Water, water everywhere? Paul Burka, Texas Monthly
Sylvester Turner has been in heavy negotiations with Republicans. One plan he was supporting was to go with a 2 + 2 + 2 bill: $2 billion each for water, transportation, and education. But Republicans have pushed forward with water alone right now. In the meantime, Jim Pitts is concerned about a "nuclear bomb"—that is, attempts by Republicans to fund the water plan with general revenue, which would implode not only HB 11 but the budget. This is not an R vs. D issue; Democrats care about water too.
The next day:
How the water bill dried up. Paul Burka, Texas Monthly
Still, my sympathies in this brouhaha lie totally with the Republicans. Straus and Pitts have bent over backward to restore the education cuts. They didn't restore all of them, but they came pretty close. Now, when the leadership wants to enact its top priority, all they hear from the Democrats is that their priority is more important than the leadership's.
More & more the 'Dean of Texas Political Journalism" seems to be just writing whatever he feels like depending on whom he's angry with at the time of writing. Yesterday the Democrats were "very concerned about water" and this wasn't a "R vs. D" issue. Today it's the Democrats holding everything up because they seem to only care only about education.
There's an overarching story to be told about the Texas Lege and the fight over funding. Unfortunately it's pretty clear that no one in Texas' Lock Step Political Media is able, or willing, to tell it.
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