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May 2009
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Political Blogroll
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Recently in Budgets CategoryThe House gaveled out for the day without finishing its debate on the top 10% college admissions bill and after spending several hours on the UI stimulus bill, which is also still unresolved. State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, is the House sponsor of SB 1569, the bill that creates conditions to allow Texas to accept $555 million in federal unemployment insurance money from the stimulus package. The bill expands the pool of people eligible for UI money, which opponents, like Governor Rick Perry, say will be a burden on Texas businesses. Strama said Texas could get another $200-400 million on top of t... The controversial budget rider prohibiting state dollars from going to medical research using embryonic stem cells won't make it into the final version of the budget bill. The pro-stem cell group, Texans for the Advancement of Medical Research released a statement applauding the development this morning. Ogden announced in conference committee the budget negotiators "couldn't come to a consensus", leading the stem cell provision to be pulled from the budget. The Speaker's office is set to announce the five budget negotiators who will meet with Senate conferees to hammer out a final state budget. They are: State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, House Appropriations Chairman House Stimulus committee chairman Jim Dunnam announced that the House was ... Only a handful of state lawmakers each session get a seat at the big kids table to hammer out the budget. As you can expect, the Senate and House passed different versions of the General Appropriations Act (aka budget), so negotiators are selected from each chamber to work out differences and settle on a final version. The House Speaker will pick select members of his appropriations committee; the Lieutenant Governor selected his conferees this afternoon. They are: --State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, Chairman, Senate Finance Committee --State Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, Vice Chair... On the heels of news that Texas lost 47,000 more jobs last month, the Texas Senate bucked the governor with final passage of a bill accepting the $555 million in federal unemployment money that Governor Rick Perry rejected. Senator Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, successful shepherded SB 1569 to passage with a vote of 19-11 (Harris absent) on third reading. To review, Perry rejected it on the grounds that the federal dollars come with new requirements for the way Texas calculates unemployment by changing the window of time used to calculate funding, plus including part-time workers and "trailing spouses", (... It took seventeen hours, but Speaker Joe Straus got a unanimous vote approving the $178 billion, biennial budget early Saturday morning. The takeaway, according to most folks involved, was the general calm and smoothness of the process on the floor. The Quorum Report (subscription req) Fatigue is starting to set in on the House floor, nearly twelve hours after members started the day with light hearts and dreams of the weekend in their eyes. Now, some eyes look more like roadmaps and the slow process has killed most members hopes for a budget-free Saturday. "[We'll finish] by Sunday would be a fair guess," said state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin. (We assume she was joking, but uh, we're only on about 150 of the 500 amendments.) There are also a few stem cell research-related amendments and school voucher amendments coming up which are expected to make for "lengthy" floor debates, ... That's right, folks. State Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, leader of the House Democratic Caucus, is shopping around HR 1383 on the floor right now. The full resolution is here, but here's an excerpt: RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the State of Texas reaffirms the pride of all Texans in both our one and indivisible National Union and in our one and indivisible State and the common heritage of both; and, be it further Texas Republican Party Chair Tina Benkiser sent out a copy of the speech she'll give today during Tax Day rallies across the nation, intended to protest the growth of government and government spending. (Natch, there's a lot of poking fun at teabagging going on, here's a clearing house for that stuff.) The tea parties in Austin are set for 11:30 at Austin City Hall and again at 4pm this afternoon near Town Lake. Governor Rick Perry, who's being simultaneously >> Continue reading: Texas GOP Chair's Tea Party Day Remarks Budget architect and state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, sat down Sunday morning for some budget talk at our competing station. (Dallasites looking for similar chatter: Our sister station has a 30 minute gabfest available at 9:00am Sundays -- WFAA-TV's Inside Politics. It's a mix of Dallas and state political news/talk.) Ogden, wearing a red tie and fashionable Lone star flag lapel pin, said the $182 billion budget translates to $8,500 per Texas resident. He attributed an increase in this budget over last session's due to the federal stim... |
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Elise Hu is KVUE's Political Reporter and your dedicated blogger. There's too much politics in Texas to fit into a newscast, so the fun continues here. Email your ideas and feedback to ehu@kvue.com.
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