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  • School Finance, Without Taxes

    By Ross Ramsey

    The upcoming school finance study could be a two-parter, with a special panel looking at everything except taxes and then and only then messing with taxes, and only if they must. That, according to Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, would separate the thicket of school funding formulas from the bramble of state taxes. Both are hairy problems, and they are interwoven, but Ratliff says he and House Speaker Pete Laney lean toward starting an interim study on school finance with taxes removed. Full Story 

  • Weighing In, Finally

    By Ross Ramsey

    Nobody predicted Gov. Rick Perry would set a record by vetoing 82 bills at the end of the session, but neither should anyone be completely surprised. The tension between the governor and the Legislature has been unrelenting since the November elections. If nothing else, they leave the governor's mark on a session where he had previously had little impact. Full Story 

  • On Pins and Needles

    By Ross Ramsey

    Some major legislation was still on the Maybe-Maybe Not list as the governor's June 17 veto deadline approached. The list included the so-called Penry Bill, which would insert an evaluation of mental retardation into the state's death penalty process and make it more difficult for the state to execute mentally retarded murderers. Gov. Rick Perry originally said the issue should be left to the courts, since the case involving Johnny Paul Penry was, at the time, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. That court has since ruled (on a related, but somewhat different point about the judge's instructions to the jury) and Perry no longer has that excuse. He's getting advice both ways, both internally and externally, but hadn't made a decision as of late Thursday. Full Story 

  • A False Start and a Race to the Stage

    By Ross Ramsey

    After an arduous and grueling ten-day campaign (we're joking, but only a little), Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff dropped out of the 2002 race for the job he already holds. Ratliff jumped into the race on the last Saturday of the session, surrounded by family and bolstered by the presence of nearly a dozen senators. Less than two weeks later, he was standing in front of a bank of cameras and reporters to say that he wasn't willing to make the compromises necessary in a successful statewide campaign. Full Story 

  • Redistricting Reboot

    By Ross Ramsey

    Eight days isn't much of a cooling off period, but the Legislative Redistricting Board will convene on Wednesday to start up to 60 days of work drawing political boundaries for the 2002 races for Texas House and Texas Senate. That start date puts the deadline for the LRB in the first week of August. Full Story 

  • Out Like a Lamb

    By Ross Ramsey

    The dramatic peak of the 77th legislative session came several weeks ago, when the House was trying to redistrict itself and the Senate was trying not to self-immolate on the hate crimes bill and its own redistricting maps. The end of the session, by contrast, seems as gentle as a receding tide. Full Story 

  • Real Men Don't Need Maps

    By Ross Ramsey

    Remember the burning map that used to open the TV show Bonanza? That might as well have been the plans for new political districts in Texas. At our deadline, it was impossible to say with any hope of certitude whether legislative redistricting plans were alive or dead. They weren't moving, but they had time to move if lawmakers found a compromise, and if they hurried. Full Story 

  • A Biennial Power Surge

    By Ross Ramsey

    The powers of state officeholders ebb and flow with the calendar. The end of the legislative session is when the governor's powers peak, when the comptroller has one last moment of leverage, when budgeteers' prospects are in bloom and when the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House bring their full powers over the legislative agenda to bear. If you see legislative supplicants standing in line to plead for something, chances are the line will lead to one of those people. Full Story 

  • The Moment We've All Been Waiting For

    By Ross Ramsey

    Three weeks from the date at the top of this edition, the Legislature will gavel to a close and go home. That'll be a relief, to be sure, but the 21 days that lead up to Sine Die will be hectic and the issues that have dominated the conversations in the Pink Building since January are finally coming to a head. Full Story 

  • Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Where is the Map?

    By Ross Ramsey

    The state is cut into 150 pieces for purposes of electing members of the Texas House. It's chopped into 15 chunks for purposes of electing members to the State Board of Education. The head of the House Redistricting Committee, Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, thinks those numbers should sync up. He says he'll draw the SBOE maps to exactly include ten House districts each. Full Story 

  • Easter Bonnets or Hard Hats?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Lawmakers will get ready for the Easter break by kicking the budget out of the House and lining up for copies of the redistricting "working" maps they've been promised by the two chairmen in charge of political cartography. Even without redistricting, the remaining seven weeks of the session will be kinda hairy. Still on the list of things to do: The House-Senate conference on the budget, teacher health insurance, Medicaid funding, campaign finance reform, major water and air bills, a number of Sunset bills affecting major agencies, a handful of controversial criminal justice bills, transportation bills and any number of things we've left off. There's a stack of stuff to do and not much time to do it. But the focus isn't on that stuff: It's on the maps. Full Story 

  • Rain in the Forecast

    By Ross Ramsey

    They say they're not having a political fight, but if Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff and Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander were having a political fight, chances are it would look a lot like this. Full Story 

  • The Texas House, Divided

    By Ross Ramsey

    For purposes of redistricting, break the House into seven pieces. Six parts would each be comprised of members from the six largest counties in the state: Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, and El Paso. The seventh group includes representatives from the other 248 counties in the state. Full Story 

  • Seven Days Later and Nothing's the Same

    By Ross Ramsey

    The rural areas are in worse shape than they were expecting. The suburbs are in better shape than they were expecting. The urban areas are in both better and worse shape—maybe it's just disturbingly different than they expected. There is not a GOP primary for governor on the horizon. Full Story 

  • Mass Preoccupation

    By Ross Ramsey

    When Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, went to the front microphone in the House to talk about redistricting numbers the other day, you could have heard a pin drop. The chairman of the Redistricting Committee had nothing dramatic to say; he was keeping members up to date on the U.S. Census Bureau's plan to deliver numbers any day. He said it'd take several days to load the data into the computers so that the political cartographers can get to work. He finished; everyone exhaled. Full Story 

  • Nothing Like a Grand Jury to Perk Things Up

    By Ross Ramsey

    The state had a scandal cooking the last time the Legislature worked on redistricting, in 1991, and there was something brewing in 1981, and ten years or so before that. Lawmakers knew they were going to have problems with Medicaid, but had no idea that would involve anything but money. Full Story 

  • Drop the Money and Back Away Slowly

    By Ross Ramsey

    Explain this to your daddy: The State of Texas has $5.2 billion more money to spend over the next two years than it had during the last two years. There is probably enough money available for the state to continue to do the things it already does, even when you factor in inflation and other increases. Full Story