Legislature Adjourns Sine Die, Refuses to Pass Top Perry Priority

by: Matt Glazer

Mon Jun 01, 2009 at 09:31 PM CDT

Here is the long story.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Insurance are under threat of sunseting before the next regular legislative session.

The next session won't start for a little under 2 years, but both agencies begin the sunset process in a little over a year and a half.  The gap required legislators to discuss a Sunset safety net to fix the gap.

The House put a quick and dirty solution together and voted out HCR 291.  HCR 291 was the proposed solution to keep TDI and TxDOT operating until next session since HB 1959 didn't get through the deadlines.

When the Republican led Senate couldn't figure out what to do in response to the Republican led House, Republican Troy Fraser made the motion to simply adjourn the Texas Senate Sine Die without fixing the problem.

According to Quorum Report, Leticia Van De Putte opposed the idea and told her colleagues in the Senate exactly what she thought.

San Antonio Democrat Leticia van de Putte was not satisfied with the response.  She pointed out that the Department of Insurance is also in danger of being sunsetted.

"What happens to consumers should be leave here with out authorizing the continuance of the Texas Department of Insurance (and TxDOT)?" Van de Putte asked.

[...]

"I'm afraid that we are shirking our responsibility. Just because the House has acted irresponsibly, does that mean they have to drag the Senate into it, too?" Van de Putte said.  "We are possibly facing legislative suicide with those two agencies."

Needless to say, the nearly 2/3rd Republican chamber voted to adjourn without fixing the problem.

Now, Rick Perry has to decide whether addressing the agencies before the sunset really is a top priority of his or not.  If it is a priority, his only solution is to call a special session. If it was all political pandering and posturing, then say goodbye to TxDOT and TDI.

Regardless, this is what failed leadership looks like on every level.  This a failure of the House, Senate, and the Governor.  There wasn't a leader at any level and because of it, Republicans decided to go home instead of working through the problem.

Windstorm insurance was a huge priority for Rick Perry.  The hard work and push doesn't mean much without the Department of Insurance.

Clearly, more on this story as it develops.

If Republicans OK a 4-Year Grace Period on Voter ID, How Is It An Emergency?

by: Phillip Martin

Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 08:40 AM CDT

I somehow had missed this -- from an older article on voter ID by Gardner Selby of the Statesman, "Voter ID fights take new shape at Capitol" --

Possible sweeteners floated by Dewhurst include a two- to-four-year grace period before identification demands are enforced...

If this is such an urgent and immediate problem, why would Republicans be willing to wait four years to make it law? Try to somehow explain why they would be willing to offer a compromise if they truly believed this...

"Voter fraud is a very real threat to the legitimacy of our electoral system, and in a close election could very well compromise the results of what voters would rightly expect to be a fair and honest election." -- Republican State Senator Craig Estes (Source)

...or if they truly believed this...

""The voting system we have today is easy to cheat...To assume there is no voting fraud in Texas is laughable." -- Republican State Sentaor Troy Fraser (Source)

...or if they truly believed this...

Senator West: Is this more important than dealing with tuition deregulation?

Senator Williams: Senator West, I believe that it is. (Source)

Why on earth would anyone be so insistent on passing legislation that would not even take effect until 2012? Especially considering that there is such an incredible amount of evidence to suggest it's not necessary? Couldn't they commission a state-sponsored, bipartisan study and wait two years? They could still have plenty of time to pass the law and have it in place by 2012 -- or are they worried that a study would prove what everyone already knows: this is a solution in search of a problem, that voter impersonation is a non-issue, and that if we really want to curb voter fraud and improve the integrity of our elections, there are plenty of other policies out there that can do the trick.

Of course, maybe it has nothing to do with policy. Maybe it has to do with politics, as TX House Republican Elections Chair Todd Smith admitted in this story in the Statesman, "Voter ID measure set to head back to House" --

"I believe to the bottom of my heart, if I was putting on my partisan Republican hat, the best thing that could possibly happen would be for this legislation to be narrowly defeated, so Republican candidates could go into these marginal (could go either way) districts and blame Democrats for elections being less secure than they could be," Smith said.

Yup. There you have it. Republicans don't care about voter ID -- they're willing to delay it. Republicans just want a wedge issue they can use against Democrats. And you don't even have to take my liberal commie word for it:

I'm just repeating what Texas Republicans are saying.

Could this be Texas' solar session?

by: citizen.sarah

Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 04:53 PM CST

Six state legislators joined environmental advocates Monday morning to forecast a sunny session for solar power. Public Citizen, Environment Texas and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club hosted a statewide round of press conferences this week to roll out our solar report, Texas Solar Roadmap -- which can be downloaded at www.cleanenergyfortexas.org.

Texas Solar Roadmap highlights how a robust solar program would help put Texans back to work, reduce peak energy prices, curb climate change, improve air quality, and position the state as a world leader for solar production. The full report is a pretty good read, but if you're short on time I suggest the condensed version, Wildcatting the Sun.

Senators Troy Fraser (R-Abilene), Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio), Kirk Watson (D-Austin), Rodney Ellis (D-Houston), and Representatives Mark Strama (D-Austin) and Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) all appeared to champion the solar bills they have introduced thus far.

Rafael Anchia's HB 278 and Florence Eliot Shapiro's SB 427 would require the state's electric utilities to support the development of 2000 megawatts of solar and other on-site renewable technologies by offering direct incentives to consumers and businesses.

This is right in line with Public Citizen's distributed solar goal, outlined in both Wildcatting the Sun and Texas Solar Roadmap. According to our report , such a standard could lead to installations on as many as 500,000 roofs in Texas by 2020 at a cost of about 98 cents per month per Texan (Polls have shown that 81% of Texas voters are willing to pay up to a dollar a month to encourage solar power. What about you?). This investment would create an estimated 22,000 jobs and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide emissions by 29 million tons, the equivalent of taking 4.3 million cars off the road for a year.

Anchia stressed that this should be Texas' solar session because it would answer two of our major challenges: air quality, and global warming. Senator Fraser was the first legislator to speak, proclaiming that this would be Texas' solar session. Chairman of the Business and Commerce Committee, Fraser is well positioned to be an effective solar champion...

Mapping the 2010 Texas Republican Primary

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Mon Oct 13, 2008 at 11:45 AM CDT

Needless to say, reading it might leave your head spinning.

Well, anything that can't be explained with words can be explained by a totally ridiculous chart. So on that note, I present to you my masterpiece. Click here for the gigantic printable version.