interesting to prosecutors. The same dynamics drive good soap operas. You soon have an environment where everything looks like it might be a piece of the puzzle and where everybody is lurking about, talking to each other, trying to fit pieces together.
Posted in
Health care
Sinking the Titanic
A rules-breaking private meeting upended a massive rewrite of Texas’ tort laws, leaving supporters of the effort scrambling to get back on schedule. The bill was well on its way to passage in the House. But after two days of debate, Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, called a point of order to say that bill was fatally flawed by a secret meeting after a committee hearing. The bill was discussed out of public hearing by more than half of the committee. After two hours of private consultation, House Speaker Tom Craddick announced he would leave the decision to a vote of the House. But after more confused consultation and some speechifying by members, he decided to sustain Dunnam’s objection.
Posted inState Government
R.I.P., CHIP?
Supporters of the Children’s Health Insurance Program must feel like kids on a hotel balcony with Michael Jackson: Odds are against actually being dropped, but a safety net would be nice.
Posted inState Government
Dan Morales Indicted
Former Texas Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Dan Morales was indicted on federal charges related to his handling of the state’s tobacco lawsuit and settlement when he was AG. He was also accused of converting campaign money to his personal use, lying on a federal income tax return, and lying on a loan application.
Posted in
Health care
Chicken Little Economics
The details are always tougher than the general idea of budget-cutting when you’re talking about government programs that have a direct effect on people’s lives. That’s why discussions about health care in any form–Medicaid, CHIP, whatever–eventually come to fit the headline above.
Posted in
Health care
Get ’em While They’re Hot
You can’t keep weeds out of buffalo grass. Beer and soda pop taste better when cold. Somebody prominent always gets arrested when the Legislature is in Austin. And if the state deregulates college tuition, it’ll go up.
