The Legislature is getting off to a slow start but be ready to pick up the pace in the coming weeks. Staffers took a week off as they flocked to DC to watch President Obama’s inauguration but soon the Capitol will be back to business as usual.
Lawmakers are being careful not to bump into the spending limit set by the Texas Constitution. Since they have more funds to work with this year, some legislators are looking to restore some funding cuts and dip into the Rainy Day Fund. Texas’ unemployment rate has dropped for the fourth month in a row.
Education Commissioner Michael Williams testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee and stated Texas schools need $22 million to fulfill state and federal testing requirements. He also asked legislators to restore the $2.6 million cuts in the TEA’s administrative budget. Senators questioned his priorities with standardized testing, asking if students were being tested too much.
The contentious Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas is under investigation yet again as it was revealed that inflated overhead costs were paid mostly to a single well-connected lobbyist. Reform is underway for CPRIT and some proposed budgets have slashed total funding for it.
News of the Week
Texas Unemployment Rate Drops Again In December
The state’s unemployment rate fell for the fourth month in a row in December, capping off a drop of more than 1 percentage point in the rate since December 2011, the Texas Workforce Commission announced Friday.
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Spending Limit Could Make Rainy Day Fund Tougher to Tap
Several political observers well-versed in the state’s finances say that lawmakers could hit the state’s spending limit this session, complicating efforts to access the $11.8 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
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Moll: Legislators Should Be Careful With Our Money
Many are disappointed with the budgets unveiled by the House and Senate — not for the sake of taxpayers, who had hoped more streamlining and efficiencies would permit a decrease in state tax dollars expended — but rather because they don’t think the Texas Legislature is spending enough.
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Texas gambling forces rein in spending, wait for a better hand
The perennial push to expand gambling in Texas is back on this year, but proponents have tipped their hand by putting less lobbying money in the game.
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Budget process is about as clear as mud
House and Senate leaders noted their respective plans show an overall spending decrease from the current two-year budget, once they pay this fiscal cycle’s lingering IOUs. But that’s only because they are moving $6 billion off the books.
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Texas high school graduation rates at 78.9 percent
A new federal study shows that Texas’ four-year high school graduation rate climbed to 78.9 percent in 2009-2010, just above the national average — a stark change from previous data that suggested the state was among the country’s leaders in on-time graduation.
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Texas Schools Look for Guidance on Firearms Policies
A handful of schools are considering policies that would allow employees to carry concealed handguns. But despite the increased attention on firearms policies, there is not much research on their effectiveness — or clarity on what the law governing them allows.
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Senators Grill TEA Chief on Testing, School Funding
Williams testified at the Senate Finance Committee’s initial hearing on the $186.8 billion budget it released earlier this month, and among the commissioner’s requests were another $22 million to fulfill “state and federal testing requirements” and the restoration of a proposed $2.6 million cut in funding for agency administrative operations.
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CPRIT belongs to the people of Texas
CPRIT’s wealth has already been created. It was created by the productive citizens of Texas. What Perry wants to do is transfer that wealth into the pockets of private corporations.
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Cancer agency’s foundation’s outlays questioned
A little-known foundation created to support Texas’ $3 billion fight against cancer has operated with oversized overhead expenses, much of which were paid to a consulting firm run by a politically connected lobbyist.
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Anti-abortion legislation is on Rick Perry’s list
Gov. Rick Perry has told lawmakers that he expects more anti-abortion laws during the 2013 session to work toward his goal “to make abortion at any stage a thing of the past.” Anti-abortion activists have pledged to use every legal means possible to make obtaining abortions difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.
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After 4 decades, abortion still divides America
Abortion is one of the most intractably divisive issues in America and is likely to remain so. Unfolding events in two states illustrate the depth of the divide.
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Complaints about insurance at low ebb in Texas
Industry groups credit insurers’ good treatment of customers and use of technology for the drop, but a Texas consumer advocate said the low level of griping indicates that customers don’t believe anyone cares.
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Slow Start to Legislative Session Part of Tradition
Texas lawmakers are back at work Wednesday after nearly a week off, and they’ve got about 125 days left in their 140-day session. And while it might seem like a lazy start to their biennial meeting, it is, in fact, all part of the plan.
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Texas Attorney General to New Yorkers: Come on Down, With Guns
Last week, the day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York approved a broad package of gun-control measures that made New York’s tough gun laws even tougher, the Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, began running Internet advertisements in Manhattan and Albany asking New York gun owners to consider moving to Texas.
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Campus Construction High on Legislative Priority Lists
In 2011, to the chagrin of many university administrators, legislators declined to approve the financing of any campus construction projects. But comments from state leaders on Thursday regarding their higher education priorities may offer new hope for 2013.
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Weak Disclosure Laws Keep Public in the Dark
Texas voters finally got a real peek at the personal finances of their governor and lieutenant governor — after the two men decided to run for high federal office.
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