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.
Austin
Posted in
Economy
Analysis of House Budget Divides Lawmakers
Lawmakers offered dueling interpretations Thursday of a Legislative Budget Board analysis predicting that the state could lose hundreds of thousands of jobs if the House’s budget bill is passed.
Posted in
Economy
House, Senate Budget Goals Could Lead to Battle
As the House prepares for a vote on its budget bill, Senate lawmakers are hinting that they’re looking to spend more than their counterparts on public education — setting the stage for a budget battle.
Posted in
State Government
Amendments, Emotion Dominate Texas Voter ID Debate
House Democrats unsuccessfully fired off a half-dozen points of order challenging several provisions in the voter ID bill all in an effort to halt or alter the controversial legislation. Republicans expressed exasperation at the Democrats’ attempts to stall the legislation.
Posted in
Economy
Classrooms A Priority
Republican senators say the state’s budget shortfall will mean educations cuts, but they said schools should focus first on eliminating non-classroom expenses and keeping as many teachers as possible.
Posted in
Economy
Infographic: The Politics of the Rainy Day Fund
Use our infographic to understand the intent of the Rainy Day Fund, what it takes to draw from that savings account, and the political arguments for and against using it.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Marc Mauer: The TT Interview
The Tribune sat down recently with national criminal justice expert Marc Mauer, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based reform advocacy group The Sentencing Project, to get his advice about how Texas can continue on its so-called ‘right on crime’ path even as lawmakers slice millions from the state budget. Mauer, who was in Austin for the Barbara Jordan Symposium at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs, talked about how other states have handled controversial prison closings, how others have reduced criminal justice costs and how the Right On Crime Movement — with support from conservative leaders like Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich — might give lawmakers the political freedom to be more than tough when it comes to crime.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Marc Mauer: The TT Interview
The national criminal justice expert on how other states have handled controversial prison closings and reduced criminal justice costs and how the Right On Crime Movement might give lawmakers the political freedom to be more than tough when it comes to crime.
Posted in
Higher Education
Budget Constraints Pit Teaching Against Research
College students will rally at the Capitol today for higher-education funding. But as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, some students think major changes are also needed on campus, where, they say, professors spend too much time researching and not enough time with undergraduates in the classroom.
Posted in
Public Education
Senators Take Up Bullying Bills
At Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee hearing on a trio of anti-bullying bills, the parents of children who committed suicide after being picked on by classmates asked lawmakers to fix a system they say failed their families.
