The latest Texas Legislature news from The Texas Tribune.
As the clock counts down to the end of the regular session on May 30, it’s fair to ask House and Senate leaders — and all members — to meet our needs, not our wants. Here's how they can bridge the multi-billion-dollar gap between their budget plans without any new taxes. Full Story
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At this morning's TribLive conversation, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was unwilling to distance himself from controversial remarks about Planned Parenthood by his colleague, U.S. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona. Full Story
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The Texas Department of Transportation Sunset bill that got caught up in the backlog of legislation last session passed the Senate today. Full Story
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State budget writers should be looking foward this week to finalize a budget that currently seeks to gut billions from current spending levels. But the fight coming doesn’t look like an easy one for either chamber. Full Story
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For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked whether lawmakers ought to revise the state's main business tax, whether they'll extend a major small business tax exemption, and what they think are the smartest and dumbest cuts in proposed state budgets. Full Story
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The 2006 tax swap — lowering local school property taxes and creating a new business tax to make up the difference — is at the center of Texas' current budget troubles. The architects are still pointing fingers over what and whom to blame for the state's “structural deficit.” Full Story
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Hamilton on Victoria's efforts to divorce the University of Houston, Ramshaw on a disagreement between right-to-life groups over laws governing when life ends, E. Smith's TribLive interview with Sen. Kel Seliger and Rep. Burt Solomons on redistricting, Aguilar's interview with the mayor of Juárez, Tan on the continuing hunt for money to buy down budget cuts, Grissom on a psychologist who found more than a dozen inmates mentally competent to face the death penalty, Stiles and yours truly on the House redistricting maps and Galbraith on cutting or killing a tax break for high-cost natural gas producers: The best of our best content from April 11 to 15, 2011. Full Story
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There are 101 Republicans in the Texas House. But according to the map released by Redistricting Committee Chair Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, not all of them will get re-elected. Full Story
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With gasoline costing $1 more than a year ago, budget planners can add fuel expenditures to their list of worries. However, it's also true that oil companies will also pay more in taxes to the state as they beef up their drilling operations. Full Story
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The Texas Legislature is faced with a budget challenge that pits the Republican majority’s desire to cut government spending against a vulnerable target: the frail and the elderly covered by Medicaid and housed in nursing homes. Full Story
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Redistricting can change the odds in legislative and congressional races, but in statewide races, it's all about turnout. Full Story
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After releasing a draft report on the case of convicted arsonist Cameron Todd Willingham, state forensic board members refused again today to rule on whether investigators in the case were professionally negligent in deciding the fire that killed Willingham's three daughters was intentionally ignited. Full Story
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The Texas Legislature is faced with a budget challenge that has pitted the Republican majority’s desire to cut government spending against a vulnerable faction: nursing homes. Full Story
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Hours after the state Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would merge the state's two juvenile criminal justice agencies, a House committee passed a similar bill. Full Story
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A bill that would regulate so-called puppy mills, and has dog breeders and animal rights groups at each other's throats, got derailed from the fast-track to passage in the Texas House today. Full Story
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Last year, after the Republicans won large majorities in the Texas House, state Rep. Aaron Peña of Edinburg left the Democrats to join the GOP. Is he now being rewarded with a district that a Republican can maintain? Check out these maps. Full Story
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A coalition of Latino groups unveiled a redistricting map that would add five Latino-majority districts to the political map used to elect state representatives in Texas. Full Story
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The president and chief operating officer of the Sam Houston Race Park on legislation that would allow slot machines at horse and dog tracks in Texas, why she believes that's a good idea, and why it has a chance this year. Full Story
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This week on the TribCast, Evan, Ross, Reeve, and Morgan discuss rumors of the death of campus carry legislation, a controversial amendment with many names, and the latest on redistricting and the budget. Full Story
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