The ball is in the Senate’s court on a major tax relief deal after the House unexpectedly increased the price tag by $400 million.
Senfronia Thompson
Posted in
Energy
The Brief: July 18, 2014
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is on his way out in a few months, but on Thursday he moved to fill some key Senate leadership slots to help the chamber prepare for the coming legislative session in January.
Posted in
Health care
The Brief: June 26, 2014
On the eve of the Democratic state convention, Wendy Davis and friends commemorated the event that put the gubernatorial candidate on the national map.
Posted in
Health care
The Brief: May 27, 2014
Will Texas buck the larger national trend in Republican politics and go in deeper with support of Tea Party candidates and causes?
Posted in
Economy
Perry Issues More Than Two Dozen Vetoes
Gov. Rick Perry issued more than two dozen vetoes Friday, including a line-item veto that wipes out funding for the Travis County prosecutors who investigate government fraud and public corruption. He also vetoed a bill that would have had Texas law mirror gender wage protections in the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Lawmakers Urged to Protect Businesses That Hire Ex-Prisoners
Amid a broader legislative push to help former prisoners re-enter society, state lawmakers on Monday were encouraged to limit the legal liability of businesses that hire ex-prisoners.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Lawmakers and Judge Push for Legal Aid Funding
A Texas Supreme Court Justice and several lawmakers are pushing to raise the amount of money that can be given by the attorney general’s office to indigent legal aid services groups.
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Bidness As Usual
Despite Reforms, Elected Officials Can Still Lobby
While members of the Texas Legislature can no longer act as lobbyists before state agencies, plenty of lawmakers still manage to lobby local governments. Others find work that critics would classify as lobbying by another name.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Bill Looks to Adjust Medical Parole to Help Alleviate Prison Budget
As lawmakers try to trim the budget for health care for prison inmates, one bill aims to cut costs by re-examining a program that releases inmates deemed the oldest, sickest and most expensive.
Posted in
Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramshaw on the lioness of the Texas House, Dehn and Tan review 20 years of Rick Perry’s political ads, Murphy’s latest database includes the governor’s political accounts over the last decade, Aaronson’s visualizations of what was said in the biggest legislative debates, M. Smith on the woman in the middle chair at the State Board of Education, Galbraith on how the drought is forcing ranchers to sell their herds, Grissom has the story on a cattle rustler who’s asking the courts to give him an old-fashioned sentence, Hamilton covers Rick O’Donnell’s latest salvo at higher education, Aguilar on whether and how the sanctuary cities issue will translate at the ballot box next year, yours truly on Ron Paul’s candidacy and the candidate in his own words: The best of our best from July 18 to 22, 2011.