Our money’s on Perry as the victor in the March primary, if only for the anti-Washington sentiment swirling around the state. But he won’t emerge unscathed. As the primary takes its toll on his public image, doors open for the likely Democratic candidate, well-liked Houston Mayor Bill White, whose energy and planning initiatives, along with his economic management, have won him broad favor. By building a coalition of Hispanics, independents, and moderate Republicans from Texas’s growing, more Democrat-friendly urban centers, White will waltz into the governor’s mansion. But just barely.
Along with their prediction, they post the following video from PBS Houston:
Secondly, White received the endorsement of three House Democratic leaders today -- State Representatives Garnet Coleman, Jim Dumman, and Pete Gallego. The three issued the following joint-statement:
We are excited to partner with Bill White in his campaign to bring leadership to our state and meet Texas’ tough economic challenges. In Rick Perry’s decade of failure, our state’s budget has given away millions in special interest hand-outs when we should have been investing in sensible solutions that benefit everyday Texans. Texas needs leaders who put partisanship aside and let government work for the best interests of its people, and Bill White will do that as Governor.
Reps. Coleman, Dunnam, and Gallego released individual statements of support, as well. Each focused on economic issues -- an encouraging sign, to be sure. All three House Democrats have led the fight for public policy throughout the decade, and if they are coming out on White's behalf to challenge Perry on economic issues, then we should expect that -- at least at the top of the ticket -- we will have a true policy discussion on the economic challenges Perry has laid before the state.
(Here's a great guest post from Democrat State Representative Mike Villarreal. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
In just a few days, Texas House and Senate negotiators will sit down to start working out the differences between our two versions of the state budget. One of the biggest decisions will be what to do with TEXAS Grants, our state's main financial aid program for college students with financial need. The House increased TEXAS Grants by $224 million, an increase three times more than the Senate.
If you believe we need to help more Texans afford college, please sign our petition at www.leaderslisten.org.
If the House prevails, 70,000 more students will receive a TEXAS Grant in the next two years.
Receiving a TEXAS Grant improves college completion. The Legislative Budget Board has analyzed the unique impact that receiving a TEXAS Grant has on college completion. It found that receiving a TEXAS Grant improves completion by approximately 45% -- an improvement equivalent to boosting a student's SAT score by 350 points, or increasing a student's high school ranking by 30 percentile points.
In a recent report, the Texas Select Commission on Higher Education Global Competitiveness warned: "Texas is not globally competitive. The state faces a downward spiral in both quality of life and economic competitiveness if it fails to educate more of its growing population to higher levels of attainment, knowledge, and skills."
The Texas House and Senate will debate the 2008-2009 Texas budget today. Everyone in the Capitol is aware that the budget contains bribes paid to some lawmakers for their continued support of Tom Craddick. This is beyond pork barrel politics. This is criminal. It is bribery.
The budget process has been corrupted. This is a scandal worse than Sharpstown, and there are plenty of former legislators who lost their jobs in that scandal who were not directly involved. The public paints with a very broad brush.
Members who want to vote aye on the budget are at best ignoring the crime and at worst becoming accessories to the bribery.
Yes, pork is always part of the budget process. So are favors for favors. But this time there are lists of the budget items added to the budget, above either the House or Senate versions, that amount to a handy guide to bribery. Many will wish this wasn't so. There are important items in the budget, they will argue. They must vote for those things.
But that is excuse-making. Like a witness to a crime being paid to leave town for a few days so the authorities can't find them.
(An excellent, interactive explanation of the "surplus" and how quickly Republicans are hijacking the surplus for property taxes. If you want to learn about the Magical Disappearing Surplus, watch the video below. - promoted by Burnt Orange Report)
You can visit my website here to find links to many of the bills I mention in the address and other important updates about what's going on in the legislature.
(Today is the day our legislature talks about breaking the Constitutional spending cap. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
What do the surviving Texas House Republicans do after a six pack of their GOP colleagues get beat in the 2006 election because they ignored critical needs Texans want them to meet? Thumb their noses, ignore those needs, and continue to take money from school children, sick children, and strapped middle class families.
Then they give the money to their very, very wealthy contributors.
In the debate on the selfish, irresponsible and woefully out-of-touch HB2, Democrats did a good job of trying to alter the House's course, particularly by offering a substantially different approach -- across the board increase in the homestead exemption -- that would have saved average Texans a good deal more money.
It is this simple: Texas kids' skyrocketing tuition for state colleges is cash being redistributed to the state's wealthiest corporations and mega-estate owners in the form of an unjustified property tax cut windfall.
The Craddick/Dewhurst/Perry motto for higher education is, "Put a South Fork In It." (For today's young kids locked out of college, that's the name of oil baron J.R. Ewing's swankienda in the prime time soap, "Dallas.")
The state's family college savings plan -- the Texas Tomorrow Fund -- is $3 billion in the red. In the last four years, tuition has gone from about $3,100 to $5,300 a year.
