Category Archives: Budget ballyhoo

The school finance lawsuit is perking along, with the plaintiffs still putting on their case. Former State Sen. and Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, one of the authors of the 1993 “Robin Hood” law testified that Robin Hood would still be … Continue reading → Continue reading →

About damn time. After months of increasing pressure, Gov. Rick Perry on Monday approved spending $561 million to restore some of the cuts made last year in health care for the poor. The money will reduce by half the estimated … Continue reading → Continue reading →

What do you do when you promise to cut your costs but you don’t want to actually cut them? Transfer them to another department and claim it as savings anyway. Gov. Rick Perry last year ordered state agencies to reduce … Continue reading → Continue reading →

And the latest school finance lawsuit is set to begin today. The trial before state District Judge John Dietz of Austin, expected to last six to seven weeks, could put more pressure on lawmakers to increase spending on education or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Who could find fault in the new state policy that bans fast food from Texas schools? Would you believe PTOs? When school opens across the state next month, Chick-fil-A, Pizza Hut and other popular fast food vendors will no longer … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The elephant in the room during the whole school finance reform mess has been a lawsuit by a bunch of school districts, HISD included, which charges the state with not meeting its funding obligations. Today a motion by the state … Continue reading → Continue reading →

That sound you hear is the last dying breath of a special session on school finance reform. The Texas school funding crisis should be addressed along with a slew of other state budget demands during the Legislature’s regular January meeting, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good riddance, if you ask me. Deputy Commissioner of Health and Human Services Gregg Phillips, a lightning rod for critics of the state’s massive social services overhaul, said Friday he is resigning. “I didn’t anticipate this effort on my part … Continue reading → Continue reading →

With the odds of another special session on schol finance dropping by the day, State Sen. Florence Shapiro is making one last try to get things done. The plan would cut local school property taxes by 35 cents and replace … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Meant to post this earlier – Comptroller Strayhorn is calling for an audit of the state’s Child Health Insurance Program. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn called Monday for a federal investigation into overpayments to a Children’s Health Insurance Program contractor that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I guess they aren’t making all that much progress after all. With state leaders still unable to agree on a new way to pay for the public schools, Gov. Rick Perry is dimming the prospects for another special session on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Yellow Dog Blog, quoting from Capitol Inside, and Alan D. Williams, citing this Morning News story, think Governor Perry might call another special session in July where it will overlap the Democratic national convention. That would screw a number of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has called on Governor Perry to call another special session on school finance reform. “What I’m worried about is if we don’t get to school finance until the regular session, we’re going to have a lot … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Perry: Special session possible this summer AUSTIN — As lawmakers discuss changes to the way the state pays for public schools, Gov. Rick Perry said today there is still a chance for another special session on the issue this summer. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Governor Rick Perry says he knows how the State Supreme Court justices are going to vote on a school finance reform lawsuit. One of those justices says oh, no, you don’t. If Gov. Rick Perry thinks he knows how the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m more in link mode than analysis mode right now, but I trust that this article doesn’t need a whole lot of comment. Gov. Rick Perry recently predicted, in a private meeting in Dallas, that a lawsuit challenging the state’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

If you thought my world was collapsing when I realized that John Lopez was making sense, get ready for another tremor as I confront the notion that Tom Craddick is making sense. Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick said Friday that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This AusChron article is about a celebration of the Ardmore exodus by House Dems, but it contains an interesting nugget about the sure-to-be-revisted battle over gambling. Austin Rep. Dawnna Dukes echoed [Waco Rep. Jim] Dunnam’s judgment of the [special] session, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Apparently spending another $1.7 million on the Special Session to Nowhere wasn’t enough. We’re now giving a lobbying firm for the gambling industry a cool quarter million bucks to write a slot machine law for us. During a Sunset Advisory … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Somebody cue up Don Meredith singing When The Party’s Over: AUSTIN — The Texas Legislature signaled the full-scale failure of the special session on school finance today by taking final adjournment with two days remaining in the 30-day session. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

What more can you say? Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst surrounded himself with a bipartisan group of senators on the Capitol’s south steps Friday as he announced the special session on property tax relief and public school finance has apparently failed. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

No real news coming out of the Senate. Even these two articles in the AusChron have no new insights, though they do predict no action by the 19th – in fact, if the Quorum Report is to be believed, they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Will they or won’t they take action in the Senate on school finance reform? Maybe. The Texas Senate continued drifting like an iceberg Tuesday, taking a long time to do very little in public while nine-tenths of the school finance … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via email from a reader at Rice, there will be a town hall meeting at Rice University on Wednesday, led by State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, to discuss school finance reform. Click the More link for time, place, and details. Continue reading →

I suppose no idea is ever truly dead as long as Lege is still in session. What else can you say about the revived and expanded slot machine proposals now working their way through the Senate? Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Steven Pearlstein explains what the problem is with the horse racing industry. Even as interest in horse racing has increased thanks to “Seabiscuit,” satellite broadcasts and Internet betting, attendance continues to decline. Most tracks barely break even, and many, like … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Senate is saying they’ll probably need another session to come up with a plan that can be passed by both chambers. “We are not under any time constraints. We don’t feel May 19 is forcing us to make a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now that the Senate is trying to figure out what to do with the dead raccoon the House left on its doorstep, the question must be asked: Will there be a second session if nothing happens in this one? The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now that the House has punted, the Senate is trying to figure out what to do with the mess they’ve inherited. “They didn’t leave us much to work with. They may as well have sent us a piece of paper … Continue reading → Continue reading →

From Patrick in the comments to this post: I bet Dennis Franchione is breathing a little easier now the Gov. Perry has set the new standard for the worst shutout ever laid on an Aggie. Dude. We are not worthy. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

OK, I take it back. I’m not going to bother analyzing the current House bill, which was originally supposed to be on school finance reform but which is an unrecognizable mass of tax tradeoffs that no one likes and everyone … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m going to try to pick up some of the tatters of the most recent budget “plan” from the House and make something coherent out of it a bit later, but for now, take a moment to digest this story, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s pretty much official – gambling is dead. Everyone knows the votes aren’t there. And that new business payroll tax – dead, too. All of this pretty much guarantees that whatever eventually gets christened as The Bill won’t do squat … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As expected, the latest version of The Plan passed out of committee yesterday, though apparently no one expects it to survive in its current form. Some taxes, such as the imposition of sales tax on auto repair and the $1 … Continue reading → Continue reading →