The 82nd Texas Legislature convenes in Austin this week, and while it’s not as much fun as the circus — usually — it’s more important and does have its share of comedy and drama.
Dan Patrick
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Patrick Wades Into Caucus Controversy
A speaker preference vote in the House Republican Caucus is “simply the right thing to do,” state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said Friday night, wading into a roiling controversy that has pit Republican against Republican in the aftermath of November’s election.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: The Most Important Caucus of Our Time
After the election last month, state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, promised to start a Tea Party Caucus in the Texas Legislature. Today, Patrick has the names of the founding members.
Posted in
Economy
School’s Out
The budget shortfall — estimated to be as much as $28 billion — will require the Legislature to take a paring knife and possibly a machete to government agencies and programs. The largest single consumer of state dollars is public education, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which funding for teacher salaries, curricular materials and the like isn’t on the chopping block, especially if lawmakers want to make good on their promises of no new taxes. But where is that money going to come from?
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State Government
TribBlog: Straus Rebuffs Patrick
State Sen. Dan Patrick issued a release saying he would host a sit-down meeting of the three candidates for speaker in a “neutral” location. But House Speaker Joe Straus’ office says it never agreed to to the meet-up.
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State Government
The Most Unpopular Fraction
Whatever the size of their majority in the Texas House, Republicans in the Texas Senate have to contend with the rule requiring two-thirds of members to agree to bring a bill up for vote. That’s 21 out of 31 — and there are only 19 Republicans in the upper chamber. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, some in the GOP want the rule changed.
Posted in
Demographics
The Crackdown Begins
Republican state lawmakers, buoyed by their party’s resounding victories on Election Day, have filed several bills ahead of the next legislative session that signal how far they’re willing to go in tackling illegal immigration. State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, filed a nine-bill bundle that included a proposal to require picture IDs at polling places.
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Criminal Justice
Witch Hunters?
Talking point No. 1 for an elected official facing an ethics investigation in Texas: Blame the politicization of the Public Integrity Unit, which is funded by the Legislature but operates out of the district attorney’s office in heavily Democratic Travis County.
Posted inState Government
The Party Line
This weekend, some 14,000 true believers will congregate in Dallas for the state Republican convention, the largest such gathering in the nation. Other than electing a chairman, the main event will be developing a platform — a manifesto meant to be the ideal vision for the future of the Texas GOP. Just don’t ask them all to agree to it. If they did, “it’d be a very dull convention and a very short document,” says Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson.
Posted in
Higher Education
Going the Distance
Increasing numbers of college students are attending classes, and even completing some degree programs, online — an innovation that could be welcome in an era of rising enrollments and shrinking budgets. But virtual higher ed has its critics, who say the distance learning model will never match what one lawmaker terms the “interpersonal Aristotle style” of education.
