New Ciro Ad

The DCCC has up a new ad on behalf of Ciro Rodriguez in CD-23. It’s below:

Help The Legislative Study Group!

If you haven’t clicked on the blogad at right yet and dropped some change to the Legislative Study Group, please do so today! The LSG really needs our help, and every donation, no matter how small, helps.

Information On The Spending Cap & Pondering Why It Wasn’t Part Of The Special Session

The Center For Public Policy Priorities has a great fact sheet up on the “Spending Cap” and why it will have to be lifted to pay for the Texas Tax Reform Commission’s massive property tax cuts.

A couple of important notes:

How Would the Spending Limit Affect the Property Tax Cuts Adopted in the Special Session?

HB 1, the school-finance bill passed in the recent special session, requires school maintenance-and-operations (M&O) tax rates to be compressed by one-third in fiscal 2008, i.e., from $1.50 per $100 in property value to $1.00. Starting in 2009, the commissioner of education will calculate the compression percentage based on the amount of state funds in the property tax relief fund, which receives the revenue raised by the tax changes made in the special session, “or from another funding source available for school district property tax relief.”

The cost of the property tax cuts in HB 1 was estimated at the time of passage to be $13.4 billion for the 2008-09 biennium. A more recent estimate by the Speaker’s Office shows a cost of $11.4 billion, apparently based on higher-than-expected property values, which increase local tax revenue, so decrease the need for state matching aid. So even if state spending were continued only at its current level, without adjustment for enrollment and caseload growth or the increased costs of providing services, the additional cost of replacing local school property taxes with new state revenue would be more than the amount permitted to be spent by the constitutional limit. Of course, there are also many unmet needs that should be funded in the 2008-09 budget.

One would think that the Legislature would have worried about this back when they actually passed this package of bills during the special session. It seems as though it would have been appropriate to tie-in legislation that would have lifted the spending cap as a part of this package. It’ll be a lot more difficult to get the spending cap lifted during the regular session than it would have in the special session. In the special session, legislators seemed to have been of the mindset of “do what it takes” so a state district court judge wouldn’t take over administration of Texas Public Schools.

In the present environment, however (especially with hawks like Dan Patrick in the Lege) this will be much, much more difficult.

Ethics Commission Finds Merit In Farrar’s Claims

You’ll recall that Capitol Annex earlier broke the story on State Rep. Jessica Farrar’s request for an opinion from the Texas Ethics Commission concerning whether or not lobbyists contacting legislators on behalf of candidates for speaker of the house was ethical.

The Ethics Commission had some harsh words concerning the situation:

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TxDOT Cuts Transportation Enhancement Program

Following the maze of federal dollars that flow to Texas for highway funding is sometimes difficult. It’s even more difficult when the Federal Highway Administration reduces its appropriation to the state because that means cuts usually have to be made somewhere.

Following a FHA announcement that the state will have to forego more than $305 million in promised funds, TxDOT has announced it will end a program most people have probably never heard of: The Transportation Enhancement Program.

This has caused the Texas Historical Commission–beneficiary (directly or indirectly) of many of the Transportation Enhancement Program funds–to speak out against the cuts.

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Virgin Of Guadalupe Usurped By Our Lady Of Perpetual Redistricting

You might call this one “Virgin of Guadalupe vs. Our Lady Of Perpetual Redistricting.” Or, just call it Rick Perry being out of touch with (or deliberately inconsiderate of) Latino voters.

In Congressional District 23, Perry has set the runoff between Congressman Henry Bonilla (R-San Antonio) and former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (D-San Antonio) for December 12. That date happens to also be the date of the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and Latin America. Given that CD 23 is a predominantly Latino district (and one where the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe is celebrated with great fervor, no less) this poses a problem.

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80th Legislature: Herrero Bill Seeks To Require All ISDs To Let Employees Decide If They Want To Participate In Social Security

Over the years, many Texas teachers and public school employees have been faced with the awful fact that, after a lifetime in the classroom, they were not eligible for Social Security benefits. For several years, various loopholes existed that allowed teachers to claim their spouse’s benefits through various means. However, all of those have been closed by the U.S. Congress and teachers currently teaching have been left to rely merely on whatever income they may get from the Teacher’s Retirement System—unless their school district voluntarily pays into Social Security.

HB 286 by Rep. Abel Herrero (D-Robstown) would change this.

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IBM Wins Contract To Consolidate Government Data Operations; A Risky Venture?

IBM has won the right to an $863 million, seven-year contract to consolidate nearly every “data center” of Texas state government (the comptroller’s office and Department of Public Safety Excluded).

Proponents of the contract claim it will result in beefed up security and money saved for the state.

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Legislative Study Group Needs Our Help

The Legislative Study Group, a non-partisan caucus of the Texas House of Representatives, needs our help.

LSG has played a pivotal role in helping House members make informed decisions on legislation since its founding in 1995.

However, because the LSG is a legislative caucus, it’s not supported with government funds. It needs the help of people like you and I to perform its vital duties including having at least seven LSG staff members to monitor key committees, legislation, and session activities to help members communicate to their constituents and advance policy proposals through briefings, reports, and an updated, interactive LSG website.

Please contribute today. I strongly believe in the work of the LSG and have already made a contribution to their efforts. Won’t you join me in doing so?

80th Legislature: House Bill 318 & State Park Funding

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk with State Rep. Sid Miller (R-Stephenville), who has authored HB 318 that restores the revenue from the Sporting Goods Tax to the Texas Department of Parks & Wildlife.

I wanted to talk with Rep. Miller because his bill is one many of us in the blogsphere have been anticipating since this past summer when the issue relating to the Sporting Goods Tax and the funding crisis with Texas’ state parks.
Miller says his bill restores the full allocation from the Sporting Goods Tax back to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

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