After a week (or more) of animosity, House and Senate conferees have come to an agreement on one part of the budget. In the end, the sticking point was the System Benefit Fund, an obscure line in the state budget that has traditionally been a parking place for funds budget writers have used to assure certification of the budget by the comptroller. As Sylvester Turner explained it to me last night, the fund, which gets its money from a miniscule fee on electric bills, will continue in existence for three years. During that period, the money in the fund will continue to be accessible by families who need help paying their electric bills in the hot summer months, as has been the case in the past. Thereafter, the fund, and the fee, will go out of existence, which, as Tommy Williams said, is like getting a $300 million tax cut each biennium.
Read MorePoor David Dewhurst. He occupies what was once widely considered to be the most powerful office in the state. Now he is reduced to begging Rick Perry to help him pass his pet legislation so that he can have something to take to the voters. Dewhurst has had plenty of time after his loss in the Senate race to develop a legislative program, and now he comes along at the last minute to ask for special [session] treatment for his legislation.
Read MoreThey should have stamped "fragile" on the House budget package. That is how tricky it was to assemble. Chairman Pitts tried to explain to the tea party members that there was no money in SJR 1; it's just a vessel for moving future payments into the Rainy Day Fund for water projects. That didn't seem to mollify the tea party contingent, led by Van Taylor and Scott Sanford, that gathered at the back microphone. Some members worried that the rating services (Moodys and Standard & Poors) would be alarmed because there wasn't enough money in SJR 1. In fact there is no money in the bill, nor was there intended to be any. The money comes later, in HB 1025, where it will be drawn down from the Rainy Day Fund. It will still be necessary for citizens to vote on whether to approive SJR 1. If they don't approve it in November, the Legislature will be back at square one, and action on the water plan will have to wait until 2015.
Read MoreHaven't we seen this picture before? Speaker Straus performs well for most of the session, but when crunch time comes, he can't close the deal. His team has no cohesion (except for Geren), and there doesn't appear to be a strategy. So Straus falls back into his old persona of presiding rather than leading. It's happened every session he has been speaker. I wrote much the same story line a few days ago, ending with the prediction that Straus would end up putting Rick Perry in the driver's seat. That is exactly where we are headed. Just wait and see, Perry is going to eviscerate the restoration of the education cuts.
The Senate, of course, has its own problems. It's more cohesive than the House, but Tommy Williams has fallen back into his old House persona of losing his temper at a key moments. (In Straus's case, it's being in a canoe and choosing not to paddle.) Can you imagine what Bullock would say about this situation? Where are the giants when you need them? I'm not going to wax eloquent about the good old days -- they weren't so good as we might like to remember -- but at least they produced leaders who could close a deal when they had to. Oh, and here's another prediction: SB 11, the drug testing bill that caused so much drama and comedy last night in the House before being killed at midnight, will come back in the special session. What a mess!
Read MoreUPDATE: The Nominations Committee has approved all three nominees the UT System Board of Regents. The full Senate will take up nominations next.
I walked in the east door of the Capitol yesterday with Senator John Whitmire. He asked if I was going to nominations. I said I was. Then he said, "I told them [the nominated regents], 'Don't even sit down. I know you're on a mission. And you're going to hurt your [reputation] very badly.'"
Kirk Watson carried the questioning in the early going. He got the candidates to agree that they cannot fire the president unilaterally, that the decision to initiate the dismissal of a president belongs to the chancellor alone. (For some background, read Jake Silverstein's exclusive interview with Chairman Gene Powell here.)
Read More