What We Can Expect From The State Of The State Address

Today’s State of The State Address should be interesting.

Governor Thirty Nine Percent doesn’t exactly have as many friends in the Lege as he did a week ago. That HPV vaccine executive order is going to keep some of his own party sitting on their hands, I suspect.

And, QR is reporting that Perry is going to go into great detail on the sale of the lottery:

The Lottery currently contributes about $1 billion a year to General Revenue. The Governor hopes to sell a 40 year concession for $14 billion. Of that, $8.3 billion would go to a Public Education Trust, $3 billion to a Texas Cancer Research Institute Trust and $2.7 billion for an Uninsured Partnership Trust.

I’m no investment banker, but I don’t think “trusts” populated with less than $10 billion each are going to be generating substantial revenue anytime soon. And, something will have to be done to replace that $1 billion from the coffers after the Lottery is sold (if it is sold).

Selling the lottery isn’t the only part of the speech that has leaked out, though. Check this from the SAExN:

In his State of the State Address today, Gov. Rick Perry will propose a sweeping reorganization of the Department of Public Safety, construction of two new prisons and conversion of a youth facility into another adult lockup.

The plans, to be outlined in the governor’s speech to the Legislature, call for transferring driver’s license offices from the DPS to the Texas Department of Transportation and consolidating the police agency’s four investigatory divisions and putting them under control of the Texas Rangers.

The changes would transfer 219 commissioned officers from driver’s license facilities to the Highway Patrol and convert 82 management positions in the criminal divisions into troopers or field investigators.

That could actually be a tough sell, especially when it comes to talking about building new prisons. I hear the mood in the Lege is very anti-prison, pro-treatment these days. After all, it costs less to treat than incarcerate.

But, he’s gaining on those Veep Points. After all, he can talk about how “safe” he made the streets.

Oh, we can’t wait.

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