Energy Costs Make Texas Unattractive To Business

Even though our tax structure is more friendly to them, our laws favor them over consumers and employees, and our campaign finance laws enable them to buy influence relatively easily, businesses are finding Texas an unattractive location these days.

Why? Skyrocketing electric rates.

Yep. Behemoth price gougers like TXU and other utilities are making Texas a bad place for business.

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80th Lege: Expect Fireworks In The House Today Over HB 626

House Bill 626, the idiotic bill which would require a person desiring to register to vote prove their citizenship through a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers, will come back to the House Floor today.

We’ve told you about HB 626 before. It would end voter registration drives as we know them in Texas forever.

I’m hearing rumblings that there may be as many as four Republicans prepared to defect on this one and vote “no,” but that we may lose as many as nine Democrats (not all “Craddick D’s”)—who will either pair their votes, be absent for the final vote, or simply vote for the bill.

Voter Suppression Act To Get Senate Committee Hearing Today

State Rep. Betty Brown’s HB 218, known to its foes as the “Voter Suppression Act of 2007,” will get a public hearing before the Senate State Affairs Committee this morning at 9:00 a.m.

The bill passed the House after contentious debate last week.

The Committee is chaired by Sen. Robert Duncan with Sen. Tommy Williams as vice chair. Other members are: John Carona, Rodney Ellis, Troy Fraser, Chris Harris, Mike Jackson, Eddie Lucio, Jr., and Leticia Van de Putte.

So, if the full committee is present, it’ll be a 6-3 vote to send the legislation to the floor unless Sen. Ellis convinces them it will be “dead on arrival,” since he has the 11 votes necessary to keep it from coming to the floor.

80th Legislature: Global Warming Bill Up For Committee Hearing In Senate Today

SB 945, the Global Warming Solutions Act, by Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Dallas), is up for a hearing before the Senate Natural Resources Committee this morning at 8 a.m.

Here’s an interesting note from the bill analysis [emphasis mine]:

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TX-SEN-08: Lampson Getting A Look

The Houston Chronicle is taking a look at Congressman Nick Lampson (D-Stafford), as a potential contender for John Cornyn’s U.S. Senate Seat in 2008:

The Stafford Democrat is giving serious consideration to entering the U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent John Cornyn, well-connected Democrats in Texas and Washington say.

Lampson’s jaunt last weekend to San Antonio to mingle with donors at a fundraiser for the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hasn’t done anything to discourage the speculation — particularly since he underwent major heart surgery less than a month before and has yet to resume a full work schedule.

Of course, that DSCC fund-raiser was full of potential senate candidates, including the host. From what I hear, you couldn’t turn around without bumping into possible contenders. We’ve previously brought you our “list of 8″ we believe could win the race in ‘08. Lampson, of course, was on the list. Since then, one person, a fairly unknown quantity, has announced  he’ll seek the seat.

There are rumors and innuendo that everyone from John Sharp to Ron Kirk are planning on a run at Cornyn. At this point, though, until at least one major contender actually announces an intention one way or another, it’s all speculation. Once one major contender announces an “in” or “out,” (and I expect at least one to do so within two weeks of the adjournment of the 80th Legislature), though, it’s going to be difficult to do more than make educated guesses about who is “in” and who is “out.”

What’s more interesting to me is that there are major rumblings that Cornyn is going to receive a challenge from within his own party. Names mentioned so far in that department include Lt. Governor David Dewhurst.

Perry Hints At Veto Of HB 1892

Though the Lege should have both the time and the votes to override one, it appears that Governor Rick Perry is hinting at a veto of the toll road moratorium bill, HB 1892:

“The legislature claims Texas needs a moratorium on private financing of toll roads, yet seeks to exempt every privately planned toll road on the drawing board from their moratorium. The legislature states that we need to pause and reconsider public private partnerships to build roads, yet expand this concept by granting this exact same authority to local toll road authorities all over the state.

“This bill appears to do little to address the serious concerns raised by the Federal Highway Administration earlier this week. Instead, it jeopardizes billions of dollars in federal funding for Texas and clean air compliance in Houston. Both consequences would be devastating for the Texas economy.

“I will review this bill carefully because we cannot have public policy in this state that shuts down road construction, kills jobs, harms air quality, prevents access to federal highway dollars, and creates an environment within local government that is ripe for political corruption.”

Uh, no. It’s doubtful that most local governments are going to jump on building any new toll roads.

SCOTUS Decision Puts Many Texas Death Row Cases In Question

From the Chron:

WASHINGTON — In decisions that could mean the difference between life and death for dozens of Texas death row inmates, the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected three Texas death sentences, ruling 5-4 that courts reviewing them failed to follow the high court’s guidance.

The rulings in the cases of LaRoyce Smith, Brent Brewer and Jalil Abdul-Kabir said the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals incorrectly analyzed whether faulty jury instructions prevented Texas juries from considering mitigating evidence that might have persuaded them to spare the men from execution.

The instructions, which were meant to help jurors weigh evidence such as a defendant’s low intelligence, mental illness or childhood abuse, have not been used in Texas since 1991. But they were used during the trials of many current death row inmates.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office estimates the number of cases that could be affected by Wednesday’s ruling at close to 50, while defense attorneys say the number could total 70 or more.

This is quite the can of worms to open, to say the least. It should also send a message to voters in 2008 to remember that the justices of the Court of Criminal Appeals need to be ashcanned and that we need a president in office who will appoint appellate judges who will actually follow the law.

Needless ‘Religious Expression’ Bill Throws House Into Chaos

One would think, if the House were to descend into utter chaos and border on total revolt, it would be over something important, like children’s health insurance, appropriations, or abortion.

Oh, but no. Texas House Republicans, who, through their zeal to legislate religion and morality over the last three sessions have nearly surpassed the Moral Majority in the piety department, managed to send the house into disarray (General Dissarray, if you will…) over a bill that would turn Texas public schools into chambers of proselytizing, temples of excessive evangelism, and even boxing rings for fights over religion.
The bill in question was on the Committee Substitute to House Bill 3678, the so-called “Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act” or the “Schoolchildren’s Religious Liberties Act.”

Don’t let the name fool you, though. It’s nothing about ending discrimination or “religious liberties.”

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Anti-Abortion Bill Halted In Lege: Are Republicans Anti-Life?

Finally, some good news out of the session:

A stiff anti-abortion bill is probably gone for the legislative session, dragged down partly by a budget analysis that showed outlawing all abortions would cost the state more than $400 million in health care costs over the next three years.The bill by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, would trigger an abortion ban if the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Roe vs. Wade. Under such circumstances, the measure calls for making abortion in all instances – except to prevent the death of the mother – a felony in Texas.

“It got hung on a bad vote in committee,” said Mr. Chisum, adding that the fiscal analysis attached to it didn’t help.

Oh, Mr. Chisum…let’s not be blase here. Could it be perhaps that the bill was also hung up because perhaps some in the Legislature are simply tired of voting for bad public policy time and time and time again?

At any rate, Chisum claims the bill analysis is bunk:

The cost from ending abortions in Texas would come from an estimated 63,000 more births, of which 67 percent are likely to be supported by Medicaid, according to projections from the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board.

Based on current abortion rates of about 78,000 a year, the board estimated that if abortion were illegal, 20 percent of women would go to a state where the procedure was legal. The remainder, based on projections, would carry their pregnancy to term and require medical and social support.

Mr. Chisum, chairman of the powerful budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, said he had budget board representatives explain their logic to him.

“There’s no basis to it. It’s just like saying if more people move into the state, then it costs more money for the state to operate. The bottom line is that that’s the way economic growth works,” he said.

This does bring up another important point about how Republicans are truly not only anti-choice but also anti-life when it comes to “right to life” versus “fiscal conservatism.”

Playing Devil’s Advocate, if these R’s were truly so gung-ho on right to life, perhaps they’d find a way to fund those new births.

Of course, considering they don’t want to even fully fund CHIP for kids already living and breathing, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’d balk at costs for more kids on social services.

Of course, I fully support abortion being a safe and legal procedure. I simply find it amusing that the same Republicans who run around bitching about abortion and killing babies piss themselves over a $400 million fiscal note.

Federal Abramoff Probe “Inching Closer” To DeLay

Check this from the Chron:

The federal probe into corruption related to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff could be inching closer to former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Sugar Land as investigators focus on a former DeLay chief of staff who later employed the Republican leader’s wife.

DeLay has not been charged with any crime in the Abramoff case. And his lawyer, Richard Cullen, said federal investigators have given DeLay no indication that he is a target of the ongoing grand jury probe, such as subpoenaing documents.

But prosecutors could decide within weeks whether to bring charges against former DeLay staff chief Edwin Buckham, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The decision should give a clear signal on whether DeLay remains in legal jeopardy, the sources said.

In recent days federal prosecutors have served notice that their sprawling Abramoff case has remained very much alive.

On Tuesday a former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff — including a golf junket to Scotland — in exchange for giving the lobbyist illegal help. Mark Zachares accepted more than $30,000 in sports tickets from Abramoff, including $10,000 through a nonprofit foundation Abramoff controlled.

Zachares is the 11th person convicted in the scandal.

If this does “inch” on up to DeLay, I’d expect it to be soon.

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