The House Ways & Means Committee is considering several bills that have the same mission: to make permanent the franchise tax exemption for businesses that report $1 million or less in gross revenue.
Austin
Posted in
Economy
Is an Incomplete Budget Better Than a Shrunken One?
There’s a widely held belief around the Capitol that lawmakers balanced a troublesome budget in 2003 with a convenient underestimation of how many people would need to be served. So why not do that on purpose, and out in the open?
Posted in
Guides
Texplainer: What Happens To Texas If The Feds Shut Down?
Not much, unless you’re one of the state’s 130,000 civilian federal employees — or you’re scrambling to get your taxes done.
Posted in
Higher Education
Interview: Speaker Joe Straus on the Budget and Session
House Speaker Joe Straus was interviewed eariler this week by Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, government prof and half of the Tribune’s polling team, about the session so far, the budget, gambling, rewriting state taxes, federal stimulus money and what he thinks about the tempest over research and teaching at the state’s top universities.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
The Week in Texas Politics Recap: Apr. 4 to Apr. 8
No time to follow every twist and turn of the Texas Legislature? We’ve made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome.
Posted in
Economy
It’s Senate vs. Austerity in Fight Over Budget
The betting game has already begun on whether the budget battle between a more moderate Senate and a far stingier House will lead to a standoff — and a special session in the summer. The two budget committee chairmen refuse to say whether one body may have more sway than the other in the final outcome.
Posted in
Economy
Senate List of $5.5 Billion in Revenue Proposals Leaked
Texas senators scratching for new state revenue canceled a meeting to talk about their options today, but a copy of their list got loose — and it includes $5.5 billion in taxes, fees, asset sales and accounting tricks that could be used to ease their budget problems.
Posted in
Economy
Video: Senate Signals Big Changes In Store For HB 1
The Texas House sent its budget blueprint to the Senate this week. But many senators say those cuts are too deep, and they’re ready to make some drastic changes.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Wentworth Temporarily Pulls Down Campus Carry Bill
After his bill received heated debate on the floor, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, withdrew his campus carry bill today.
Posted inState Government
Radical, FBI Informant, Conservative Hero: the Lives of Brandon Darby
Brandon Darby has transformed himself from liberal social justice organizer and radical to much-maligned FBI informant to now right-of-center conservative hero — of a sort.
