Play budget writer.

The Texas Tribune has an Interactive budget tool on their site that's fairly sobering. While I'm a big proponent of primarily using cuts to make Texas' biennial budget match available revenue projections, the tool does a pretty good job illustrating just how difficult those cuts will be.

That said, I'm also of a belief that funding cuts, for health care and education, shouldn't be permanent fixes. Instead they should be temporary patches while efficiencies are found that are sustainable long-term.

If you have a budget that won't survive lean times, then you really don't have a budget at all.



News-ish agencies and progressive Democrats don't really get that. Neither do some Republicans. The key is to make painful cuts now, while working to build something sustainable going forward. The second part of the conversation is notably missing from Texas Politics.

Citizen Patrick

Remember when State Sen. Dan Patrick was on his "Austin needs to stay our of city's business" kick?

Yeah, not so much.

I guess by "Austin" he meant all those other people, not him. Obviously HE knows what's right for you and the City right?*









*This goes beyond whether or not you support the drainage bill fiasco. The point is, the citizens of Houston voted for it, now they're (sort of) working with their government to implement the thing. Whether or not the plan was accurately presented is beside the point. Take your own advice Dan, stay out of Houston's buisiness.

82nd Lege Reference Guide (Part II)

Note: This will maybe, possibly be in something close to alphabetical order, but if it's that you want go buy a Webster's.



Dallas: The reason humanity invented the word "overrated". Living on the fumes of a TV show that aired over 20 years ago the closest Dallas comes to its former glory is when Jerry Jones is on TV. Oh, and they have a better rail system than Houston. Terrible Bar-B-Q though.

David Dewhurst: The king of starched shirts and the first player out of the tunnel in the race for Kay Bailey's Senate seat.

Dan Patrick, Sen: Master of political rhetoric and zero action. KDAN is all about keeping issues around but doing little to actually get things done. Appraisal caps? (his first signature issue) Now that the political climate is right for them he's abandoned the issue and decided to focus on sonograms for women considering an abortion. His ultimate goal is Statewide office. When you filter his rhetoric through that filter it all makes perfect sense.

Democrats, Texas: The political equivalent of a two year old throwing a tantrum in the corner. It's not that Texas Democrats are bad, it's that they're HISTORICALLY bad. Despite their ideas being out of step with a majority of Texans they're incapable of self-examination. When your one hope is: "Well, eventually the White folks who live outside of the cities will die" you're looking down the long, dark tunnel of political irrelevance.

Democratic Caucus: Harder to find than Waldo.

Department of Transportation, Texas: The Money Pit. Except without Tom Hanks keeping things light.

Ears: God gave us two of them and one mouth. This would suggest that listening is more important than talking but, in the political world, it just means that God wanted everyone else to hear what Dan Patrick is saying.

Easter: When all else fails, the Lege will hope the Bunny leaves them a basket full of cash to close the budget hole.

Easement: Legalized, institutionalized, theft.

Economy: The truth is, no one really knows what's going to happen in the future as far as the economy goes, but budget writers declare the next two years as fact regardless.

Environment: God of the Ecomentals, high legislative priority for what remains of the Democratic Party. The problem with unchecked environmentalism, of course, is that the greens consider humanity to be the real enemy. The only way to "save" the environment is to shut down the economy, throwing everyone into severe poverty and ushering in a new dark ages. Birth is also an issue, meaning humans being born. ANY humans being born. Instead we're promised such silliness as a "green economy" and a "bridge to the future".

Facebook: Another place for politicians to ignore feedback from their constituents.

82nd Lege Reference Guide (Part I)

A handy, dandy, pocket-sized (if you have a smart phone) guide to all you need to know about the 82nd Legislative Session.



Abortion: An issue federally decided by the courts but which takes up much of the Lege's time. A sure-fire way for State Sen. Dan Patrick to get his name in the paper.

Aide, Legislative: The people in politics who REALLY write your laws and make the decisions. Not to be confused with bureaucrats, whose job it is to ensure nothing gets done. Typically fresh out of College, naive, partisan, and hoping to not be the subject of the next big sex scandal to come out of Austin.

Ardmore, OK: Texas Democrats home away from home when they're playing the Government in Exile role-playing game.

Austin: Technically, the physical home of the State Capitol of Texas. In reality: One giant hot-tub party thrown by lobbyists. Also home of angry journalists and bloggers who aren't invited to said hot tub party.


Bar-B-Que: Law: Every politician MUST have at least one (preferably more) photo-op showing him/her eating a pork rib and pretending to enjoy it. Bonus points if you can be shown next to an elderly man wearing a John Deere hat, plaid shirt and suspenders.

Bell, Chris: Perennial candidate.

Bell, Chris: Perennial candidate.

Bell, Chris: Perennial candidate.

Beer: There's plenty of beer in Austin during the Lege session, but the important thing is to count how many parties the beer distributors throw for the elected officials in an attempt to sustain their oligarchy over the distribution process.

Boondoggle: No one really uses this word any longer and, as such, it has no real meaning in non-political conversation. In politics however it can mean any program that the user chooses not to like at the present time.

Budget: Hard facts shrouded in the rhetoric of morality and statistics. It's typically pretty clear how much money the State is projected to have over the next biennium. What's not clear is how many political agenda groups are going to try and convince you otherwise. Because of this what you see as a process in budgeting is really just a one act play focusing on Enron's accounting during the last days.)

Burka, Paul: Proof of the theory that longevity in reporting is often mistaken for expertise.

California: In Texas politics, only used with the following: "Thank God we're not.....", "Texas doesn't run like.....", "....is the land of fruits & nuts."

Caucus: A polite way to say "creative way to legally bypass the Texas open meetings act." Used by political parties when they want to impart a false sense of drama onto a pre-ordained event. (See: Speaker of the House, Paxton, Straus & Dan Patrick for more.)

ChronBlog: What happens when a major city goes without a newspaper for an extended period of time.

Comptroller, Texas State: The Texas political equivalent of the Groundhog. Appears once per year to announce either financial Winter or Summer, then disappears until election season to tout abilities as a taxpayer fiscal watchdog.

Constituents: You, unless you have an issue to address with your elected representative, in which case you become a "crazed partisan whose sole agenda is making a mess of the process." Can also be used in the abstract to describe those the politician in question feels a God-like responsibility for. (See Mouth-breathers. for more)

Courtier: The one relic of the European monarchies that survived the American democratic experiment. Also known as staffers, advisers & lobbyists. Main job is to tell politicians how to think and to snag as many free Hors d'oeuvre's as possible from lobbyist funded events.


Cyan: Obscure word for blue. Not as obscure as Democratic political power in Texas, but you get the idea.

Caucus talk

Straus wins (going away), Ken Paxton can't quit, Republicans can't stop fighting.


Oh, and there's that budget mess to deal with.


It's Lege time, which means there's only 20 days left until State Sen. Dan Patrick rolls out yet another attention-getting group that he'll quickly abandon after the benefits to his planned State-wide race are exhausted.


Voting down both Sen. Patrick and former Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt (R - Quitters Station) in one election cycle would almost be too much to hope for.

Until then, get ready for the cuts and howling, both are going to be too extreme.

Garnet Coleman refuses to join Tea Party Caucus.

Color me shocked*.


As a matter of fact, NONE of the State Democrats signed up to join State Sen. Dan Patrick's capitol hot-tub party. They all did however express "concern" about something called "ideological ideas" from the far-right. Far preferable, I'm guessing, would be "ideological ideas" from the far left? Or maybe they'd be willing to work to dissolve the various "progressive" caucuses that one finds from time to time.


After all, the last election revealed progressives to be further out of the American mainstream than the Tea Party crowd right?








*That's sarcasm, I'm not really shocked

Different but similar.

Remember C.L.O.U.T.?

How about the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas?


Yes? No?

Well, don't worry, they're all just past vehicles for forwarding the political name of one Texas State Senator Dan Patrick. Some would say they were all created to increase his "clout" at the State level, thus allowing a run for the Federal Senate.

In case you missed those two short-lived (and pretty much ineffectual) organizations fear not, Patrick is back today with his latest bit of political theater, the Tea Party Caucus. Or, should we say, the "I'm for what Dan Patrick is for so ergo I'm a conservative...no really" Texas House Caucus.

Because that's what this is really, Dan Patrick issuing press releases and trying to get his name out there in preparation for his run at Kay Bailey Hutchison's Senate seat. He's smart enough of a politician to understand that he's going to need the Tea Party behind him to win, and he's savvy enough a politician to realize that all people are going to remember is the press release.


It doesn't matter if the Tea Party caucus actually succeeds or no. That's not the goal.

This molehill we call a mountain.

Is it desperation to wring some drama out of what's sure to be a pretty boring legislative session*? Or is it the result of a slow, s-l-o-w news period?


Whatever it is it's got the State's lackluster political media in a tizzy. What is it you're asking?


(Two Freshmen Reps Pledge to Paxton for Speaker, Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune (Maybe they NEED all that hip eyewear?)

Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, is also in the race, though Paxton appears to have more support. Last week, two of Chisum's fellow West Texans — Jim Landtroop of Plainview and Charles Perry of Lubbock — announced their support for Paxton.

Counting the candidate himself, that brings Paxton to nine votes. Straus claims pledges from more than 120. It takes 76 to win.

Nine. The leader of the conservative "groundswell" to unseat Speaker Straus currently counts his supporters at nine (9). According to this report Wayne Chisum has even less. To put this in perspective: Rep Paxton has approx 5.92% of the vote. That's less than Chris Bell for goodness' sake.

Even if you assume that Chisum's supporters number six (6) that would still leave both challengers with 9.87% of the total vote. Yes, that's creeping up into Democratic down-ballot territory, but it's not really threatening that low bar.


In other words, this "internal clash" really isn't, despite what Texas poor political pundits think. Unless something happens that greatly cuts into the support of Straus the only thing to take away from this is that the social Conservatives are going to make a lot of noise, but the actual numerical strength of the movement is somewhere around the listenership of KDAN Patrick's radio station.


*Yawn*







*By "boring" I don't mean things aren't going to happen. To the contrary, I think that there's going to be a LOT that transpires during the 82nd that will be meaningful (in a good and bad way) to Texans. What I don't think we're going to have is much hullabaloo surrounding it because the opposition party has been reduced to the political equivalent of a party-blogger.

Sunlight shining on the Sunset Commission.

The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission is either making friends or cultivating enemies, depending on your feelings toward The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the The Texas Railroad Commission, the subject of the commission's two most recent reports.

The immediate take-away from both reports is that the folks over at Sunset Advisory feel that the two Commissions need to do a better job enforcing the rules and regulations pertaining to the industries over which they are charged. For the TCEQ it sort-of ends there. Oh sure there's a lot of wordiness to be found in 124 pages but, for the most part, the TCEQ got off with a stern scolding and advice to do better....pending the outcome of a current audit and several legal dust-ups with the EPA that is. Kate Galbraith* of the Texas Tribune (apparently, wearing no hip eye wear) offers up her take on the report choosing to focus on the side-stepping of the EPA issue by Sunset Advisory.

Of more interest, to me, was the Sunset report on the Texas Railroad Commission. Most surprising was Sunset Advisory's suggestion that the Commission move from elected positions to those of gubernatorial appointment. This was especially curious on the heels of the latest gubernatorial election, where one of Democrat Bill White's campaign arguments was that incumbent Rick Perry had grown too powerful due to the power of appointment.

Despite the fact that there's not much they can do about it, I cannot imagine Democrats would welcome this new power vested in a candidate they can't seem to beat, and who doesn't seem to be inclined to go anywhere. One concern that I have is the potential for political chicanery in a commission that's responsible for the biggest chunk of Texas' economic pie. Yes, political elections are imperfect, and sometimes (as in 2010) there's a head-scratcher of a result that puts a relative novice in a position of authority. This is a weakness that appointments cannot fix. The main difference is the voters would have a chance to fix their error, should one occur, within four years. With appointments the appointed can often fly under the radar, held unaccountable to the voters. Still, appointed wouldn't be that bad if the terms were kept relatively short and bad actors could be flushed from the system immediately.

One other benefit of staggered elections is this: It becomes very difficult for the RRC to change focus quickly, needing at least two election cycles to change the make up, plenty of time for the citizens to right the wrongs. Currently the RRC is one of the more agreeable regulatory organizations to deal with, although (contrary to news reports and partisans on the Left)they're still not pleasant. They're just less unpleasant than most. I would hate to see that change. I would also hate to see Texas' economic advantage suffer under a wave of industry-hostile appointments which decimate oil & gas production in Texas, we're already seeing just how much trouble that can cause in the Gulf.

There are other recommendations in the report including the cessation of propane marketing, an idea whose time has long passed. Again, Kate Galbraith of the Texas Tribune (Maybe she was edited by someone wearing hip eye wear?) has more.

One recommendation that I am in favor of is moving the regulation of gas utilities to the Public Utilities Commission. That just makes a lot of sense from a logistics standpoint. The RRC handles production, the PUC worries about distribution. That's a much more focused business model.


The last recommendation in place is one that, for sentimental reasons, I would be sad to see enforced, the proposed name change to The Texas Oil and Gas Commission would bring to an end a part of Texas history I don't want to see vanish. It'd be akin to changing the name of the Texas Rangers. Sometimes the old ways are the best.








*As the Texas Tribune notes, Gilbraith is a green energy writer and approaches the issue from a far different perspective than my oil & gas industry view. That's neither good nor bad, it just is. At least we both admit our bias on these issues.

Yes, it's news-ish....

but DAMN...

(Sen. Wentworth scolds new Rep. Simpson over campus carry, Mary Tuma, Texas Independent)

Longtime state Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) wasn’t too pleased to hear that freshman state Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) had jumped the gun by prefiling a bill that would allow concealed firearms on college campuses. Wentworth has driven the issue in past years.

“The representative-elect doesn’t yet understand the procedure and traditional courtesies in the Legislature. You don’t come down here, when you haven’t even been sworn in yet, and introduce fanfare that your fellow members got passed,” Wentworth said Tuesday evening. “You don’t come in as a newly elected representative and take over a bill that has already been worked on by two senior members. You don’t come down here and think you’re going to be the author of major legislation in your first term.”

Emphasis mine.

Jeff Wentworth needs to remember just who and what he is. An elected official whose primary job is to serve the citizens of the State of Texas. Not some tarted up demi-royal doddering around the capital annex wearing nothing but a Texas Ranger star and some spurs. Obviously Sen. Wentworth's sense of entitlement is bigger than his ability. You're essentially a part-time employee when you're in the Texas Lege anyway. Which could be part of the problem, we're asking Summer temp help to run the State.

Get him and Dan Patrick in the same room and the egos involved would reach critical mass.....

Another way to posture politically....

...is to make a lot of noise and then call for the creation of a "Blue Ribbon Commission" to figure things out.


Which leads HCA to this question: If part of your campaign plea is that you're the experienced and competent choice who has the ability to "make the tough decisions" for Texans...then why are you now asking us to trust the words of others when it comes to the budget? Why didn't we just elect them in the first place?


If there's a more useless thing in politics than the Blue Ribbon Commission we've yet to find it. Guess what that makes politicians who repeatedly call for them in our eyes?


Do the job you were elected to do, stop fawning it off on others.

What I'll be watching during the next Lege session.

As I type this, the 82nd session of the Texas Legislature is less than one business quarter away from dropping the gavel. After last week's election I've given some thought to some of the possibilities and this is what I'll be watching for....


The success rate of Sen. Dan Patrick. It's no secret that Patrick's goal is to remake Texas politics, with himself set up as a major regional power-broker. It will be a bell-weather session for him if Voter ID, anti-illegal immigration and appraisal-cap bills get passed. It will be a nightmare for future Texans if he's successful in repealing the Rosebush/Blocker Bill.


Does Warren Chisum win the speakership? Possibly the biggest question is going to be answered early. How Republicans are going to attack the significant problems they'll be facing will be revealed in this vote. For my part, I'm rooting hard for Straus.


How much of Debbie Riddle's legislative agenda passes? Riddle is setting herself up to be the darling of the anti-immigrant, social-values "the sky is falling" because people that don't look or talk like us are ruining the country crowd. At the same time some of the elephants are starting to make noise about minority outreach, the pass/fail rate of Riddle's bills will be telling.


How will the Freshman do? There are a LOT of freshman R's. Many of them lacking political experience. Fortunately for the GOP they are in a position of dominance and can overcome this by keeping the herd in line. Most people are saying the Tea Party is going to be a big driver, but even Tea Party politicians understand the need of party structure. How big of a roll will it play?


How effective a minority can the Democrats be? To answer this, my guess is that Scott Hochberg will be the key. Besides the stamping of feet and profane classification of political opposites that one expects to find amongst the InterLeft, at some point the Democrats are going to have to present a viable opposition legislative package. My expectation is that Rep. Scott Hochberg will offer up the best bills. He's a serious thinker on matters of budget and education who could actually squeak one or two bills through this session. If he can do that, he should be the guy Democrats look to in the future for direction.


Is Ardmore in play? In 2003 the TX Democrats famously absconded to Ardmore in an attempt to shut-down TX government and block the GOP legislative agenda. It was John Whitmire who eventually returned to Austin and broke the stalemate. What Whitmire rightly understood, and Democrats didn't, was that the ploy wasn't playing well outside of the far-left base, and they were going to be there anyway. Where Democrats were suffering was among the middle, voters who, while not crazy about the GOP agenda, understood the stalling tactic for what it was: Political grandstanding.


Oh that short-fall. By some accounts it's up to $25 Billion, the most reliable estimates peg it at around $18 Billion. The expectation is that the GOP is going to attack spending with a machete, all while trying to pass a tax cut which could exacerbate the problem. One are in which I find myself in agreement with TX Democrats is that TX Budget has a structural flaw on the income side, we disagree on how to fix it. I also agree with Republicans that government spending is too, too high. Where we disagree is what, where and how deeply to cut. My ideal scenario is a restructuring of the tax-code that is not revenue neutral (but which spreads a small increase over all residents and businesses with few (if any loopholes) coupled with small cuts in agencies whose budgets are full of projects and not recurring charges. For example: Road building would be a good place to cut, for now. We can go without new roads for a bit, we cannot go without education or assistance to the poor. Any tax code written should be designed with an eye toward future stability and made to be as free from future political class-warfare as is possible.


Who's going to provide the coverage? MSM newspapers are flaming out, and online sites such as the Texas Tribune (hip, urban eyeware and all) have, so far, been unable to fully fill that void. Last session the Trib (without as much eyeware) did a serviceable job but, as we saw during the last election, their limits are still being fleshed out. Harvy Kronberg's Quorum Report is a good source of information, but it's a pay-site that the general public won't read. One interesting issue of note is the rise of news-ish sites such as Texas Observer and the Texas Independent. Their agenda being the forwarding of progressive causes under the guise of straight news stories could be instrumental in framing the largest issues facing the 82nd, even before the first gavel drops.