Tomorrow, February 1, is the 150th anniversary, also known as the sesquicentennial, of Texas’s secession from the Union — the worst decision ever made by leaders of this state. By 1857 the electorate had fractured along the lines of states-rights extremists and Unionists, the latter amounting to around a third
Rumor has it that temperatures are going to drop rather drastically tomorrow. While most of us Texans enjoyed a spring-like Sunday, now we’re going to have to face the bleak fact that we are, indeed, still in the middle of winter. Who knew? A native Texan, I’m a fan of
Mid-way through a day of bleak testimony in Senate finance about impending cuts in the $10 billion range to public education, Sen. Florence Shapiro lamented that “the stars” are completely un-aligned with regards to Texas schools: state general revenue has dropped, property tax values have dropped — and the number
Speaker Straus may have a hard time filling the slots on House Appropriations. It’s no fun to serve on Appropriations when there isn’t any money. Not only will members not get to stash away a little money for their districts. They will also be under pressure to vote to send the bill to
Last week, having read Wayne Slater’s commentary in the Dallas Morning News that the governor’s emergency issue were Tea Party issues, I questioned the inclusion of the sonogram bill as a Tea Party issue. The Tea Party has thrived due to its advocacy of an aggressive fiscal conservatism and has
I ask this question after reading Wayne Slater’s commentary today in the Morning News: Rick Perry today dismissed critics who’ve questioned why he put tea party issues on “emergency” status for fast-track consideration while the Legislature’s big issue is a whopping budget shortfall. The Republican governor has made voter-id,
The Morning News reports that the Texas congressman is considering a run for the Senate. [I am having trouble with the link.] Paul is not going to be able to resist the chance to serve in the Senate alongside his son. If he runs, who is going to beat him? The guy with
State Rep. Aaron Peña of Edinburg, who recently changed the D after his name to an R, is forming a legislative Hispanic Republican Conference, which he hopes will “inject a dose of realism” into some of the session’s most divisive issues. Before everyone jumps to the comments section to be
Vegetarian Eating, Course Syllabus Discipline: Trailer Food Upper Division Spring 2011 Course Description It’s hard to believe, but a new semester has started, and students are sweeping in from across the state like surreptitious swallows (or, if you’re on
The two are the former Solomon Ortiz seat won by Blake Farenthold and the former Ciro Rodriguez seat won by Francisco “Quico” Canseco. Obama carried the Rodriguez seat by 51% in 2008 and the Ortiz seat by 53%. I’m surprised that anyone would bother to rate the competitiveness of these
She hosted as dinner tonight for legislative women (excluding senators, who were still in session), and told the group that she was running for lieutenant governor. This information is barely minutes old. (She had previously indicated interest, so it is not a huge surprise.)
Senate Finance chair Steve Ogden says that Senate leaders are considering naming a subcommittee of Finance to review tax exemptions. “In order to get to 21 votes, I’ve got to look at everything — including cuts, using the Rainy Day Fund and finding non-tax revenue,” he said today. “”Before it’s
A pork roll sounds like a school cafeteria main course that’s been chopped, pressed, and processed. It’s much better than that when executed by the pitmaster at Prause Meat Market. A whole pork shoulder is deboned then wrapped and tied in a roll before smoking. On this visit I
The State of the Union address is an occasion for setting the agenda for the future. Unfortunately for President Obama, his party lost the election, which makes the realization of that agenda next to impossible. He seemed to know this. His speech lacked lacked the usual elan. He identified four
Sen. Steve Ogden has been candid that the budget bill he proposed is not attractive: he says there’s no way he could get 21 votes to pass it. But the reaction to the Senate proposed budget filed this week has been met with a lot less anxiety than the House
On Saturday, the Austin American-Statesman published a piece by its humor columnist, John Kelso. For those who don’t know him, Kelso’s style is to be the cranky contrarian (his blog is called Kelso’s Cranky Corner) who likes to poke fun at politicians, football coaches, and just about anybody else. (Recently a
Yesterday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said he had an office pool going over how long the public testimony on Voter ID would last. I’d like to propose another pool: How many times will Voter ID sponsor Troy Frasier decline to answer his colleague’s questions and refer them to “expert witnesses”
The Voter ID debate will not happen today because (pick your favorite explanation): someone forgot that the Senate had already planned an hour-long ceremony honoring wounded warriors, there is a Democratic fundraiser tonight, or one side or the other couldn’t get their witnesses lined up, what with the short notice
I guess the reason that no one is making an ssue of complaining about Rick Perry’s ideas of an “emergency” is that we’re all used to this by now. Perry cares only about politics and feeding red meat to the base and rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies. That’s
You may remember from the first review that City Meat Market, in Giddings, makes their own sausage for the market as well as providing it to Snow’s. After trying it at Snow’,s we wanted a good comparison of not only the sausage but the brisket as well. I
How many rubber chickens have you choked down for a good cause? That’s too many, my friend. Here’s an excellent cause to support and the food is guaranteed to be amazing. On Saturday, February 5, Project Transitions will host a series of eighteen dinners in private homes throughout Austin to
Sixteen Democrats chaired committees last session. Four were defeated (Gonzalez-Toureilles, McReynolds, Homer, Rose). Two switched parties (Ritter, Hopson). The remainder are Gonzales, Coleman, Deshotel, Davis, Gallego, McClendon, Oliveira, Pickett, Strama, Thompson. Which D’s are likely to return as chairs in 2011, regardless of their previous assignment? Gonzales (Border & Intergovernmental
On Dec. 28, 2000, the Texas Senate elected one of its own to take Rick Perry’s place as lieutenant governor and Bill Ratliff was sworn in immediately. The brief ceremony, I wrote in the Febuary, 2001 issue of Texas Monthly, was the culmination of: “two years of intense, behind-the-scenes wrangling
As I wrote in a previous post, had Williams not resigned as chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, he would be removed as chairman today by the other two commissioners, Elizabeth Ames Jones and David Porter. And so it came to pass. This is why Williams resigned from the commission,
The way that things are shaping up in the House is that there not two but three “parties” of near-equal strength. There are the mainstream Republicans, the Tea Party Republicans, and the Democrats. On hot-button issues like border security, Voter ID, and the sonogram bill, the two Republican factions will
Speaking today with school finance experts, it’s clear that the proposed education budget cuts will wreak havoc on the current finance mechanism — but they also create a seemingly unsolvable political problem for those who hoped to pass a new school finance law. As Burka noted in his earlier post
I already know what some of you are thinking. “Cake balls,” you scoff. “That’s so 2009.” Well, it’s 2011, and Holy Cacao’s cake balls are here to stay, for a good reason. These beauties are moist, fluffy, and served in perfect little portions. If you’re a peanut
The public education budget cuts proposed in the 2012-2013 budget will very likely carry over into the next biennium. (For people like me, who tend to get confused about which biennium this is, the rule is that the Legislature writes the budget in odd-numbered years, and the biennum starts with
If the purpose of the House budget bill was Shock-and-Awe, it achieved maximum success: House Democrats wasted no time identifying the many, many Doomsday scenarios that would result if state programs are cut to fit available revenue. No room for grandma at the nursing home. No financial aid for worthy
DEWHURST’S ADDRESS I thought Governor Dewhurst’s speech was all wrong. It was too long, too partisan, too campaign oriented. He had one foot off the platform on the way to Washington. Sometimes the things he said made no sense at all. Speaking of the early settlers, he said, “Those men
Tomorrow TEXAS M0NTHLY will post our February cover story about the 25 people who have the most influence in Texas politics. This is the fourth time in the magazine’s history that we have compiled such a list, the most recent being 2005, and the story includes a brief history of
Fiscal watchdog (and a few other descriptions) Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans raises the issue today of education spending and how much of every dollar should be spent “in the classroom”: [S]erious discussions must be had about the role of government, and expectations for the outcomes desired with each
Call me unadventurous, but I’d have to be three Shiners in before I’d consider trying a calf fry. Same goes for liver and onions, or caviar, or sweetbreads. I guess I wouldn’t make a very good reality show contestant. But this week, staring me down in the kitchen like
This is not surprising, since Williams intends to run for the U.S. Senate and would have resigned at some point. But that may not be the only reason for Williams’ resignation. I was told by a former member of the Commission that Williams’ two co-commissioners, Elizabeth Ames Jones and David
I had a conversation today with a member of the Paxton forces about the events leading up to the caucus vote and the eventual election of Joe Straus. Once Paxton elected to withdraw from the race, the conservatives did not object to electing Straus by acclamation. But they were concerned
Senator Ogden’s speech to the Senate about the state’s budget challenges, which included his concerns about the target revenue system, the business margins tax, and Medicaid, caused me to wonder whether it would be wise to delay the budget debate until a mid-summer special session. But Senator Robert Duncan, a
Sen. Kirk Watson’s proposal to add transparency to the budget process by laying out the conference committee report for five days has gotten some traction. Lots of ideas are floating around about how to achieve the same result without adopting different deadlines from the House, for instance, laying out the
Patricia Kilday Hart attended the Dewhurst luncheon for the media today and filed this report: At Dewhurst’s luncheon for the press, reporters who had been checking their Blackberries during his remarks informed him of Hutchison’s announcement and asked: Will you run for her seat? Will you serve out your current
What do these folks have in common? Jim Hightower John Sharp Tony Sanchez Chris Bell Carole Strayhorn Kay Bailey Hutchison Bill White Answer: All of them saw their political careers destroyed by Rick Perry. (No, I haven’t forgotten Kinky. He wasn’t a serious politician.) * * * * Hutchison’s announcement
When the temperature drops a few degrees and it’s “winter” in Austin, I start craving pizza. There’s something about robust red sauce, crisp crust, and stringy mozzarella that recalls the warmth of summer and instant comfort. I started out my evening with Spartan by holding
In an interview with Burt Solomons, the House rules guru, yesterday, he identified two issues that members are concerned about. The first is chubbing. Jim Dunnam’s strategy to kill the calendar and prevent Voter ID from coming to the floor worked all too well. The strategy involved what amounted to
The Senate postponed its rules debate until next week over two issues: setting a special order for Voter ID and Kirk Watson’s proposal to require a 5- day layout of the conference committee report on the budget. Apparently, the Senate sees the wisdom of actually knowing what is in the
While I was researching Rick Perry’s position on sanctuary cities, I came across a Texas Tribune article by Reeve Hamilton and Matt Stiles on the subject that was published on May 4, 2010. The Tribune republished this article today. I recommend that readers access the entire article on the
As soon as the announcement was made that Ken Paxton sought to address the House on a matter of personal privilege, the air went out of the chamber. There could be only one reason for Paxton’s announcement: He was withdrawing his name for consideration for speaker. That is what happened.
Today’s Senate session cast in stark relief two different leadership styles: those of Governor Rick Perry and of Senator Steve Ogden, who was elected Senate president pro tempore today. Perry expressed his belief that the Legislature could produce a balanced budget with no additional revenues, noting that the public had
When senators meet to adopt Senate rules, Dan Patrick will likely resume his longstanding opposition to the two-thirds rule. As most readers know, the two-thirds rule is not a rule at all, but a Senate tradition of ancient origin that bills are not debated in the order that they are
Michael Quinn Sullivan sent this e-mail earlier today. It speaks for itself. I will reserve comment for the end of his letter. Despite calls from conservative activists, tea party leaders, Republican grassroots and Texas voters, the House Republican caucus voted in closed session this afternoon to endorse Joe Straus for
Yes, Straus won today, but his victory will not be certain until the nominations cease tomorrow and the votes are counted. And another candidate could be nominated tomorrow. Here is what is going on: Bryan Hughes has been calling the trial lawyers. He is trying to get the trials to
To all readers: Welcome back. We are on the cusp of what is likely to be the most difficult legislative session of our lifetimes. The state’s economic situation is perilous, and the poisonous political climate is even worse. There is little support for the things that government is supposed to
This is a YouTube video of Paxton speaking to a group of supporters. Here is what he says: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fknWnYMJhog If we reelect the status quo, I am convinced our budget can’t be addressed the way you want it, we’ll have higher taxes, and it will be hard to distinguish
