The 2009 Texas Legislature is just now coming to a boil. But bloggers' attentions this week are on the looming voter photo identification scrap in the Senate. They've also got an eye on possible statewide candidates in 2010, and legislation that's not quite so white-hot right now. We're also corralling posts written by politicians and blogs belonging to a category of their own.

* * * * *

Poll-aroid Picture

With college tuition skyrocketing, U.S. soldiers returning from two wars and large regions of Texas trying to recover from massive hurricane damage, what issue could be so important that it preempts committee hearings on higher education, veterans affairs and flooding/evacuations? Why, voter photo ID of course, says Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog. (Read up on the background here.)

On the eve of the Texas Senate showdown, Burnt Orange is trying to rustle up a phone campaign against the idea. Here's who they think might be the weak links in the GOP supermajority: Sens. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, Joan Huffman, R-Houston, Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, and Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. Meanwhile, without naming any specific names, Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr., D-Houston, is asking Dos Centavos readers to speak out against voter photo ID legislation. Burnt Orange also has a post from Democratic consultant Glenn Smith that you'll probably hear quoted in the Senate debate.

Unfortunately for readers, the El Paso Times's Vaqueros & Wonkeros is going to miss out on the fireworks at the Capitol this week, as her bosses are making her take a furlough.

* * * * *

Maybe Next Year

Put former U.S. ambassador and Texas Rep. Tom Schieffer down as a strong maybe for the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Schieffer, a Democrat, is already drawing flak for being buddies with former Pres. George W. Bush and for being named as one of the Ten Worst state legislators by Texas Monthly back before Reps. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso, were born.

"The Ten Worst article was 34 years ago. There are [a] lot of obstacles in the path of a Schieffer candidacy, but that article shouldn't be one of them," says BurkaBlog (clarifying that by "obstacles" he means Bush).

KVUE's Political Junkie has video of Schieffer not bashing Bush. And the Dallas Morning News's Trail Blazers has more damning evidence, relaying information from a reliable source (Schieffer himself) that he reads Trail Blazers .

From Burnt Orange Report, more video from Schieffer's press conference in Austin, plus a couple of links to what their bloggers think about him. And Tex Parte Blog throws in this piece of trivia: Schieffer, a Texas bar member since 1979, never graduated from law school.

"The Rock" Obama defenestrated a U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison look-alike on Saturday Night Live, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex has the clip. We personally think the actress's impersonation was uninspired (and possibly completely unstudied), but Trail Blazers says it's better than rival Gov. Rick Perry ever got. According to Burka, word on the streets — at least the electronic streets of the Internet — is Big D's big-time Rs are for KBH over Perry.

In related news, the Austin American-Statesman's Postcards from the Lege has the latest on possible gubernatorial wannabe Kinky Friedman, while ABC13's Political Blog catches Friedman on camera with one of KBH's people.

Another possible aspirant to the Governor's Mansion (or comparable Austin-area estate of their choosing), Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, is Mrs. Popular on the blogs, as Off the Kuff and Burnt Orange make her the subject of feature interviews.

Capitol Annex expresses doubts that Houston Mayor Bill White is ready to be a U.S. Senate candidate, calling his fellow Democrat "Bad News Bill." And Postcards previews a possible matchup in U.S. Congressional District 10 between Democratic challenger John T. McDonald (a wealthy lawyer/businessman) and incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, (an attorney who happens to be very wealthy). It's also been speculated that McCaul could jump into the race for Texas Attorney General.

* * * * *

On the Back Burners

Rep. Charles Anderson, R-Waco, showed a YouTube video about the dangers of driving after smoking salvia divinorum (a not-so-popular hallucinogenic plant that's legal for the moment, despite Anderson's best efforts). House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee members "appeared somewhat distraught," reports Texas Politics. Commenter sabrebutt responds, "Considering that "Driving your Car on Salvia" is a satire, and part of a hilarious series of satire, these idiots should find something more important to do with their time." Later, Anderson's people tries, with limited success, to convince Annex that they didn't know the video was a fake.

Tex Parte wonders if HB 2500 by Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, is really necessary. The bill would establish the 1839 Pilot Flag as the official flag for the governor's office. Meanwhile, Bay Area Houston calls attention to bills by Reps. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, Todd Smith, R-Euless, and David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, that would abolish the Texas Residential Construction Commission. And Texas Cloverleaf highlights seven pro-LGBT-rights bills filed by Texas House Democrats.

* * * * *

Official Scribes

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, has re-launched her blog The Little Dog Report. Meanwhile, Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, poses for a photo with a McAllen astronaut and puts it on his A Capitol Blog.

On his El Wiri Wiri Blog, Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, touts his House Bill 2538 "which will require public schools to offer career and technology education courses that result in licensure, certification, or college credit."

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, promises to show his softer side in this Poli-Tex post. Also on Poli-Tex: After the local daily called him a "roadblock" to local transportation funding options, Martinez Fischer posts a letter he had written to the other members of the San Antonio House delegation that spells out his position on the issue. Plus, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus is looking for a few good wonks. (Got MALC?)

* * * * *

Potpourri

Tex Parte catches up with John Dejean, the only person they could think of who's been on trial for the same thing Corpus Christi's Maurico Celis did (pretend to be a lawyer). Dejean is serving 25 years in Texas prison. Celis got probation and a six-figure fine.

Texas Watchdog is sending out invites for a Houston-area blogger get-together in April. Meanwhile, Blue Dot Blues has the skinny on the Young Conservatives of Texas convention in Austin: "April 3-5, at the Doubletree Hotel North, $75 a person. Bay Buchanan, former TX Solicitor General Ted Cruz, former TX Sec. of State Roger Williams, State Senator Tommy Williams, State Rep. Wayne Christian, and more!"

KUT's Notes from the Lege takes note of NASA day at the state Capitol, while John Carter Watch rebuts an op-ed by U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Georgetown, against the federal stimulus that appeared in the Round Rock Leader, the local paper.

Finally, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn held a conference call with conservative bloggers, including Texican Tattler . But RightWingSparkle trumps that with a face-to-face interview with the junior U.S. Senator from Texas. An excerpt: "I'll say this about my impression of Sen. Cornyn. Anderson Cooper has nothing on Cornyn's blue eyes," she says.

---

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is semi-settled in Austin. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.

Massive layoffs at the Houston Chronicle fuel discussions in the blogosphere about the future of media. Bloggers are also talking about the two ex-cheerleaders who want to be Governor, the Democrat exploring his own bid for the Mansion and the state school board's debate over science standards. Wrapping it up are posts on other scintillating subjects.

* * * * *

News Releases

Colleagues and friends (including our boss, who worked in Robison's bureau) say goodbye to Clay Robison, dean of the state capitol press corps and a casualty of Chronicle cuts. Burnt Orange Report adds their farewells, too.

The Brazosport News has some gory details (unconfirmed): No serious consideration of wage cuts or furloughs; the editorial board is now all-white and all-male; the lead NASA, religion and transportation writers are gone; four newsroom couples were "split up"; no members of upper management were laid off; and, editor Jeff Cohen didn't address staff during the day when layoffs occurred.

Cohen did, however, issue a memo, which the Houston Press's Hairballs blog has posted here. BlogHOUSTON says the community isn't better off after the layoffs. "We wish them all the best and hope they find employment soon, with the exception of the guy who fails to deliver my paper about 1 in 7 times," Lone Star Times says.

A disappointed blog maverick notes that only one reporter showed up to cover a presser before a recent Mavs-Warriors NBA game. (In other news, the same blogger wonders whether Twitter posts are copyrighted material. One commenter says yes.) And Texas "Off the Record" attended a panel (including our boss — the one with the misspelled name) on the shrinking newspaper industry.

"I'd rather see ever single last mainstream media newspaper go under and dissapear <sic> before I want to see a single one of them propped up and run by our government," UrbanGrounds says. Meanwhile, the recession is forcing Texas Cloverleaf to shut down for awhile, because the blogger can't write during work hours anymore. But one area where business is good is bankruptcy law, Tex Parte Blog says.

* * * * *

Give Us a G... an O... a P!

The Houston Chronicle's Texas Politics blog has a video of dueling press conferences on state unemployment funds by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and incumbent Gov. Rick Perry. TxSkirt doesn't like the idea of Hutchison and Perry tearing each other apart in the GOP primary for governor. And Lone Star Times says Hutchison's strategery is to secure moderate Republicans' votes and get some Democrats to cross over for her, while Texans for Rick Perry posts a photo of the Guv wearing safety goggles and looking out the window of an aircraft.

Regarding the heat Perry's taking over a $50-million grant, Texas A&M University Chancellor Mike McKinney, a former House member, told the House Appropriations Committee, with Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog, listening in: "I used to sit and be jerk also. Sometimes, that's what you have to do." (Postcards also has video of House Appropriations Chair Jim Pitts and House Speaker Joe Straus.)

Blue Dot Blues invites readers to join a teleconference call about stimulus funds with Gov. Perry and Americans for Prosperity director Peggy Venable. Those two are among a group of folks slated to speak at a Texas Tea Party event (against government spending) at Austin City Hall April 15, says Blue Dot Blues. Find more about the event from The Travis Monitor here and a video at Lone Star Diary here. And several of the tea party speakers have signed up to talk at the Young Conservatives of Texas convention in Austin April 3-4, according to memoirs from a young conservative.

Check this out from Texas Watchdog: "Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov David Dewhurst got more money in campaign contributions from energy-related firms than any other candidates for state office or state legislature in the nation between 2003 and 2007, according to a new report by a nonpartisan think tank."

* * * * *

The Tom Tom Club

Burnt Orange snagged a sit-down interview with Democratic goober chaser Tom Schieffer, saying afterward that "If you can get behind his friendship with [former Pres. George W.] Bush you find depth of knowledge, intelligence, and an understanding of the problems facing Texas."

That's all well and good, but mean rachel wants to know "What have you done for me lately?" And WhosPlayin? went to Hurst in the DFW area to see a tag-team event starring Schieffer and John Sharp, who's running for U.S. Senator. Dos Centavos was there, too.

* * * * *

Monkeying Around

Texas Freedom Network's TFN Insider blog followed the State Board of Education proceedings in a series of posts that can be found by clicking here. Meanwhile, musings posts her testimony in favor of evolution before the state school board.

Texas Observer Blog says social conservatives may have lost the big battle over "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution, but they did get several amendments passed that, in the blog's opinion, "diluted the state's science standards and the teaching of evolutionary theory." Observer also has an online exclusive containing their final analysis of the "often mind-numbing debate."

A post on the topic by Half Empty has our sarcasm detector going haywire. A taste: "[W]e will now watch the drama transplant itself in the Texas Legislature, that august body of experts in the area of population genetics and speciation."

* * * * *

Hodgepot

Tex Parte gives an update on a legal case involving condo owners, Southern Methodist University and former Pres. Bush and then wonders if Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin will represent troubled financier R. Allen Stanford.

BurkaBlog talks more about the UT poll he disagrees with. Bay Area Houston has a list of things wrong with electricity deregulation and posts about a couple of bills against deregulation. Bay Area Houston also has a list of people for the Texas Residential Construction Commission and a longer list of people against it.

Sprittibee posts photos of her new baby. The StandDown Texas Project goes over a new report from the Justice Project. And KUT's Notes from the Lege has an audio segment on House plans for stimulus money.

NewspaperTree.com Blog wonders if Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, is "the Tigua's new go-to man." The Austin Chronicle's newsdesk blog was on hand for the Senate "debate" over the Top 10 Percent university admissions rule. And Grits for Breakfast has parts one and two of an intern-written series on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee's interim report on the Texas Youth Commission.

The Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac blog has a podcast of Hearst folks discussing Pres. Barack Obama's first two months in office, two videos featuring Helen Thomas (here and here) and a guest column by U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, on a bill he doesn't like. Meanwhile, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, writes on his Poli-Tex blog that "State Affairs appears to be opening Pandora's box on hearing immigration bills..."

---

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is semi-settled in Austin. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.

It has been almost five months since Barack Obama was elected president and we understood that the federal government was likely to pass a large fiscal stimulus with funds to assist the states.

It has been six weeks since that legislation (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA) was signed into law. Yet to date, Texas — unlike most other states — has articulated no vision whatsoever for implementing the ARRA or budgeting our allocation. Almost every Texas legislator I've talked to either is uninformed about the ARRA and its potential or else is privately resigned to the likelihood that most of Texas' allocation will be squandered, wasting this one-time opportunity to make meaningful investments in the future of our state.

The budget is coming to the floor in both chambers over the next two weeks. Most legislators will have no real opportunity to say anything about spending priorities for Texas' ARRA funds. The budget committees are playing shell games with general revenue and ARRA funds instead of proposing rational strategies for maximizing the use of ARRA to advance our state's policy priorities.

This isn't a question of liberals wanting to expand state services versus conservatives fighting against bloated government. You can look across state after state, conservative and liberal, and see the same basic ARRA implementation processes happening everywhere:

1. The state — either the governor or another elected leader — sets up one or more public-private advisory bodies to guide ARRA implementation for the next three years and ensure transparency and accountability (the House Select Committee on Federal Fiscal Stabilization does not fill this bill, although it plays an important role and we should keep it).

2. The advisory bodies and/or lawmakers articulate a set of overarching state priorities and propose strategies for using various ARRA funding streams to achieve these priorities, including the introduction of ARRA-specific legislation.

3. There's a multi-purpose website where the public can get information about all things ARRA and, in most cases, submit proposals and ideas about how the state can best use its allocation to create jobs and address priority issues.

What other states are NOT doing is using their ARRA funds to merely maintain business as usual.

The reason so many other states are taking rational, long-term approaches to ARRA implementation is pretty obvious: they want to make sure they get the maximum return on investment of every dollar. They know this is a one-time opportunity and they don't want to waste it. They are making a big effort to include private sector experts in their advisory bodies so they can be sure they create the greatest range of new opportunities for their residents.

For a lot of states, like Ohio and Michigan, this is a life-or-death deal: if they can't generate enough new jobs fast enough to jumpstart some economic activity, it's hard to see how they can stay in business. For other states, like Oregon and North Carolina, this is a chance to get out in front on emerging industries.

You can imagine how Texas, with a little planning, could get special bangs out of our ARRA bucks. For example, we're getting hundreds of millions of dollars in weatherization and energy efficiency money. Spending the money on weatherization and efficiency is a given, we can't use it for anything else. But we could combine some of it with ARRA workforce development and education money to fund a green jobs training program, and throw in some ARRA childcare funds so the job-training participants have secure childcare while they are in the program. A similar approach could work in addressing Texas' health professional shortage.

But we can't do innovative job-creation and economic development projects if we just toss our ARRA funds into the appropriations bill and hope for the best. State agencies can't freelance with their appropriations; they have to respond to legislative priorities and stay accountable within defined performance measures.

Performance measures are nonexistent in Texas' ARRA budgeting. Federal agencies will require fiscal accountability, but not accountability to the policy priorities of Texans. Should we dedicate our ARRA funds to rebuilding hurricane areas and economic development in the Valley? So far, state agencies don't have these priorities in their budgets. Should we make sure some of our ARRA funds are targeted for historically underutilized businesses? Again, not so far. So far, the only specific ARRA-related priority we know of is a rider in the Senate's budget bill directing the State Energy Conservation Office to give as much of its allocation as possible to the Texas Engineering Experiment Station at Texas A&M University.

Whatever we do with the ARRA funds, one thing is for sure: Texans, like all Americans, will spend decades' worth of federal income taxes paying off the trillion-dollar deficit the stimulus package is creating. It's enough of a stretch to imagine paying off this debt if the investment results in material improvement in our infrastructure, education systems or state services. It's heartbreaking to contemplate making those payments in future years knowing that we got nothing but shell games and the status quo for our trouble.

Lawmakers struggle every session to meet human needs, grow our economy and protect our environment. Our ARRA funds can't do everything everyone wants, but they can do a lot. It's enough money to buy our school kids textbooks... restore ailing state parks... capitalize the Housing Trust Fund... bring solid infrastructure to colonias... and on and on. And, of course, it's enough to help the Gulf Coast recover from multiple natural disasters.

We can't afford this failure of leadership. It's inexcusable for Texas to be botching ARRA implementation when so many other states have figured it out. The gun has been fired, the Rust Belt is off and running, and Texas is standing at the starting line with its shoelaces tied together.

Bee Moorhead is executive director of Texas Impact, an interfaith group that lobbies on issues of religious social concern.

---

Texas Weekly's Soapbox is a venue for opinions, spins, alternate takes, and other interesting stuff sent in by readers and others. We moderate submissions to keep crazy people out, and anonymous commentary is ineligible. Readers can respond (through the moderator) to things posted here. Got something to submit? We're interested in everything from full-blown opinion pieces to short bits to observations or tidbits that have escaped us and the mass media. One rule: Your name goes on your words. Call or send an email: Ross Ramsey, Editor, Texas Weekly, 512/288-6598, ramsey@texasweekly.com.

Texas is worse off economically than it was a couple of months ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said in a new report.

"The Texas economy continues to slow. Almost every region and economic sector in the state is weaker than six weeks ago," the Fed reported. "In large measure, this slowdown is the result of soft consumer demand and frayed financial markets, although ongoing economic weakness in Mexico and low energy prices have also adversely impacted the region."

The news is full of red numbers. Texas' unemployment rate (reported earlier) rose to 6.4 percent in January, a five-year high, according to the new report. Construction employment is off by 13.6 percent over the last three months, according to the Fed, and the value of contracts is at 2005 levels. Home sales have been falling for more than a year and are still dropping. Exports fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 — Texas exports to Mexico were down 13.7 percent.

And the consumer confidence index for the region that includes Texas is higher than the national number, but is also at a five-year low.

The Texas Senate approved a $182.2 billion budget that includes over $10 billion in federal stimulus money, avoids across-the-board cuts in state agencies, and leaves the state's $9.1 billion Rainy Day Fund untouched.

The vote was 26-5. The bill now heads for the House, which has been working on its own version; once that's approved, the conference committee will hash out the differences, adding and subtracting as new economic numbers and political deals surface.

The budget (the full copy is here, the more readable summary is here, courtesy of the Legislative Budget Board) is designed to protect that savings for two years from now, when budget-writers expect an epic miscalculation to come into full bloom. Lawmakers revised state business taxes in 2006 and agreed to use the money to increase state spending on public education, thus lowering pressure on schools to raise local property taxes. But the taxes they passed raise far fewer dollars than what the Lege agreed to spend. That "structural deficit" started to blossom this year, but the federal stimulus money allows budgeteers to put off the problem.

They're certain it's coming back in 2011, when the Legislature writes its next budget. It might even be worse, if the economy doesn't recover according to predictions. That's one reason they're trying to protect the Rainy Day balance — so they can use it to cork the school finance math problem two years from now.

"Things could get worse before they get better," Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden said while laying out the budget bill. "I think you're going to see sales tax numbers come out, shortly, that are going to show a significant deterioration of sales tax collections in the state of Texas for March and February, showing that the state of Texas is slowing down faster than what we thought. I think that's getting ready to happen. I think if there is no federal stimulus money and we tried to pass a budget similar to this next time, we're out of balance by at least $10 billion. And the only way to balance it then is with the Rainy Day Fund.

"So I think the most prudent thing that we should do right now is to hold onto that Rainy Day Fund until we're sure that things aren't going to get worse... until we're sure that we can cover that so-called Structural Deficit..." Ogden said. "We would really go in the tank if we spend that Rainy Day money now."

Here's the setup. Flash back to the beginning of the year, when, according to Comptroller Susan Combs, the state started with a $9 billion difference between the cost of running the government and the amount she said it would have in its treasury. However, she said, lawmakers had a $9.1 billion plug for that hole if they were are willing to spend the money in the so-called Rainy Day Fund.

That was the picture in January.

A few weeks later, the feds came up with the stimulus package, which has about $16.1 billion in goodies for the state government to spend. States aren't allowed to sock that money away. But Texas government is full of creative budget folk, and they've used the stimulus money to fill the hole identified at the first of the year and to write the budget in a way that doesn't dramatically expand services and that leaves the Rainy Day Fund untouched.

Some senators wanted the state to use some of the fund to pay for programs that didn't make it into the budget. Article 11 of the budget — an unfunded wish list of programs that could get money if money becomes available — totals over $4.6 billion.

"We played no games with this federal stimulus money," Ogden said, defending the strategy. "There was no effort whatsoever to divert money from something the federal government wanted us to fund to something they didn't."

And he fended off inquiries about using federal stimulus money, in effect, to keep state coffers full. "I don't believe that the federal stimulus legislation requires us to spend any or all or a portion of the Rainy Day Fund in order to qualify for federal stimulus money," he said.

New programs did get into the budget. Originally, budget writers went looking for $1.9 billion to put into public school programs. They found that. In other places, the federal money offset cuts that were under consideration a few weeks ago. Ogden told the Senate that 2.5 percent across-the-board reductions that were prepared by state agencies last year fell by the wayside when the federal money appeared — the state didn't have to make those cuts after all, he said.

"I can assure you, sir, that had we not had $10.4 billion of federal stimulus money to write a budget with, this budget would have been a whole lot less than $182 billion," Ogden said in answer to questions from Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "It would have been a whole lot closer to $169 [billion], because that's all the money we had."

• The budget passed with a controversial rider — added by Ogden — still intact. It says: "Sec. 17.13. No Destruction of Human Embryos for Research Purposes. No funds appropriated under this Act shall be used in conjunction with or to support research which involves the destruction of a human embryo." He agreed to change it, but not to remove it. That cost him at least one vote — that of Kirk Watson, D-Austin. • The Nays came from Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth; Ellis, D-Houston; Mario Gallegos, D-Houston; Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso; and Watson. All 15 members of the Senate Finance Committee, including the five Democrats, voted in favor of the bill. • The Senate's version of the budget totals $182,224,994,036, or about $251,691,980 per day. • The Biggies: 41 percent of the budget goes to public and higher education, and 33.1 percent goes to health and human services agencies. That's just under three-quarters of the budget. When you only count state money — no federal funds — education gets 57.8 percent and HHS gets 29.4 percent, leaving less than 13 percent for everything else.

In which an attempt to use a constitutional cap on the state's savings account as a way to force some spending falls short... Here's a line from the Texas Constitution: "During each fiscal biennium, the amount in the economic stabilization fund may not exceed an amount equal to 10 percent of the total amount, excluding investment income, interest income, and amounts borrowed from special funds, deposited in general revenue during the preceding biennium." If you're a sharpie, the word that jumped out at you was "deposited." We're not sharpies, so we had help. We read the line to say: Look at general revenue in the last budget and divide by 10. That's the most you can have in the Rainy Day Fund. General revenue in the last budget totaled $79.9 billion, and if that was the magic number, the fund would be capped at just under $8 billion. Some lawmakers wanted to use that as the basis for taking money out of the fund to pay for cleanup and rebuilding in Galveston, which was devastated by Hurricane Ike. But that's not the magic number. A lot of stuff goes through the general revenue fund that's not general revenue. And if you look at deposits to that fund, which includes a lot of federal money, the number to play with is $118.3 billion. And 10 percent of that is $11.8 billion, which is more than $9.1 billion. Bottom line: If lawmakers want to leave $9.1 billion in that fund, untouched, there's no law to stop them. Or at least that particular bit of law won't stop them.

You can spend $16.1 billion in one sentence. Watch:

Fold $10.9 billion into the 2010-2011 budget, toss $3.8 billion into the current budget for spending before September, drop $858 million into state programs without even putting the dough through the budget, and leave $556 million on the table while the governor and the Legislature wrangle over Unemployment Insurance.

The off-budget spending is included in the budget, but only as an informational item. That $858 million will go to urban and rural transit, funds for safe and clean water, Medicaid money for hospitals that provide charity care, homelessness prevention, and justice assistance grants.

The immediate spending — which gets added to the current budget — is topped by health and human services money (FMAP, for those who follow the acronyms), highway and bridge construction, public education, and child support.

And the biggest glop goes into the two-year budget that starts in September. The state is adding $10.9 billion in federal money and subtracting $5.4 billion in general revenue, leaving a net increase of $5.5 billion. It allows the budget writers to sock $9.1 billion away for expected budget trouble two years from now, while also increasing the size of the budget to $182.2 billion from $167.8 billion in the last budget. (The asterisk: The size of the current budget grows if lawmakers supplement it with more appropriations and we're using the $167.8 billion just to keep the apples and oranges organized.) The biggest recipients, in order, of the federal stimulus money in the new budget are the Texas Education Agency, the Health and Human Services Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and the Comptroller of Public Accounts. Those five agencies soak up $9.8 billion of the $10.9 billion total.

All of the agencies getting federal stimulus money will have to file quarterly reports with the governor, the comptroller, the State Auditor, and the Legislative Budget Board.

The "supplemental" appropriations bill — the one that includes spending for the current budget period and not the next one — will be on the burner next week and it dwarfs its predecessors.

Usually, the additional appropriations cover unplanned growth in existing programs and other unexpected expenses. But this year, it'll include money for damage from Hurricane Ike and it'll include a lot of federal stimulus money that's meant to be spent before the next fiscal year begins in September.

So what's usually a $1 billion to $2 billion proposition is, this time, over $3 billion and approaching the $4 billion range.

The stimulus part of it is included as an informational item in the Senate's version of the budget and in the draft of the House version. It includes $3.3 billion in stimulus money for health and human services ($1.6 billion), for education stabilization funds ($979 million), for highway and bridge construction ($662 million) and for child support enforcement ($27 million).

Money for Hurricane Ike-related expenses — you can hear estimates up to $1.1 billion — will be added to that.

Next week promises to be short and noisy.

Both the Republicans and the Democrats are revving up for House hearings on Voter ID legislation next week. The chairman of the Elections Committee, Republican Todd Smith of Euless, has been getting it from both sides, with some conservative groups saying, already, that he's too willing to compromise. Democratic groups are trying to turn him into a boogeyman, too, calling him an "extreme partisan" bent on suppressing votes. No pressure, right? The Senate heard experts testify first and then heard what citizens were left after a marathon all-night session. Smith's panel won't repeat the pajama party; they'll hear experts on April 6 and normal humans on April 7.

• The Guv's still against it, but committees in both the House and Senate are moving ahead with plans to snag $556 million in federal stimulus funds for the Unemployment Insurance program. Perry doesn't like the program additions the feds are requiring as part of the deal — even though the Department of Labor says states can revert to their current programs later. In the Senate version, (Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, is the parent) the UI changes would also include formation of a committee that'll overhaul the whole program. Some lawmakers see that as a vehicle to change the program back to what it is now; others see it is a vehicle for serving a greater percentage of the state's unemployed workers. The House has UI bills situated in two different committees. Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, got his own bill out of his own committee and on its way to Calendars, but irked some of the people who wanted to testify by moving the meeting back two hours and voting the bill out before the original start time. It was legally done, but some opponents of his bill thought it was high-handed.

• We don't pretend to know the answer to this question, but it's an interesting one: Given the chance, would Texas voters give the Legislature the power to call itself back to Austin to override gubernatorial vetoes? Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, got that proposal through the House with 131 ayes — or 31 more than it needed. It's now on the way to the Senate. If it passes and if voters approve, governors would no longer have the last word on vetoes of bills that pass too late in the session for lawmakers to fight back. And no, it wouldn't happen fast enough under any circumstances to affect the current legislative session. Rick Perry will speak last this time.

• The effort to get some textbook money for the technologies that might replace textbooks is underway, in earnest. The sponsors want schools to be able to use electronic books and course materials as well as textbooks and want the money to come out of the same pot. That'll get a hearing in House Public Education next week.

The Texas Supreme Court, revisiting Entergy v. Summers, a controversial decision on a worker injured on the utility's property, landed in the same place they landed the first time. The court rule Summers, who worked for an Entergy contractor, doesn't have a case against the utility.The new opinion is here, with concurrence, another concurrence, and a dissent. The original opinion, from August 2007, is here.