The Texas Senate's budget is going nowhere fast. The body's finance committee voted out a budget package that pulled $3 billion from the Rainy Day Fund to help plug the state's revenue shortfall. Committee Chairman Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) told reporters today that it was the reason for having...
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Just call Texas Senators "rainy day people." (And bonus points to you, if you remember that Gordon Lightfoot tune!) The finance committee of the Texas Senate approved a budget bill Thursday...
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Yes, the state budget is a big deal at the Texas Capitol. So are the projected revenue shortfall, the potential cuts to state services, education support and on down the line. But there's another major task lawmakers will tackle this session: Redistricting. With the 2010 Census data and a...
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The course of true love, they say, doth never run smooth. The same can be said for crafting the Texas budget this year. While the budget ball is squarely in the state senate's court, coming up with a spending plan that will pass that body and be remotely palatable to House Republicans is not an...
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On Friday, the Texas House will take up the the one bill they are required to pass in a regular legislative session: the state budget. The proposal, initially put forth in January by House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie), doesn't differ that much from the bill that House members...
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Among the many topics arising from the state's budget shortfall has been how much to cut state support of education. But some Republican state senators are working on ways to make the cuts to education less severe. ...
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The State of Texas will use part the so-called "Rainy Day Fund." a way to plug the $4 billion budget gap for the remainder of this fiscal year. But that still leave the shortfall in the 2012-2013 biennial budget to knit together....
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Many reporters will follow the Twitter accounts of various political leaders, like Governor Rick Perry. Sometimes the tweets are fairly mundane, but every so often there's that little gold nugget that develops into a story. But not everyone can plug into the governor's Twitter. Some reporters...
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Between the budget shortfall, redistricting and a host of other front-burner issues, the Texas Legislature may also see some ethics reform legislation surface in the next session....
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Big receptions hosted by members of the Legislature in the month-plus since the election have been fairly common. Some of the guest lists have been things in common, too....
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There's a little more than a month to go before the start of the 2011 Texas Legislative session. The wrangling behind the scenes, anyway, has so far focused on who will be elected Speaker of the House come January 11th....
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Republicans have 99 seats in the 2011 Texas House. They're 16 votes away from having an even 100....
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Texas Republicans established a post-Reconstruction record Tuesday night, claiming 99 of the 150 seats in the state House....
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The "Texas Political Parlor" looks back on the 2010 campaign before next Tuesday's election....
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