“Hugo received a stent after his heart attack and will recover at home for a week or so.”

Buried in the four-inch stack of amendments to the house budget bill is a subtly crafted ambush on the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney’s office. This is the outfit that investigates corruption cases involving public officials, the most famous of which in recent memory was Ronnie Earle’s dogged pursuit of Tom Delay in the TRMPAC case. Earle has moved on, but Republicans haven’t forgiven or forgotten. This session, Arlington Republican Bill Zedler filed a bill (HB 1928) seeking to move the unit out of the Travis County D.A.’s office and into the Attorney General’s office, which is to say, out of Democratic control and into Republican-held territory. Similar efforts in previous sessions went nowhere, and Zedler’s bill has yet to get a hearing.

But he may not need one to get the revenge Republicans have been seeking. That’s because one of Zedler’s proposed HB 1 amendments, a seemingly simple half-page item (on page 251 of the stack) moving funding for the Public Integrity Unit over to the AG’s office, contains what appears to be a cleverly couched sneak attack. (more…)

Tagged: bill zedler, budget, HB 1, state budget

From Sen. Hinojosa’s office:

Hugo Berlanga did suffer a heart attack.  Good news, he is in Spohn Shoreline Hospital for observation and is expected to recover.  This is as of 9 a.m. today (Wednesday).

Berlanga is one of a very small group of members who made the Ten Best Legislators list three times. I wish him a quick and full recovery.

Tagged: On the Lege, texas conservative coalition, wayne christian

King proposes to shift $1 billion from the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) to the Foundation School Program in HB 1. This will set up a particularly tough generational choice for Democrats, who must elect between health care for the elderly and public education.

The next several days of Texas House budget debate may be as much about the culture wars as state spending.

Pre-filed amendments to the three budget-related bills before the House contain limitations on private school vouchers, funding for Planned Parenthood and directives to higher education to fund centers for traditional family values if they provide funding for support centers for gay students. Debate is set to begin Thursday on House Bill 4 to erase a deficit in the current budget and on House Bill 275 to take $3.2 billion out of the state’s so-called rainy day fund. Debate is set for Friday and into the weekend on House Bill 1, a bare bones spending plan for the next two years.

Some of the pre-filed amendments may never be debated because there is a possibility that they are not procedurally proper for an appropriations bill. But they do show state spending is about more than just spending – or in this case cutting.

(more…)

Tagged: abortion, conservative coalition, craig eiland, gay, joaquin castro, Ken Paxton, Planned Parenthood, scott hochberg, state budget, state employees

From Tom Jensen on the Public Policy Polling Web site:

Much has been written about the weakness of the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate field but what I think might be most remarkable about the leading quartet of Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich  is that they’ve all become more unpopular and by quite a good bit since we started monthly national 2012 polling in April of 2009. The fact that the more Americans are exposed to them, the less they like them certainly does not bode well for their competitiveness next year.

* In April 2009 Huckabee’s favorability was +8 at 42/34. Now it’s -7 at 35/42, for a 15 point drop over the last two years. His net drop has been 25 points with Democrats, 7 points with Republicans, and 19 points with independents.

* In April 2009 Palin’s favorability was -7 at 42/49. Now it’s -22 at 35/57, for a 15 point drop over the last two years. Her net drop has been 19 points with Democrats, 18 points with Republicans, and 19 points with independents. (more…)

Tagged: Gary Johnson, George W. Bush, haley barbour, jeb bush, jon huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, mitch daniels, mitt romney, newt gingrich, oliver stone, Rand Paul, rick perry, Rick Santorum, rob johnson, ron paul, sarah palin, tim pawlenty

(Editor’s note: Every week, for the remainder of the legislative session, BurkaBlog will be publishing an original column by R.G. Ratcliffe, who was the state political reporter for the Houston Chronicle for twenty years. During those two decades, I’ve known R.G., who resigned from the Chronicle in February to work on a book, to be one of the most trusted voices in the Capitol press corps. I’m thrilled to have him posting here. His columns will offer a deeper take on one of the week’s top stories. –P.B.)

This session’s budget crunch has turned into a twisted episode of “The Biggest Loser,” the reality television show in which overweight contestants compete to see who can lose the most weight. At the Capitol, the question is, which parts of our state budget will lose the most money in the plans being floated to bridge the $27 billion shortfall. Who will be our biggest loser? Most of the attention has been on teachers, children, and the elderly in nursing homes. Rallies at the capitol and heavy coverage on the nightly news about the impending disaster these groups could face from state cuts have put them at the forefront of the debate. But as the House prepares to vote on a bare bones available-revenue-only proposal next week, there’s another, more often overlooked contestant on the show—Texas’ 154,000 state employees, many of whom could face effective wage cuts of up to 40 percent under current Texas budget plans.

Who are these folks? Well, they are child protection caseworkers, prison guards, tax auditors and rank and file bureaucrats. They work for the government. In a staunchly fiscal conservative, Tea Party world, these employees are often viewed skeptically. (more…)

Tagged: employee retirement system, health insurance, jim pitts, public sector, state budget, state workers, Texas house

Bill Murchison published this column on Dallas Blog. I am publishing it, with my responses, because Murchison attacks my own writings on the subject as well as making a gratuitous personal allusion. In an earlier version of this post, I erroneously identified Mr. Murchison as a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, based on information in his online biography. Mr. Murchison has not been associated with the paper for ten years and now writes for Dallas Blog and other web sites. I regret publishing the error.

A media storm over the future of the University of Texas – the academic, not the football part – abated last week after a day or two: leaving puddles all over the ground, nonetheless, and significant questions strewn about, such as, who says UT couldn’t stand some reforming?

The UT establishment says it couldn’t, that’s who; together with Texas Monthly’s Paul Burka and likeminded defenders of the modern academic commitment to research. The fear among these folk is that Gov. Rick Perry has declared ideological war on UT in the name of accountability and efficiency. Why – gasp! – the man wants teachers to teach more. He and his cronies on the board of regents suspect the academic product is becoming unaffordable for many Texans. Why not a cheaper alternative?, he inquires innocently. “[T]he moneychangers are in the temple, and there is no getting them out,” Burka warns, with a face – I presume – like Bernie Madoff at a parole hearing.

–It is not my intention to revisit the points I made in my column on this subject, “The Old College Try,” which was posted on the TEXAS MONTHLY Web site and appears in the April issue of TEXAS MONTHLY. My belief is that Texas has two flagship universities of national class, and that those who think that UT and Texas A&M need reforming should reflect on the wisdom of the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (more…)

And the award goes to [drumroll, please] Enrique Rangel of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal for his article complaining about the delaying tactics employed by Democrats during the Voter ID debate. Talk about media bias. Every sentence word is suffused with the implication that the Republicans have the right to pass their agenda without interference. Oh, those mean old Democrats. Calling points of order. The nerve of them.

The column follows. I will make some remarks in italics.

AUSTIN — It took the Texas House of Representatives almost a week, including a long day of debate on Wednesday, to finally pass a bill that would require voters to show government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot. (more…)