Texas Lunch Links: Tornadoes, Charter Schools and the Economist on Julian Castro

by: Nick Hudson

Thu May 16, 2013 at 00:00 PM CDT

TORNADOES: An estimated 10 tornadoes ripped through north Texas on Wednesday, devastating entire neighborhoods, injuring dozens and killing at least six people.

JULIAN CASTRO: The Economist has a political profile of Julian Castro and speculates that by 2018, he might have a real shot at Governor.

TERM LIMITS: The Texas House of Representatives rejected, by a vote of 80-61, a resolution that would have limited statewide officeholders to two consecutive terms.

WEST, TEXAS: The folks at the Texas Tribune have produced a great interactive map of the known 110 facilities that work with ammonium nitrate in Texas, along with esimates of those facilities' proximity to schools and hospitals.

Demand an Honest Budget

by: Kirk Watson

Mon May 13, 2013 at 07:42 PM CDT

Texas Senate Passes Bill to Allow Online Voter Registration

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 24, 2013 at 05:20 PM CDT

Yeas: Birdwell, Carona, Davis, Duncan, Ellis, Garcia, Hancock, Hinojosa,
Huffman, Lucio, Nichols, Rodriguez, Schwertner, Seliger, Uresti, Van de Putte, Watson, West, Whitmire, Williams, Zaffirini.

Nays: Campbell, Deuell, Eltife, Estes, Fraser, Hegar, Nelson, Patrick, Paxton, Taylor.

Voters with an unexpired driver's license or personal identification card will be able to go to an official state website where they will be able to register to vote online. The Texas Department of Public Safety already maintains records of most of the required information in order to register to vote and more importantly, maintains a database of signatures used on the cards they issue. The issue of a signature has been the stumbling point in previous calls for online voter registration and thanks to advances in technology is one we can now move past.

"Voting is a fundamental right and a public duty in our democracy, yet many Texans don't participate in the electoral process," Uresti said. "Online voter registration will encourage more people to participate by making the registration process easier and more convenient."

For more details and stats on online voter registration, continue reading below the fold.  

Texas Senate Unanimously Passes Bill to End Gas Chamber Euthanasia of Pets

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Sat Mar 30, 2013 at 11:30 AM CDT

Companion legislation HB 858 is being carried in the House with 10 sponsors & cosponsors and has already passed unanimously out of the Environmental Regulation Committee chaired by Rep. Patricia Harless.

Karen Brooks Harper, DMN: I was talking to one of the House sponsors of companion legislation about it, and he said there's been a little blowback by some in the rural shelters who say it's easier and more efficient for them to use the gas over the injection. But a growing national trend to ban the gas is based on studies showing it's cruel, not to mention expensive. Pennsylvania and Louisiana have both banned gas chambers, and 30 Texas cities have opted not to use them, either. That includes Dallas, lawmakers say.

While it may be true for some shelters in farther flung parts of Texas who still haven't gotten breeding or feral pet populations under control, it's time for this practice to end.

Interesting note- what was it like before the Texas Euthanasia Act passed in 2003? According to the analysis posted by the DMN:

"Prior to the Texas Euthanasia Act of 2003, Texas shelters were killing dogs and cats by drowning, shooting, clubbing, strangling, and by carbon monoxide poisoning from truck and car exhaust systems hooked up to makeshift plywood boxes. The 2003 law prohibited most of these methods, limiting shelters to two methods: carbon monoxide gassing or sodium pentobarbital (euthanasia by injection/EBI)."

Growing up in the Hill Country, I remember hearing about cases of pets in sacks getting drowned or clubbed or shot. At the very least there was an attitude that it was generally acceptable, something that feels to have been replaced by a more humane attitude.

Click here to read our previous coverage of this legislation on Burnt Orange Report.

Texas Lunch Links: Payday Loans, Death Threats and High-Stakes Testing

by: Nick Hudson

Wed Mar 27, 2013 at 11:59 AM CDT

PAYDAY LOANS: Rev. Gerald Green, Jr. of Dallas-based CitySquare proposes four specific changes to Republican State Senator John Carona's, "dramatically weakened payday lending bill."

GALLEGO CHALLENGED: San Antonio Express News is reporting that Representative Pete Gallego, the Democrat who was elected to Texas' 23rd congressional district in November, has an early Republican challenger for 2014.

EDUCATION: The Texas House voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to reduce the required number of high school end-of-course exams from 15 to five and to change high school graduation plans to emphasize career and vocational training.

GUNS: Texas would require its residents to acquire concealed handgun licences in Texas under a bill authored by State Senator Juan Hinojosa, Democrat of McAllen. Texas currently recognizes other states' handgun licenses.

RICK PERRY: Governor Goodhair called the Obama administration's decision to award a competitively bid grant directly to a Texas coalition of women's clinics, instead of Texas' Department of State Health Services, "a clear attempt to circumvent the will of the Texas taxpayers and impose their own values on the people of Texas." The coalition of clinics will serve more than 160,000 women.

WELFARE DRUG-TESTING: Texas' Health and Human Services Committee unanimously approved a bill that would strip welfare recipients of benefits for one year if they fail a drug test this week.

EAGLE FORD SHALE: South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas drilling operation had an estimated $61 billion impact on South Texas last year, according to an ongoing University of Texas at San Antonio study released at the Capitol on Tuesday. The study is being paid for by America's Natural Gas Alliance.

WHITMIRE SAFE: A prison investigator says that a death threat against Texas Senator John Whitmire from the Mexican Mafia was an unusual scam by a confidential informant. The death threat, which the Houston Chronicle reported yesterday, was the bright idea of confidential informant who hoped that recruiting and then reporting the conspirators would earn him cash or a reduced prison sentence.

FLASHBACK ON DOMA: Not a single Texas Democrat voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Fact Checked! Ted Cruz's Twisted Economic History

by: Nick Hudson

Sat Mar 23, 2013 at 02:10 PM CDT

In Sen. Ted Cruz's twisted vision of economic history, Ronald Reagan cured double-digit unemployment by cutting spending and reducing the federal debt, and Jimmy Carter was guilty of "out-of-control regulation."

In the real world:

• Total federal spending soared during Reagan’s deficit-plagued first term, and the national debt nearly doubled. His budget director later resigned and wrote a book criticizing Reagan’s failure to cut spending.
• And Carter signed landmark bills freeing airline, railroad and trucking rates from federal regulation, easing regulation of natural gas prices and eliminating federal regulation of interest rates paid by banks to small savers.

These are only a few of the disconnects between economic reality and Cruz’s oversimplified, often inaccurate attempt to paint President Obama’s record as the “exact opposite” of Reagan’s.

A Down Payment, Not a "New Normal"

by: Kirk Watson

Thu Mar 21, 2013 at 11:42 AM CDT

Yesterday, the Senate passed its draft budget for 2014-15. It passed overwhelmingly – 29-2. Obviously, most Democrats in the Senate voted for it. So did I.

Does that mean this session’s budget undoes the damaging budget cuts that our schools endured two years ago?

Does it mean there's a permanent solution to the school funding crisis?

Does it show that this budget makes real progress in creating honest accounting and paying down the billions in dedicated funds that have been diverted from their intended purposes over the years?

Does it mean that the state is making needed investments in Texans’ health and the Texas economy by securing more Medicaid funding?

Umm ... no.

This budget passed with many Democrats’ votes for one reason: it’s a start, a down payment on the change we need to make this session.  But no one should think our work is done.

I certainly don't.

The Good News

Even if it's a long way from perfect, there’s some good stuff in this budget.

The budget was put together in a very open, inclusive way. That's not been my experience with past budgets.

A chunk of the $5.4 billion that was cut from schools in 2011 has been restored. There’s substantial, meaningful investment in mental health programs. Most state employees will get a raise – and so many of my constituents who are state employees will tell you that it's been too long since they saw one.  The state's retirement systems for former employees and teachers also will see funding increases.

(It was a remarkable moment in the Chamber yesterday when the gallery, packed with retired teachers wearing red T-shirts, burst into applause as they heard what the budget would mean to them.)

And let’s just say it: As horrendous as the budget was in 2011, when the legislature slashed $5.4 billion from Texas schools, pretty much anything that didn’t take out the state’s hard times on its kids is comparatively good news.

But we wouldn’t have been for this budget if we’d thought this was as good as it’ll get this session.

The bad news

This isn’t as good as Texas can do. It just isn’t. I love this state with all my heart, and I know that Texas can do better than this budget.

The state has been sued by most of its districts over the school finance system. A state district judge ruled more than a month ago that the system isn’t fair, isn’t adequate, and isn’t even constitutional. This legislature could – and should – have been working to craft a permanent solution to this crisis. Instead, it’s waiting on a ruling from the Texas Supreme Court, as if the state might yet get off on a technicality.

The fact is that this budget doesn't offer a permanent solution to Texas' running school funding crisis. It maintains a broken, inadequate formula – asking Texas kids and families to wait for the critical investments they need and deserve. We rank 49th nationally in per pupil spending, and after you adjust for inflation, we're actually spending less money per-pupil than we were in any of the last three years.

Really, from the first day of this session, it should have been the goal of every legislator to restore the resources that were cut from our schools in 2011 and renew the state’s investment in its future. That’s still the goal, and there will still be ample opportunities to do that between now and Memorial Day. If the legislature fails to do that, this session will be remembered as a failure – as it should be.

The danger of the “New Normal”

I see the budget passed yesterday as the beginning of our work to do better by Texas and its future. What’s scary – what we need to fight – is the perception that this budget is all we need, or that it represents some sort of “New Normal.”

I worry that some legislators may consider this budget to be a new benchmark for what’s considered adequate or acceptable, even as teachers and students look for ways to do more and more with fewer resources, and Texas women, seniors and kids struggle to get health care.

Texas can, should and must do better by our schools, our kids, our people and our future – not just leave them all a little less worse off.

So this budget vote needs to set the stage for the changes we know we need: a permanent school finance solution that creates great schools, fundamental reform of the budget process, and major investments in health care, water supplies, transportation and Texas’ future.

Yesterday was a vote for progress and process. It’s going to take all of us – not just those who almost single-handedly cut $5.4 billion from our schools two years ago – to make the changes that will meet Texas’ needs, prepare its future, and lay the foundation for a 21st Century economy.

Texas Senate Votes 27-4 to Allow Voters to Enact Statewide Term Limits

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Mar 20, 2013 at 05:30 PM CDT

Republican Sen. Craig Estes had offered two amendments. The first, to include statewide judicial offices, failed on a point of order, and the second, to limit House and Senate members' terms, was withdrawn.

Term limits tend to draw the most support from the minority party in government as they benefit from the creation of more non-incumbent elections. In Texas is seems that even Republicans have gotten tired of the stagnation and lack of movement in the ranks with Rick Perry having kept a cap on upward political mobility. This is probably a good move for Texas as a whole and a reasonable compromise that keeps the system moving without wiping out the institutional knowledge in the legislature.

Michael Li has updates on companion legislation moving in the Texas House.  

The Legislative Session's Low Moment

by: Kirk Watson

Tue Mar 05, 2013 at 10:36 AM CST

Every session has its ups and downs, its highs and lows.

This session is no different, though the lowest point seems to have arrived early this session. It usually comes later – after short-sighted behavior, ridiculous lack of discipline, and terrible (albeit easily foreseen) outcomes.

This low point is my new high: I’m officially back to being fat.

I usually put on some serious pounds during a session. But I’ve porked up much earlier this year than ever before.

This is a session of firsts: the first time my pants have been let out before March; the first time I’ve eaten a sleeve of cookies by declaring to myself that “I deserve these” before I’ve even passed a bill out of the Senate; the first time I’ve stood behind my desk chair for a picture with a page to hide my belly (and the strained button on my coat); and the first time I’ve methodically eaten a box of beef jerky in an afternoon while telling myself it was okay since jerky has no carbs.

I’m way up, which means I’m sort of down.

A big fat falsehood

One of my biggest priorities remains ending the diversion of money that you pay for specific things like clean air, trauma care, or state parks, but that’s used instead to pay for other budget items.

I’ve written repeatedly about the dishonesty of this practice. I’ve worked session-after-session to curtail it. And I’ve even filed a proposed constitutional amendment this session to end this process with a big dose of openness and accountability.

My amendment does four things that I believe are essential to ending diversions:

• It puts this vital decision in the hands of Texans by allowing them to vote on the amendment.

• It enshrines these limits in the state constitution so future legislatures can’t simply write around them with a bill.

• It creates a responsible “glide-path” that gives the legislature more than six years to end this practice.

• It allows disciplined discretion that permits a supermajority of the House of Representatives and Senate to redirect this money, but only in the most open and transparent way possible.

I’m very proud of this legislation, but it’s not like my ideas were handed to me on a stone tablet. I’ll work with anyone, from either party, who’s willing to stop playing games and get serious about acknowledging this deep honesty deficit and what it will take to close it.

It’s time to get real

The problem, I guess, is that old habits die hard, and this is one of the oldest bad habits in the state budget. As I’ve said repeatedly, the budget is balanced with a toxic mix of debt, diversions, deception and denial, and it’s not clear that everyone’s willing to throw out those rotten crutches.

In 2001, the state diverted about $1.6 billion in dedicated funds. For the current budget, the total is about $4.95 billion, an increase of more than 200 percent. The state now diverts nearly as much in parks fees, clean air charges, utility bill surcharges and other fees as it collects in business taxes.

That $4.95 billion represents years of broken promises to Texans and spells out the size of the state’s honesty deficit. You simply can’t address this issue without at least coming up with a plan to pay down that debt or creating a mechanism to prevent budget writers from diving back into these diversions in the future.

New normal

That $4.95 billion total is a 10-figure indicator of how badly those in control of the budget have allowed this reliance on diversions to get. This isn’t a matter of just letting bygones be bygones. The legislature has to reckon with its past actions. It’s not enough to say, “We won’t let it grow any more than this.” That’s the equivalent of saying the system is too broken to fix.

It also isn’t possible to fix this deception without constitutional language ending it and a plan for paying back this debt.

Some may claim this measure of responsibility is too hard to live up to. They say they need discretion to write the budget. But “discretion,” and the abuse of it, created this problem, deep distrust among Texans, and distaste for these diversions and broken promises.

So those in control can’t simply say, “Trust us; we mean it this time.” How can anyone believe that this practice will end for more than a session or two without a constitutional provision short-circuiting it?

Besides, approaches like mine still allow some flexibility. Legislators could redirect dedicated funds with a two-thirds vote. They’d simply have to do it in the light of day, declaring fund-by-fund what they were doing and explaining why to their constituents.

That’s what I call “disciplined discretion.” It offers a real change, not just more promises. It allows taxpayers to trust the state by verifying that the legislature’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing. And it requires those in control to be honest about how they’re using taxpayer dollars while still allowing them to do what they need to do to balance the budget.

These diversions have been going on for more than 20 years. They now total billions of dollars. I think Texans will be willing to trust the state with this money again, but the state is going to have to earn it.

Four Promises, No Labels

by: Kirk Watson

Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 10:25 AM CST

With all due respect to Congress, nobody’s nailed down the “politics at its worst” thing quite like Texas’ State Board of Education.

Our board has one policy area to not screw up: what kids learn in Texas schools. And yet, for years, it’s been wrought by conflicts that have been initiated, in my estimation, by folks who care more about propagating what they themselves believe rather than what kids actually need to know.

The dynamics have gotten so bad that two legislative sessions ago, in 2009, the Senate actually busted the Governor’s appointee to chair the board. Last session, there was so little support for the Governor’s chair that she didn’t even get a vote. There's even a PBS documentary about it called "The Revisionaries," which you can watch online until Feb. 27.

Well, yesterday, the Senate Nominations committee, on which I’m the only Democrat, took up the nomination of Barbara Cargill, the third nominee for SBOE Chair that the Governor’s given us in the last three sessions.

And the committee recommended her confirmation. Unanimously.

Why vote yes? Find out below the jump.