In case you missed it, in this week's Watson Wire (by far the best elected official email program ever in the history of email, for real) State Senator Kirk Watson gave an overview of the upcoming constitutional amendments we're voting on this November. Election Day is November 8, 2011.
Watson is Co-Chair of Texans for Prop 8, the campaign to pass Proposition 8. Good to see him advocating for an important water stewardship effort, as well as educating the voters on everything else on the ballot.
From the Watson Wire:
Major propositions
Proposition 8 - Water Stewardship: Just to reiterate, nothing's more important than a clean, reliable water supply. Proposition 8 will protect water quality in rivers, streams and aquifers, while also helping the state meet its long-term goal of using better conservation methods for almost a quarter of its water supply. It will be Texas' first statewide water conservation tool.
This proposition will let owners have their land appraised in much the same way as some owners who receive an agricultural valuation (generally resulting in a lower tax bill). Landowners would receive this valuation if they manage their land in a way that improves water quality and quantity. However, the law would only apply to people who already qualify for the agriculture valuation - meaning it wouldn't cost the state money, but it would incentivize land management practices that help the state's water supply.
Proposition 2 - Water Bonds: This would allow the Texas Water Development Board to issue continuing debt, with no more than $6 billion outstanding at any time, for projects that help the state and local entities improve the state's water supply.
More than 90 percent of the state is in moderate to severe drought right now. We need tools such as both Prop 2 and Prop 8 to meet our future needs.
Proposition 6 - Money for Schools: This gives the state flexibility in how it calculates money that's available to schools from the state's Permanent School Fund. It also allows the state to distribute up to $300 million more per year from what's known as the Available School Fund. All told, that translates into more money for Texas schools and schoolkids.
Proposition 1 - Tax Exemption for Disabled Veterans' Spouses: The state already provides a full property tax exemption to veterans who are completely disabled. This proposition would extend that benefit to the surviving spouses of those veterans as long as they continue to meet certain conditions.
Proposition 3 - Higher Education Bonds: This would let the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board issue debt to pay for student loans, subject to restrictions such as a maximum amount of debt outstanding at any one time.
Proposition 9 - Pardons and Community Supervision: This lets the Governor, with the written recommendation of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, grant a pardon, reprieve or commutation of sentence to someone who completes deferred adjudication community supervision.
Not quite as major, but still needed, propositions
There are also a handful of propositions that, for technical legal reasons, need to pass so that the state and its local governments can function more efficiently and accountably. (I hope that explanation is reassuring as you're trying to figure out why you need to weigh in on this stuff in the same way you help pick the President of the United States.)
Proposition 4 allows counties to issue tax-supported bonds to develop or redevelop certain areas within the county.
Proposition 5 lets cities and counties contract with each other without having to meet certain conditions.
Proposition 10 extends the length of an unexpired term-in-office that triggers the automatic resignation of some local elected officials should those officials announce they're running for something else.
(Tremendous initiative by State Senator Kirk Watson. - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
Earlier today, I delivered a speech declaring that it’s time for a medical school, teaching hospital and research institute in Austin. I also outlined the process I’m proposing to finally get it done after all these years, as well as the group I’ve put together to lead the effort.
Below, you'll see the text of the first part of the speech, along with links to other sections of it (for a full version, go here).
This is going to be a long effort involving a whole lot of people. But the economic and quality-of-life payoff, for Austin and all of Central Texas, would be enormous. I hope you’ll keep an eye on it, help with it, and join this community effort to make this long-sought vision a reality.
(A great piece from Austin's Senator. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
For 140 days, Texas' budget writers leaned on the glue and duct tape of gimmickry and denial, trying to patch up the state's rickety budget and school finance system.
Those in control of the Legislature waited until the last minute to finish their project. And as some of our state's seventh-grade teachers could have warned them, they didn't get it done in time. So now they're back in a special legislative session, trying to keep schools across Texas from shutting down next fall.
But let's be clear: The proposals now before the Legislature don't adequately fund our schools. Any theoretical good was undone by a stubborn refusal to put the priorities of Texas first - or keep the state's promise to fund Texas schools and our children's future.
The legislation attempts to hide a failure that dates back to 2006, when those in control cynically promised Texans a tax cut but refused to do the harder work of cutting spending or replacing the lost revenue. It opened a multibillion-dollar hole in the state's finances - one that we'd all have fallen into two years ago without billions of dollars in federal stimulus money.
But that bailout is long gone, and the state's about $4 billion short of what schools need to cope with more students and escalating costs. It's the first time in known state history that Texas hasn't paid for enrollment growth.
Faced with that $4 billion debt to our schools, those in control have come up with a novel scheme. They refuse to reform the broken funding system. They fail to relieve the pain of cuts, some of which are necessary, by using reserve funds that are set aside for just this sort of situation. They allow tax loopholes for special interests. And they compromise the education for a generation of Texas schoolchildren.
The bills before the special legislative session make the broken system permanent by ignoring promises made to local districts. They unilaterally redefine the state's obligation for funding schools and just call it the new normal. They attempt to cover up the state's unwillingness to meet its responsibility, throwing a rug over the cracked foundation of our state's budget.
So who's on the hook for the $4 billion broken promise? You are. Your kids may be packed into bigger classes, their teachers may be laid off, or your property taxes may go up. Unlike the Legislature, districts can't just push their obligations onto others. They have to be accountable.
Most Texas districts would lose money under that plan. Austin ISD alone (not counting another recent round of federal aid), would lose more than $90 million over the next two years.
The debate is simply over how to spread the pain among our children - choosing which students and schools will suffer more than others, and deciding which communities have to lay off teachers and which ones "only" have to eliminate important educational programs.
But the problems run much deeper than the special session or certain bills. They're products of a budget system that's been tainted for years by debt, diversions and deception. The legislation simply creates another deceptive, 10-figure deficit - even as the Legislature continues to divert around $4.5 billion from its promised purposes to make the books balance, and it blatantly misrepresents things like the state's Medicaid obligations.
Sadly, it's possible the only good thing about the special session is that, unlike the frenzied final week of the regular session, Texans can take a couple of days to see what's in the bills. They can talk with school and business leaders about what the bills would mean in the short term and the long run. They can write letters, testify before committees and make it clear that legislators must not break their promises to our schools, our children and our state's future.
So much for Democrats being irrelevant this legislative session.
No single bill has been passed, a first budget proposal was only just released, and a leading Democrat already has a legislative victory this session. It will prove a victory for all Texans; a victory led by the state's inconsequential major party.
The Texas State Senate passed its rules for the 2011 Legislative Session, and they're not much different from the last. One major exception exists, though. From the office of Senator Kirk Watson:
The Texas Senate on Wednesday adopted an important part of Senator Watson's Honesty Agenda for fiscal transparency in the state, voting to require a vital budget document to be public for 48 hours before senators finish their work on the Texas budget.
"This new window into the Texas budget is a good step forward," said Senator Kirk Watson, a strong advocate for budget openness and honesty in Texas government. "Today's vote gives hard-working Texans an important and essential tool to see whether the budget finally addresses the challenges they face. It allows them to make sure the legislature followed through on moral commitments that are critical to maintaining Texas' economic edge."
With the hardest budget challenge in modern times facing us this session, Texans will have an opportunity that they have missed in recent years. Two days of Honesty; Two days of Win. The opportunity for citizens to review our state's final spending plan before it is passed will be crucial. They'll be the most crucial days of this session.
Last night, Senator Kirk Watson hosted a virtual townhall with Mayor Bill White. What would have been a snap shot event, has turned into a multiple day conversation online. (If you have an hour, watch the full video.)
Funny thing about this event is the lies, mistruths and bad pro-Perry spin that is happening now that the event is over.
If you are on Twitter, you may have seen the back and forth between me and Empower Texas Director, Republican Michael Sullivan. It you read Republican blogs, you may have seen Rick vs. Kay and their deceptive, lying post about the turnout at the innovative virtual townhall.
The Rick vs. Kay post is the most interesting because of the comment, yet to be deleted, at the bottom of the post.
Brewsters Millions said
This is clearly all false. It's one thing to claim that a townhall wasn't a success, it's another thing to throw a bunch of bad data to make your case.
Ustream has a reporting lag. Seriously rookie mistake bro.
Rick Perry's campaign supporters have been fantastic and spinning the press of Perry's effective use of new media. Even though Bill White has more fans and interactions on facebook and twitter, Perry's inept campaign is seen as the online organizing juggernaut. There is clearly something for them to lose if White is effective in the virtual space. Maybe that is why Perry's campaign team and supporters (either organized or not) have quickly jumped up and down to discredit an innovative and effective virtual townhall.
So rather than relying on a campaign source, we got data straight from uStream.
From: Andy XXXXXXXX
Date: Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: Watson / White Ustream town hall in progress...
Yesterday's townhall had 897 unique viewers, a peak of 267 concurrent viewers that happened 31 minutes into the broadcast, and an average of 154 concurrent viewers.
Regards,
Andy XXXXXXXX
VIP Support
Ustream.tv
For early July and being limited to only online promotion, these are solid numbers. And like Bill White's massive following on Facebook, I expect to see a slow and steady increase over the next 100 days.
Update: As I was writing the post, Rick vs. Kay wrote an interesting retraction. They admit they were wrong and didn't post on any facts, but did take some time to attack BOR again. As we have seen a lot today, the latest Republican strategy is, when facts aren't on your side, yell loudly so people will pay attention to you.
(Reminder -- this is tonight at 5:30pm! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
State Senator Kirk Watson will host an online video town hall with Bill White on Monday, July 12th at 5:30pm. You can join the conversation yourself, submit questions, and enjoy a high-tech, low-key campaign chat with two of Texas' most prominent Democrats.
In a conference call with bloggers last night, Senator Watson explained his reasons for hosting the event:
"We wanted to spend some time this year to experiment and push to do different things with social media and new media. One of the points we made at the state convention was that in order to win in November, and govern effectively thereafter, we need to continue to build large and responsive online communities."
Both Bill White and Senator Watson have been among the most prolific adopters of new media tools this campaign cycle. White has built a massive Facebook following, more than 2.5 times the size of Perry's, and has organized rapid-response teams to fight back against Perry's attacks. Senator Watson -- already with his successful "Watson Wire" -- has pushed the envelope throughout the campaign season, starting with the Monopoly Busters fundraising drive and continuing with their "Texas Questions" series.
Key point: Texas Democrats are acting responsibly about our state's $18 billion budget deficit. Whether it is members of the 20/20 PAC, Senator Kirk Watson, Rep. Rene Oliveira, or Bill White on the campaign trail, we are the party of responsible budget leadership, while Rick Perry just wants to dig us further and further into reform.
The state budget crisis is a major campaign issue. But while we don't know who will be Governor next session, or which party will be in control in the State House, it is Texas Democrats who are leading the way to offer real solutions and thoughtful study to solving our state's $18 billion budget deficit. The 20/20 PAc joined the conversation about budget reform today, as reported this morning in the Austin American-Statesman's First Reading:
The Texas 20/20 PAC, a group of 10 Democratic legislators that calls itself “the House’s voice of moderation,” today will release a report on what states around the country have done to close their budget gaps. The author is former Deputy Comptroller Billy Hamilton, who was a high-ranking aide to Democratic and Republican comptrollers.
The 20/20 PAC is putting their stamp on the budget issue, in a pretty impressive way. The hire of Hamilton is a good move ot show they are being earnestly bipartisan, and not just political with their desires. With so much uncertainty going into the next session these sort of policy principles that cut across party lines are important. It's great to see the conservative House Democrats speaking out and trying to lead on this issue early on.
Other Democrats have previously called for responsible budget reform. Senator Kirk Watson has gotten in front of the issue, too. A recent article in the San Antonio Express-News, "Democrat says this may be right time for budget reform" mentioned the following:
Watson said before he'll vote to spend any of the $8.2 billion expected to be in the fund when lawmakers write the next two-year budget, leaders and lawmakers must first agree to budget reform.
[...]
Watson takes issue with tricks like the use of nearly $3.7 billion in levies ostensibly collected for particular purposes – from combating pollution to helping people struggling to pay their electric bills – being used instead to balance the budget. He's concerned about debt. He's alarmed over the continuing effects of the finance package that cut local school property tax rates without raising other state taxes enough to cover the cost.
Democrat State Representative Rene Oliveira is Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, the tax committee in the Texas Legislature. Rep. Oliveira has spoken in repeated news reports about the need for serious examination of tax exemptions. In one of the most recent stories, "Lawmakers take aim at items exempt from sales tax," we learn the following:
“There are some easy ones (exemption eliminations) that I think Texans and a bipartisan group of House members would support, but I think people need to have the reality check of what we are facing before they will look at this as an alternative to drastic cuts,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, whose panel has been studying exemptions. “Do I think a majority of the House is ready to say yes to this? No.”
Oliveira's plowing ahead with his work, which has included determining the policy reason for each exemption and whether that reason remains valid.
As the state's budget shortfall widens—to as much as $18 billion, or about 20% of the next two-year budget, according to the state legislature's latest analysis released earlier this month—critics are complaining that Mr. Perry's policies have left the state with little room to reduce spending.
"There is no way that they will be able to come up with $18 billion in cuts," said Eva DeLuna Castro, a senior budget analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income Texans. "They would have to shut down our prison system."
Whether it is the House Mmebers of the 20/20 PAC, Senator Kirk Watson, Representative Rene Oliveira, or Bill White on the campaign trail, Democrats are stepping up to show responsible budget leadership while Rick Perry writes a self-help book for extreme right-wing Republican wannabees.
Yet another reason why I'm proud to be a Democrat.
Join all of your favorite Democrats today as we kick off the 2010 Coordinated Campaign! There's a lot of fun to be had with the TCDP this cycle, and we want you to be a part of it. Come on down to HQ, meet the candidates, and help us contact the voters that we need to win this November!
2010 Coordinated Campaign Kick-Off Featuring Bill White, Candidate for Governor
Congressman Lloyd Doggett
State Senator Kirk Watson
and many more!
Saturday, June 12th, 2:00-5:00 p.m. Coordinated Campaign Headquarters
605 West 13th Street, Austin, TX
Meet your candidates, learn about why every one of these races is important to the future of Texas, and find out how you can get involved and make a difference!
If you can't make it, we'll have a live video stream of the event, starting at 2:00 p.m. below.
Austin Senator Kirk Watson, having offered his endorsement previously for John Lipscombe (County Court at Law #3), Mindy Montford (299th District Court), and Kurt Kuhn (3rd Court of Appeals, Place 4), yesterday confirmed his support for Amy Clark Meachum over Jan Patterson in the 201st District Court primary.
From his statement by email.
For that system to work, we need judges that live up to the highest ideals of impartiality. We need judges who will preside so that attorneys and the citizens they represent feel welcome and comfortable, not intimidated. We need smart, hard working people willing to serve.
I'm endorsing Amy Clark Meachum for District Judge in the 201st District Court because I believe she will be that kind of judge.
Amy knows the law, has an even temperament, an open mind, and has earned the respect of her peers.
Amy graduated SMU Magna Cum Laude, was accepted to UT School of Law, made the Texas Law Review, graduated with honors, has become a published author and speaker on legal ethics, and made partner at an established Austin law firm by the time she was 31. (And, for those keeping score, she did it while raising twin girls and a little boy.)
Given that Watson denied Jan Patterson's request forwarded from Rick Perry's office to seek appointment to the 299th District Court, it was never expected he would endorse Patterson, but what wasn't certain is if he would actively support a challenger. That question is now answered as Meachum captures an important validator to her campaign.
(More online outreach from our Austin Senator -- who also joined Twitter this week. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
There’s one New Year’s Resolution I won’t have any trouble with this year.
I’ll be running. Plenty.
. . . For re-election, at least. Yeah, for those keeping track, I’m also registered to run my first half marathon of the year on January 24th.
But it’s the running for re-election that has me focused right now.
Last Monday was the deadline to file for a slot on the 2010 election ballots. I’m proud and honored that I’m unopposed in the March Democratic primary.
But I’ll face two opponents in the November election.
Go here to read the rest of this week's Watson Wire.Also, I just joined Twitter (don't ask me why). Follow me at @KirkPWatson, or on Facebook..
