Category Archives: Budget ballyhoo

The House and Senate have agreed to a budget. I have to say, with all the other stuff going on, I hadn’t even realized that there was a danger of no budget agreement. There may be thousands of bills filed … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Another day, another story about how they’re still not quite there on school finance reform and how to pay for it. The prospects of a public school property tax cut passing the Legislature dimmed Wednesday as House and Senate negotiators … Continue reading → Continue reading →

You know the drill: Progress is being made on tax and school finance issues. Both chambers are committed, differences remain but we’re all confident, we know time is running out, blah blah blah. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Tom … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Though a bill to force a slowdown on the implementation of the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System (TIERS) died in committee, the rollout will be slowed down after all. From the Quorum Report: Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville) just amended a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

How desperate are they in the joint committees to pass something, anything on HB2 and HB3 to the floor of those chambers for a vote? Desperate enough to revive a bad idea from 2001 which is opposed by Lt. Gov. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Father John notes that a legislative attempt to slow down the full-blown launch of the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System (TIERS) is dead for this session, meaning there’s nothing to stop the billion-dollar project from rolling out statewide, ready or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

And speaking of our only Governor, someone woke Rick Perry up long enough to inform him that there’s a budget going on and that he may not like parts of it. Perry and his aides notified legislative leaders he is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Senate has come to an agreement amongst themselves on a framework for a tax plan, and they’re busy debating a school finance plan. You can read the articles to get the flavor of it, but the key point is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Time for another update on THHSC outsourcing…Father John notes that Accenture, the winner of the multimillion dollar call center sweepstakes (pending the lawuit, of course), is looking for office space in Austin. Sources pinpoint the 141,900-square-foot Southfield office building in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Legislative Budget Board has released its analysis of the Senate budget plan, and whatever improvements said budget may contain over the House plan, the same basic flaws still exist: it’s a tax cut for a few, and a tax … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Looks like our Lite Guv is a tad bit touchy about criticism of the Senate tax plan, at least from certain quarters. “There are a lot of lobbyists running around the Capitol today that are interested in protecting special interests … Continue reading → Continue reading →

And now the Senate has unveiled its grand taxation plan, which differs in a number of respects from the House plan and which may have some difficulties because of that. The Senate tax package, which would go into effect July … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Yesterday’s Chron noted that the Senate Education Committee approved a school finance reform plan which (as previously noted) include a less-ambitious property tax cut than they first hoped for. Buried deep in the story is this disquieting bit: Senators continued … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Kimberly Reeves has a nice article in this week’s Press about the upcoming privatization of many Texas Health and Human Services Commission functions. Did you know that a fundamental aspect of the privatization plan is to outsource a bunch of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember the days when the air was filled with promises from the statewide leadership that they would cut property taxes by one-third, maybe even one-half? Reality can be such a bummer sometimes. Texas property owners would get a small tax … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Meant to post on this earlier, but things got a little crazy around here: Here’s the latest installment from Father John on the privatization of Colorado’s Benefit Management System (CBMS), which is described in this Denver Post article as being … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A bill to cap property tax appraisals, Governor Perry’s self-proclaimed #1 priority this legislative session, is dead. “I’m disappointed in the vote. I don’t mind saying that,” Perry said. “This is not going to go away.” Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I confess, I haven’t been paying nearly close enough attention to the budget debates going on in both chambers right now. Inside the Texas Capitol and The Red State have some excellent analyses that I urge you to read. Eddie … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I know that there’s now bipartisan opposition to increased gambling this session, but we all know that it’s going to raise its ugly head again one of these days. There’s just too much money pushing for it, and too much … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Hallelujah. “We want to take gambling off the table this session,” said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He was joined by Reps. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, and Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. Gallego, chairman of the House’s Mexican … Continue reading → Continue reading →

State Rep. Garnet Coleman had a strong op-ed piece in yesterday’s Chron about the shortcomings of HB2, the school finance reform bill. Among other things, he noted the bill’s ideological underpinnings. Coleman’s web page contains a fuller analysis (PDF) of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Comptroller Strayhorn’s letter warning of fiscal imbalances in HB3 has provoked a strong reaction. “Maybe she is playing politics or maybe she and her staff are inept,” said House Speaker Tom Craddick, who added he was taken aback by the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Comptroller Strayhorn has released a letter (PDF) which criticizes HB3 for not coverning the proposed property tax cuts with alternate revenue. In Fiscal Year 2006, the bill raises $2.8 billion in new state taxes with no local property tax relief. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The first cut of a Senate budget is out. Senate budget writers today approved a $139 billion two-year budget that restores some cuts made to health and human services programs two years ago, increases salaries for state workers and state … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The AP takes note of the proposed 7.5% plastic surgery tax that came along with HB3. “This may bring in more money than oil,” joked Wick Allison, publisher and editor of D Magazine, which covers the Dallas fashion and party … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In addition to filing a complaint over the way that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission awarded its call center contract to Accenture, IBM has now filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas, claiming that there was a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I noted before that Accenture won the bidding to provide call center services to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Today in the Statesman, two State Reps are alleging that they had inside help. On Wednesday, Albert Hawkins, executive … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember the special session on school finance reform last year, when the House passed a shell bill to the Senate? It’s beginning to look to me like they did the same thing this year, based on comments like these. Senate … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Gird your loins, ’cause here it comes. Gambling interests have raised their ante in the Texas Capitol this session, spending millions of dollars on lobbyists who are trying to end Texas’ prohibition on casinos. Pro-gaming forces – advocates for bingo, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Quorum Report (PDF) documents the vote on the second reading/”passage to engrossment” of HB3 (there will be one more vote, as I understand it; the minutiae of House operations bogs me down sometimes). Most went along party lines. Those … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The awful House Bill 3 underwent a few changes but ultimately passed by a 78-70 vote. Here are some of the highlights, such as they are: [T]he House voted to include insurance companies in the new business tax. Insurers traditionally … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I know, I know, knock me over with a feather. A proposed $11 billion tax bill before the Texas House would create a new sales tax on bottled water, but the excise tax on beer, wine and liquor escapes any … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This says an awful lot about the state of our state government. Many of the proposals contained in the plan that could revamp the way Texas funds schools were penned more than a year ago by academics in California, not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Kimberly Reeves often highlights other people’s posts with the title “Good Blogging”. It’s time I returned the favor and point you to this example of darned good blogging on her part concerning the hash that the Republicans have made so … Continue reading → Continue reading →