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.
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Economy
Roads Funding Plan Draws Debate on State’s Piggy Bank
Two days after Gov. Rick Perry added transportation funding to the special session agenda, the Senate Finance Committee debated a bill that would increase road dollars by slowing the flow of money into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
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Criminal Justice
Gallego Wants Combs to Update Study on Immigrants’ Fiscal Impact
U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, is asking the state comptroller to update a study on the fiscal impact of Texas’ population of undocumented immigrants.
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Economy
Amid Criticism, Perry Defends State Budget
Gov. Rick Perry is pushing back against conservative critics who say the state budget is growing too fast. Perry is still analyzing the budget legislation, but his defense of it was the clearest signal yet that he plans to sign the two-year, $197 billion appropriations bill into law.
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Economy
Perry Takes Job Raid, Ad Buy to the Big Apple
Gov. Rick Perry will start spreading the news of his state’s strong economy to the Big Apple on Monday. A $1 million ad campaign, dwarfing previous buys in California and Illinois, is aimed at convincing businesses to bring jobs here.
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Economy
Newsreel: Special Session, Redistricting, 2014 Elections
This week in the Texas Weekly Newsreel: Now that the regular legislative session is over and the special session is under way, the focus has turned to who may be running for office in 2014, and to another round of redistricting.
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Economy
TribLive: Patrick and Watson on the Budget
At Thursday’s TribLive conversation, state Sens. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and Kirk Watson, D-Austin, explained their different votes on the state budget.
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Criminal Justice
Report: Immigrants’ Economic Strength in Texas Increases
The number of naturalized citizens in Texas is on the rise, as is the purchasing power and economic output of the state’s native-born and immigrant Hispanic and Asian populations, according to an Immigration Policy Center report.
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Economy
Senators Hope to Revive Plan to Fund Roads
A plan to fund Texas highway construction by diverting half of the money that currently feeds the state’s Rainy Day Fund could find new life in a special session.
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Criminal Justice
The 83rd Lege’s Regular Session: What Happened and What Didn’t
Lawmakers raced to get several bills passed before the 83rd Legislature’s regular session ended. And with Monday’s announcement of a special session, their work isn’t done. Here’s a look at the deals reached and the measures that fell short in the regular session.
