Will The Special Session Become A Texas-Sized Christmas Tree?

With anticipation building about the impending Special Session of the Texas Legislature that Governor Rick Perry is set to call, lawmakers are asking Perry to add a lot of items to the call.

Perry, who has said he will call a short special session to deal with the reauthorization of various state agencies whose Sunset Review bills were stalled (and to protect the state’s bond rating), still hasn’t specifically said what will or won’t be on the call.

That hasn’t stopped lawmakers from asking Perry to hang as many ornaments as possible on the tree:

Keller Rep. Vicki Truitt said yesterday she was going to ask Perry to bring up local-option transportation funding during the special session.

Houston Sen. Rodney Ellis has requested Perry add both criminal justice AND green energy issues.

And the latest comes from Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso, who wants Perry to add expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to the special session agenda.

That is, of course, just a handful of the items lawmakers are talking about asking the governor to address.

If history is any indicator, Perry won’t add any additional items to the call of the special session until the issues he is actually calling the session for are addressed. We saw this during the 2006 special session on education funding reform when Perry waited until his property tax plan passed before adding items to the call dealing with damages the state suffered from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

The danger in asking Perry to add items to the call, of course, is voter identification. Perry may decide that voter ID is worthy of being added to the call, which could result in more paralysis in both chambers of the legislature.

Given an election year is approaching and Perry does need to cozy up to his right-wing base, he could well decide adding Voter ID to the call is the way to go. We’ll have to wait and see.

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