We’re not surprised by this, right? Amarillo Sen. Kel Seliger offered a redistricting bill to the Senate State Affairs Committee that would formally adopt interim maps drawn by a federal court in San Antonio last year. The maps for Congressional, state Senate and House districts were used for the 2012 election while a federal court [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Kirk Watson’
Here come the craft beer bills
From Brewed and Never Battered. Senator Kevin Eltife (R-District 1) introduced bi-partisan legislation along with Co-Authors, Senators Brian Birdwell (R-District 22), John Carona (R-District 16), Eddie Lucio (D-District 27), Leticia Van de Putte (D-District 26), Kirk Watson (D-District 14), and John Whitmire (D-District 15) to modernize the state’s alcohol regulatory system to make more competitive Texas’s small, [...]
White Ds and non-white Rs
A few points to make about this. White Democrats are an increasingly vanishing species in the Texas Legislature, where there will be only 10 when the new legislative session starts in early January. The face of the Legislature has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past 25 years, and the state’s rapidly changing demographics are [...]
The Constitutional amendments
In addition to all of the local races that will be on your ballot next month, there are ten Constitutional amendments up for ratification. Unlike some previous years, and somewhat surprisingly given the divisive and ideological nature of the session, there are no particularly high profile or controversial measures on the ballot. (Proposition 2, which [...]
This is an excellent time to cut funding for fighting wildfires
That’s exactly what the Republicans did in the budget that came into effect last week. Cash-strapped state lawmakers – led by Gov. Rick Perry’s stand against raising taxes or dipping too deeply into the state rainy day fund – cut appropriations for the Texas Forest Service even as they had to dig for more money [...]
Thanks for helping us balance the budget, fishermen
The Chron’s Shannon Tompkins explains how budgetary shenanigans have an adverse effect on Texas’ hunters and fishers. Every year, tens of millions of dollars in hunting and fishing license fees are left sitting in the state account used to fund Texas wildlife, fisheries and boating programs. Those millions of dollars in Fund 9 account balances [...]
TV recycling redux
Back in 2009, the Lege passed a bill that would have required television manufacturers that sell TVs in Texas to set up a recycling program for old sets. This was modeled after similar legislation passed in 2007 for computers and computer manufacturers. Unfortunately, the bill was vetoed by Rick Perry despite assurances from his staff [...]
More on the budget deal
From the Statesman: The agreement is hinged on the House passing a so-called fiscal matters bill, Senate Bill 1811, that would free up money to help pay for the $3 billion in additional spending to which the House negotiators agreed. “Once they get (SB) 1811 passed, I think we’ll resume deliberations on the budget, and [...]
“Sanctuary cities” bill lives again
This is why no bill is truly dead until sine die. In another surprise move by the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee, Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, made a motion to reconsider a vote the committee took Wednesday that replaced the original language of House Bill 12, the sanctuary cities legislation. It would prohibit [...]
Senate redistricting map approved by committee
That didn’t take long. Rejecting pleas to keep most of Travis County in a single Senate district, the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting [Friday] morning approved a plan that will divide the capital city into four senatorial districts. The Republican-dominated panel also rejected an amendment to the plan that would have returned Austin-Bergstrom International Airport [...]
Senate redistricting hearing
So the Senate Redistricting Committee hearing was today. See if you can spot a theme here. Sen. Kirk Watson expressed his dissatisfaction with the map that was introduced by Sen. Kel Seliger. At a morning hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting, Watson blasted the proposed Senate plan as dividing historical minority constituencies in [...]
Senate map is out, controversy precedes it
Before we had a State Senate map, we had a brawl brewing over one proposed district on it. Accusing the state Senate’s Republican leaders of a “shameful partisan attack,” Sen. Wendy Davis said Tuesday that a new redistricting map for her Tarrant County senatorial district violates the federal Voting Rights Act by ripping apart a [...]
Senate fails to bring the budget to the floor
It started Monday when Senate Finance Chair Sen. Steve Ogden said he might pull same Rainy Day funds out of the budget in order to get more Republican (read: Dan Patrick) support for it. After some discussion about alternate ways of incorporating Rainy Day funds and some griping about the Comptroller, CSHB1 was brought up [...]
Senate makes progress on the budget
They still haven’t gotten to the actual budget yet, but they’ve passed a bill that allows for some extra “non-tax revenue” plus a bunch of accounting gimmicks, which makes their less-penurious-than-the-House budget possible. The Texas Senate, digging publicly for money while it battles quietly over a proposed budget, approved a “non-tax revenue” bill that would [...]
Dewhurst flips, then flops, on using rainy day funds
First he says he’s against it. [Lt. Gov. David] Dewhurst sounded supportive of the overall level of spending in the Senate plan, but voiced a preference for using what he calls nontax revenue items instead of the rainy day fund. Some of the supposed nontax revenue ideas that senators haven’t embraced include selling some state [...]
A win for the microbrewers
Woo hoo! Craft beer brewers came to the Capitol this session with a number of bills giving them greater latitude in getting their beers to customers. [Thursday], the House gave an early OK to one of those bills, allowing breweries to charge admission for tours, and include up to two six-packs of beers to give [...]
Solar bills advance
Bills relating to solar energy are moving forward through the Lege. Texas is the top-producing state for wind-generated electricity just 12 years after a legislative deal jump-started the industry. The Legislature is now debating whether Texas should provide a similar subsidy for other renewable energy sources that, according to proponents, would kick-start solar, geothermal and [...]
The state of the state
Is strong, according to Rick Perry. So strong, in fact, that we’re going to kick the legs out of social services, because clearly we don’t need them. When the state faced a budget crisis in 2003, Gov. Rick Perry’s office released a budget proposal that was full of zeros, stating that each agency would have [...]
Senate retains 2/3 rule
The Senate will mostly operate as it did in 2009, retaining the traditional 2/3 rule and the exception for voter ID legislation. Though there was still some heated discussion around the matter, which will likely continue as long as Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is in office. Though he lacked the votes to do away with [...]
The hole is deeper than we thought, the continuing story
You have to admire the timing on this. Texas collected $2.5 billion less in taxes in the 2010 fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, than the previous year, state Comptroller Susan Combs said in a new cash report. The tax collections were nearly $2 billion less than Combs predicted a year ago when she certified [...]
How big is the hole, Susan?
You’d think with all of the talk about the budget and the projected shortfall, we’d have heard an opinion from our State Comptroller, Susan Combs, as to just how things look right now. Especially given that Governor Perry has publicly dismissed the $18 billion figure that House Speaker Joe Straus and Appropriations Chair Jim Pitts [...]
Join Senator Kirk Watson & Bill White in Online Video Town Hall, Monday July 12
State Senator Kirk Watson will host an online video town hall with Bill White on Monday, July 12th at 5:30pm. You can join the conversation yourself, submit questions, and enjoy a high-tech, low-key campaign chat with two of Texas’ most prominent Democrats. They’ll be taking questions in real time during the town hall via Twitter, [...]
Business tax falls short again
Same story, next verse. The state business tax again comes due Monday, and no one is suggesting it will yield near the approximately $6 billion originally forecast. The tax is expected to bring in $4.3 billion this year. “I think it was set up to fail, and they succeeded,” said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, noting [...]
Of guns and kittens
Sen. Kirk Watson has the definitive response to the Rick Perry coyote incident. About all that’s missing is music by Ennio Morricone. Just go read it and you’ll see what I mean. Thanks to the Trib for the pointer.
Kirk Watson’s “Monopoly Busters”
I hadn’t written about State Sen. Kirk Watson’s Monopoly Busters drive before now – see here for his announcement of it last week. The primary goal is to decide which House incumbents will receive campaign contributions from Sen. Watson, but the secondary goal, which really may be the most important one, was getting more Texas [...]
From one Mayor to another
One week from today, we’ll be swearing in Annise Parker as our new Mayor. In advance of that, State Sen. Kirk Watson, who was once the Mayor of Austin, offers a few words of advice to the Mayor-Elect. Not that there’s likely to be any shortage of that, but I thought it was worth mentioning [...]
Roundup and reaction to White’s announcement
Bill White isn’t officially a candidate for Governor yet, but he’s already picked up endorsements from State Sens. Kirk Watson and Eliot Shapleigh. I feel confident that many more such endorsements will follow, perhaps even before he commits to the race. For now, at least, the other Democratic contenders for Governor are still in the [...]
Buckle up back there
Texas’ seat belt law is about to change. Texas law already requires buckling up in the front seat, and starting Sept. 1, it’ll be the law to do so in the back seat, too. The change affects people 17 and older; those 16 and under are already required to wear a seat belt in the [...]
Kirk Watson not running for Governor
Phooey. There’s been a lot of speculation about my plans for the next election. Well, I’ve decided what I’m going to do, and I want to announce it to you all first. I will run for re-election to the Texas Senate in 2010. While I consider Tom Schieffer to be an acceptable candidate for Governor, [...]
Draft Kirk Watson
Draft Kirk Watson – that’s pretty much all you need to know. If you’re at all interested in seeing Sen. Kirk Watson run for Governor, this is the place to let him hear about it.
Two billion dollars
Governor Perry’s grandstanding rejection of the federal stimulus money for unemployment insurance is going to cost us all more and more. Texas is preparing to borrow as much as $2-billion to pay for unemployment insurance benefits. That’s what the chairman for the Texas Workforce Commission told KERA in a recent interview. KERA’s Shelley Kofler reports [...]
Watson on unemployment
State Sen. Kirk Watson reviews the bidding on how the state of Texas has handled its unemployment issues. As was noted during this past legislative session by Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken (who was appointed by the Governor and once led the Texas Republican Party), unemployment assistance is not a welfare program. It exists to [...]
We’ll know who’s running for what soon enough
Matt Glazer notes a Capitol Inside piece that suggests that State Sen. Kirk Watson is staying put, and that Houston Mayor Bill White will shift gears and run for Governor instead of Senate. As one who expected him to run for Governor, I can’t say I’d be disappointed by that turn of events. But the [...]
Parker reports $800K raised for Mayoral race
Tomorrow is the deadline for filing campaign finance reports for City of Houston elections. In the meantime, expect campaigns that did well in that department to announce their results ahead of time. One such announcement comes from the Annise Parker campaign, which proclaims over $800,000 raised for the six-month reporting period. From their press release: [...]