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.

• General Revenue spending, after you back out a one-time payment for schools in the current budget (never mind, unless you love accounting), is relatively flat, at about $80.8 billion.

• The Senate's starting budget back in January totaled $171.5 billion. When they left town at the end of last session, they'd approved spending of $167.8 billion. And this budget, if the numbers hold (they won't) totals $182.2 billion.

• State employees will pay more for their retirements, what with the state's big pension fund taking a hit in the markets and in the continuing economic ills. The state's contribution to the Employee Retirement System would rise to 6.685 from 6.4 percent of payroll. Employees, who currently put in 6 percent, would see that rise to 6.685 percent.

• The budgeteers set aside $2 million for the Secretary of State to use educating voters should the Voter ID bill become law.

Worser and Worser

Texas is worse off economically than it was a couple of months ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says 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 reports. "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.

Just Like That

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.

Still Writing the Current Budget

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.

Nice Try, But...

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. And the folks who want money for Galveston have their eyes on stimulus money and the supplemental appropriations bill.

Flotsam & Jetsam

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 Education Agency is using Twitter to make announcements and such. And now they're doing quickie surveys, too. These five tweets arrived in quick succession on a recent afternoon: "We would like your input on how the Texas Education Agency should use its stimulus funds to address 4 areas of education. Questions to come:"... "Stimulus Q1: What are some innovative or promising practices that could be used to achieve rigorous post-secondary standards"... "Stimulus Q2: How do you think teachers should be evaluated"... "Stimulus Q3: What constitutes teacher effectiveness"... "Stimulus Q4: What types or kinds of interventions would you like to see the state fund to help low-performing schools improve?"

Political People and Their Moves

Clay Robison will join Tom Schieffer's gubernatorial campaign as communications director and sage. Robison was the Austin bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle for 27 years before being laid off last week (part of a 30 percent newsroom cut at that paper). He's got more experience than his candidate, or any of the opponents, having covered state politics and government since 1971, initially for the San Antonio Light. Schieffer, a former U.S. Ambassador (to Australia and then Japan) and state representative, announced his exploratory campaign last month. He's the only Democrat in the hunt, although state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, and humorist Kinky Friedman are also talking about getting in. On the Republican side of this, Gov. Rick Perry says he wants another term; U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is exploring a GOP primary challenge to the incumbent.

William Gimson is the new executive director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which will oversee the $3 billion bond program approved by voters for cancer research in 2007. Gimson recently retired from his post as COO at the Centers for Disease Control, where he worked for 35 years.

Liz Young, most recently with Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, joins the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a higher education policy wonk.

Gov. Rick Perry's latest appointments include:

• Eric McDonald, owner and chief investment officer of McDonald Capital Management in Lubbock, to the Teacher Retirement System Board of Trustees.

• Mary Ann Williamson of Weatherford to chair of the Texas Lottery Commission. Perry also appointed J. Winston Krause, an Austin lawyer, to that panel. Williamson is a CPA, owner of MKS Natural Gas Co. and the widow of former legislator and state transportation commissioner Ric Williamson.

• Mary Alexander of Valley View, Gene Brooks of Austin, and Joseph Muñiz of Harlingen to the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Brooks is being reappointed. Alexander is regional outreach manager for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Muñiz is assistant library director for the City of Harlingen.

• Oliver Bell of Horseshoe Bay, Janice Lord of Arlington, and Carmen Villanueva-Hiles of Palmhurst to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. Bell, owner and CEO of an eponymous company, and Lord, a social work consultant, are being reappointed; Villanueva-Hiles, owner and COO of A+ Therapy, is new to the board.

• Linda Lowes Hatchel of Woodway, a retired professor, to the Board of Tax Professional Examiners.

• Sue Evenwel presiding officer of the Texas Funeral Service Commission. She owns Designin' Women Custom Embroidery in Mt. Pleasant.

• Gary Wood, president of Collins Financial Services in Lakeway, to chair the Texas Public Finance Authority. Wood is also being reappointed to that panel. Rodney Moore, owner of Dude Development and Gibraltar Construction in Lufkin, is new to the panel.

• James Stanton of Dallas to the 134th Judicial District Court, replacing Judge Anne Ashby, who's retiring. Stanton is an attorney at the Cozen O'Connor law firm.

• John Chism of Irving and Patrick Patterson of Boerne to the Texas Private Security Board that regulates everything from private investigators to locksmiths. Chisum will continue as chairman; Patterson, a retired FBI agent and now an exec at Harland Clark Corp., is new to the board.

• Steward Geise of Austin, Jody Anne Armstrong of Abilene, and Nary Spears of Houston to the Texas State Board of Social Work Examiners. Armstrong and Spears are being reappointed; Geise works for CB Richard Ellis in Austin.

Busted: State District Judge Manuel Barraza of El Paso, on charges of trading and trying to trade judicial decisions for cash and sexual favors. One of those women was an undercover FBI agent; her agency arrested the judge on a four-count indictment just three months after he took office... Longtime Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy and three others, including her husband, were indicted on six counts of harboring undocumented aliens and putting them on the county payroll, in part to pay for the commissioner's housekeeper and day care provider. She's also accused of using county money to pay off a personal loan.

Deaths: Thomas Goggan III, name partner of one of the state's biggest and most politically connected law firms, of complications from cancer. He was 65. The law firm — now called Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson — grew into a major tax collector for local governments in Texas and elsewhere.

Quotes of the Week

Texas A&M University Chancellor Mike McKinney, a former House member, quoted by the Austin American-Statesman on lawmakers' questions about a $50 million grant to A&M from the Texas Enterprise Fund: "This is what I told them: I said, 'You know, I used to sit up there and be a jerk also.' Sometimes that's what you have to do."

Texas Tech University Chancellor Kent Hance, testifying on legislation that would freeze or slow increases in college tuition: "If it's not coming from the state, it's got to come from students, or we've got to make cuts."

Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, quoted in the Houston Chronicle on a measure that would shield reporters protecting confidential sources: "If the pope came to America, he would not have the same privilege as these journalists."

San Antonio Republican activist Jim Lutz, quoted by the Associated Press on the prospective GOP primary for governor: "I don't understand this race. Why are we having this? Why does Perry want to serve another term? And why does Kay want to leave the position she's in?"

Gov. Rick Perry defending U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 17 years ago on an issue — that she led the fight against personal income taxes in Texas — that his campaign is attacking her for now; this was dredged up by The Dallas Morning News and originally appeared in the Associated Press: "She led the charge against a state income tax. Was I a foot soldier in her army? Yes."

Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, after accidentally walking into a restroom already occupied by Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas: "I haven't seen anything that exciting since that movie with Sharon Stone."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 26, Issue 13, 6 April 2009. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2009 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (512) 302-5703 or email biz@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

When this last legislative break is over, there will be seven weeks left in the session. And the last three of those form a procedural tourniquet that cuts the flow of bills until time's up. Here's the calendar, courtesy of the elves who make the whole machine function.

Click on the image to download a printable copy.

Requiring voters to bring photo identification to the polls would cost the state $2 million, according to the fiscal note attached to the bill that came to the House from the Senate. That's the amount, according to the note — a sort of financial impact statement — that the Secretary of State would spend to make sure Texas voters know what the rules are when they go to the polls.

The bill would require the Secretary of State, in cooperation with appropriate nonprofit organizations and with certain political parties, to establish a statewide effort to educate voters regarding the identification requirements for voting. The agency estimates that this would cost $2 million out of General Revenue Funds for fiscal year 2010. The bill would make no appropriation, but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill, and a contingency rider for $2 million is included in the proposed Senate appropriations bill.

That's from an April 5 Fiscal Note. When the Senate voted, they were using the March 5 Fiscal Note. And that education program wasn't in the bill. But there was a discussion on the floor, when Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden said he had included $2 million in the state budget to pay for the SOS' new duty. The voter ID hearing started off as you might have expected, with several members stating their positions for and against — the aginners were more vocal.

"We have found no documented cases of in-person at the polls voter impersonation... so, I ask, what is this bill about?" asked Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. He went on to call low voter participation "the beast in the room" and suggested that's what lawmakers should work on.

Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrill, was quick: "I just want to quote a senator... who said, 'We want to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.'"

And Rep. Mark Veasey, D-Fort Worth, called voter ID a racial issue. "Is this right?" he asked. "Can you really sleep with yourself at night knowing that most of he people who are going to be denied the right to vote are black or brown or poor?"

And then the members settled into hours of testimony from experts, with public testimony set for Tuesday. Weather forecast for that one: Expect scattered rallies and signage, lost citizens in the Pink Building, scarce to nonexistent parking in the area of the Texas Capitol, and a fair number of TV cameras.

Bloggers are buzzing about gatherings of people with a penchant for pachyderms (and even more conservative beasts). They're also using cameras to take still and moving images, creating cooler forms of media, chatting about a former reporter-turned-political operative and dissecting legislation. Finishing it up are posts on political maneuvering and other topics.

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Right-Wing Conspiracies

The Young Conservatives of Texas convened for their state convention in Austin this week. Blue Dot Blues liveblogged from the event here and here. Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, was on scene and shot video of former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who's running for Attorney General but apparently can't do a believable Winston Churchill (he did, as he points out, get the laugh he was after). And Walker Report has a picture of Cruz peering around a Texas flag.

Texas Politics captured Gov. Rick Perry on camera talking about social media. The Austin American-Statesman's Postcards has reaction from YCT attendees (Perry's conservative, but KBH is A-OK too) and promises to post video of the incumbent on Monday.

The Travis Monitor has a list of cities in Texas hosting Tea Parties against government spending. Meanwhile, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex is following an uproar in Burleson over a Tea Party event planned there. Conservatives said the city and TxDOT was trying to get them to cancel it, while public officials said they were merely expressing safety concerns. In the end, the issue resolved itself somehow, and the party is on. Find more information on the events from RightWingSparkle here.

In other news, Texans for Rick Perry is seeking ideas for the Guv's reeelction campaign kickoff, which will take place "Sometime after The Texas Legislative session adjourns" at "Appropriate locations across Texas."

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Record Deals

NewspaperTree.com Blog has a video of Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, talking about why he voted against the General Appropriations bill. In a clip on his new TexasBeachWatch.com, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson gives Speedos a thumbs-down, via the El Paso Times' Vaqueros & Wonkeros blog. And Ellis County Observer posted footage of Libertarian goober wannabe Barry Cooper confronting the Austin chief of police at a recent city council meeting.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson and other panelists talked Twitter and additional forms of social media. The Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac wrote about it and posted video hosted by Culberson. Letters From Texas posts a roundtable from KXAN-TV featuring himself and two other politicos. And A Capitol Blog snapped a photo of a posse of horsemen riding on the side of the highway and drinking what appears to be Miller Lite.

Strangest photo of the week award goes to A Capitol Blog for an image of a bobblehead held hostage by Lady Justice. Finishing in a close second place is Texas Politics for a borrowed picture of a canine dressed like Willie Nelson, who penned a letter to lawmakers supporting anti-puppy mill bill House Bill 3180.

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Interactivity

The Sunshine Review completed a review of the transparency of every county's website in every state. Texas landed in the middle of the pack overall, according to Texas Watchdog. Meanwhile, Texas Politics published searchable databases of lobbying activity since 2005. And political geeks can burn a few minutes playing a boxing video game pitting U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison versus Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, from Burnt Orange Report, or voting for the best legal department in Texas on Tex Parte Blog.

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Mr. Robison's Neighborhood

Postcards wins Headline of the Week award for their entry on Clay Robison's jump to the political realm, titled, "Reporter who broke Tom Schieffer story goes to work for him." Robison's old blog Texas Politics has a more understated header, "Former bureau chief to work for Schieffer." And here's one from PoliTex, "Schieffer picks a spokesman."

"As far as campaign strategy goes, this could be a coup for the Schieffer campaign," Burnt Orange Report says. But having Robison on the exploratory team doesn't shield Schieffer from criticism from Burnt Orange about his new website.

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Open Captions

Capitol Annex looks at bills concerning distorted photos in political ads, sex ed, the transportation commission and raising the smoking age. Eye on Williamson says of a flurry of bills aimed at reforming the Texas Transportation Commission, "none of it really amounts to any kind of a serious change in the current structure or policy." And Lone Star Times analyzes property appraisal reform legislation Senate Bill 700.

In an entry on the run-up to the looming poker debate, Postcards says Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, has a "countrified demeanor." TFN Insider liveblogged testimony on sex ed bills. And Off the Kuff peeps into a compromise tax on sexually oriented businesses and just how much money it might raise here and here.

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Gallimaufry

In the absence of former House Speaker Tom Craddick, BurkaBlog wonders, who will step up to lead the Republicans? Elsewhere, Burka intercepts a letter from a GOP consulting firm seeking to inject partisanship in local political campaigns. And McBlogger thinks it's great that Democrat Jack McDonald has shown the ability to raise money, but the blogger can't get excited because incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul has access to relatively unlimited funds.

Bay Area Houston is mounting a campaign for former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson for NASA Administrator. Potomac has an extended version of a story on Lampson that appeared in the paper paper.

Tex Parte looks at the YFZ Ranch raid, one year later. American Journalism Review featured Texas Watchdog in a piece on the demise of the mainstream media. And Poli-Tex received a much-coveted "Easy Button" from Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton.

Dos Centavos reports on an "advice session" for Democrats featuring Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg (who says she's willing to give talks to Republicans, too). Meanwhile, ABC13's Political Blog has a piece on Perry and a host of other elected officials making a trip to Houston for a party for Qatar Airways, which is now flying planes from the Bayou City to Doha and back, presumably. And Texas Watchdog is hosting a meetup on April 14 where they'll offer a tutorial on filing public records requests.

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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.

In a 10-minute meeting this morning, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously sent a $178.4 billion budget to the full House for a vote next week; a day earlier, that panel voted out a supplemental bill adding $3.3 billion in federal spending and subtracting $1 billion in general revenue spending to the current budget's total.The panel earlier passed a separate supplemental bill that would spend $864.7 million to patch up Galveston and other areas ravaged by Hurricane Ike. Pitts is hoping to have the supplemental bill in front of the entire House on Thursday of next week (April 15) and the 2010-2011 budget on the floor the next day. Pitts says he'll ready to go through the weekend on the budget debate if that's what it takes to pass the bill. The House's proposed budget includes $11 billion in federal stimulus money and actually cuts general revenue spending (by using federal stimulus dollars where state dollars would otherwise have been used). Overall, analysts from the Legislative Budget Board told the panel that this version increases the budget by 5.1 percent over current spending, or about $8.7 billion over the next two years. Last week, the Senate passed its version, which is bigger, spending $182.2 billion. Both versions leave the balance of the state's Rainy Day Fund alone (it's expected to total $9.1 billion at the end of the biennium), and neither included $556 million in federal stimulus funds for Unemployment Insurance, which the governor has said he'll oppose. Neither of the two newest House spending bills is publicly available yet. We'll post links when they are, or you can check the LBB's website for updates.

If House members are going to vote on gambling this session, state Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, wants them to do it all in one vote.

With 16 gaming bills on his committee's agenda, Kuempel said his intent was to let folks have their say on all of it, then to put all of it into one omnibus gambling bill. His plan is to get the legislation out of the Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee in a week or so.

What the omnibus bill will look like is anyone's guess. The bills under consideration run the gamut from relatively modest (local elections to legalize slot machines) to grandiose (Las Vegas-style resort-casinos).

Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., stole the show at the morning portion of the hearing, lasted into the evening after a break while the House was in session. If Donald Trump is seeking a mentor, a likely candidate for the position is Adelson, whose corporation is named after the iconic casino he razed to build his Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino. Adelson might have lost more money in the past 12 months ($22 billion, according to Forbes.com) than Trump has ever had.

Testifying in favor of HB 1724 and HJR 70 by Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, (which we wrote about here) Adelson showed committee members glitzy renderings of his multibillion-dollar resort-casinos in Las Vegas, China and Singapore.

Menendez's bills would allow the construction of up to 12 casinos — seven in urban areas, two on the Gulf Coast and three to-be-decided later — plus one each for Texas' three recognized Indian tribes. The bill would also allow slot machines at racetracks. A minimum of 12 percent of gross slot revenues would go to increasing purse money for racing.

Adelson said if casinos are legalized, the state's major metros would be attractive candidates for his kind of destination resorts, complete with convention centers, hotels and restaurants; those, and not the gambling, are the real economic drivers for surrounding areas, he said.

Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission, the ethics and public policy office for Texas Baptists, says she's not against the kind of economic development Adelson is proposing.

"We're all for convention centers, golf courses and hotels," she says. "Bring a resort. Just leave out the slot machines."

Paynter has three main arguments against proposed gaming legislation: 1) Casino proponents won't be able to follow through on their revenue estimates; 2) Legalizing slot machines may trigger federal law exceptions, allowing Indian tribes to construct full-blown casinos (also, she says, allowing casinos might entice some 27 out-of-state tribes with Texas connections to begin legal action to build their own casinos here); and, 3) What she calls "the predatory nature of the business model" of gambling, bringing addiction, bankruptcy and crime to surrounding communities.

At the other end of the spectrum from Menendez's broad legislation, HJR 99 by Rep. Chente Quintanilla, D-El Paso, would allow voters to approve gambling county-by-county, in the same way local voters have control over liquor laws.

Witnesses from the Kickapoo tribe near Eagle Pass are concerned that legalizing gambling elsewhere will hurt their gaming operations, the proceeds of which keep the tribal government operating. If casinos are legalized, the Kickapoos want to be able to establish their own casino off their reservation, presumably nearer to a major metro area like San Antonio.

Former state Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, who's now a bingo lobbyist, wants slot machines allowed in bingo halls (and American Legion halls, etc.) if they're going to be allowed in places like casinos and racetracks, too.

The supplemental appropriations bill totals $3.3 billion or $290 million, depending on whether you're counting spending or just the effect the bill has on general revenue. The former is how humans look at it; the latter is the way state budget-writers see it.

Whichever.

The fiscal note on the bill — HB 4586 — details the spending. Some highlights: The bill sends money to the state's junior colleges to pay for health benefits, a complicated and long-simmering issue between the schools and the state. There's money for salaries and wages and overtime and such — $125.1 million — at the state prison system. Almost $700 million is going into Medicaid and Medicare programs. And there's a good-sized list of spending related to damage from hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Much of the money is from the federal stimulus package, and the difference in those two spending numbers comes because state budgeteers are using stimulus money to supplant state spending. In effect, they're using federal money where they would ordinarily use state money, and leaving the state money in the Rainy Day Fund, which they hope to protect for two years. They expect to need that money more in two years than they need it now.

• The 2010-2011 budget includes money for bonuses of up to $1,000 for retired educators and state employees and a $1,000 bonus to state employees (not including state judges, higher education employees and some others), and a five percent pay increase for prison guards and others in the adult and juvenile prison systems.

The "wish list" of items that got into the bill but that don't have funding totals $14.6 billion.

As in the Senate plan, House budget writers used some of the federal stimulus money to leave the balance of the Rainy Day Fund untouched. They poured in $11 billion in federal funding and took out general revenue spending of $5.5 billion. They hope Comptroller Susan Combs' numbers hold and that that swap will leave $9.1 billion in the RDF for the next budget.

The Appropriations Committee version of the budget is here, and the more readable, less detailed summary of it is here.

Judge Sharon Keller's hearings — she's accused of refusing a death penalty appeal because it came in after the 5pm closing time — will be held on August 17. Convicted killer Michael Wayne Richard was executed by the state hours later. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct says Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, should be punished. She's the head of the state's highest criminal court. The highest civil panel — the Texas Supreme Court — chose state District Judge David Berchelmann Jr. of San Antonio as the "special master" to run the trial and to make recommendations to the commission. And that panel's decision could be appealed to the Supremes.

• The state's public school finance formulas need tweaking soon to keep that system from becoming unconstitutionally imbalanced, according to a report from the Legislative Budget Board. The LBB suggests lawmakers could put more money into school finance or change the formulas for doling out that money. The Legislature had a special session three years ago to bring that funding system into compliance with the Constitution. That's when they passed the current business margins tax and the current school formulas. But the repairs turned out to be short-lived; LBB estimates the difference between per student funding in richer and poorer school is increasing. What had been a 12.8 percent difference in 2006 has grown to an estimated 15.2 percent this year — nearly $900 per student. In a classroom of 25 students, that's a $22,500 per year difference, or enough to pay half the salary of a new teacher.

• That's not the only glum report from the Legislature's finance department — there's a new primer on teacher and state employee benefits, and the state's pension funds. The headlines, you've read: The big pension funds lost money in the market during the last six months, and retirees still gotta get paid. The proposed budgets for the next two years take care of the immediate expenses on pensions, but if the balances stay low, it's another potential hickey in a few years. And health insurance is in the report, too. This report, unlike the first one, doesn't contain recommendations. But some of the holes it describes are deep.

• Roger Williams, who's hoping to become the next U.S. senator from Texas, picked up endorsements from U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and from basketball coaching icon Bobby Knight, who retired after leaving the head job at Texas Tech University. The Granger pickup is a two-fer; she'd been mentioned as a potential replacement for Kay Bailey Hutchison herself, and this nod to Williams takes her out of it. Insert the usual caveat: Hutchison, considering a run for governor, hasn't quit yet and isn't required to do so even if she makes the governor's race.

• The federal stimulus will cost Texas 131,400 jobs by growing government at the expense of the private sector, according to a study done for the Texas Public Policy Foundation by Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics. That report assumes federal help for unemployment insurance (opposed by the Guv and pushed by many lawmakers) would lead to permanent increases in UI taxes on business. They estimate the drag on the private sector would cost jobs, and recommend lowering taxes to free up business money so those businesses will increase employment in their part of the economy.

• Sales tax revenue for the state totaled $1.6 billion in March, down 3.8 percent from the same month in 2008. Comptroller Susan Combs blamed weakness in retail trade, mining and construction, and other sector. For the year-to-date, the numbers are still outpacing last year even with the March drop. For the first three months of this year, sales tax payments were up 1.9 percent over the same period the year before.

• Texas is fining the Plainview Peanut Co. $14.6 million for alleged food safety violations. Those problems were discovered after a salmonella outbreak traced to a Georgia company was blamed for nine deaths and hundreds of illnesses. The fine is apparently the largest ever levied by the Texas Department of State Health Services, but the treasury might never see the money: The company is in bankruptcy.

• Around lunchtime on April 16, students at the University of Texas plan to walk out of class and march on the State Capitol as a protest against legislation that would allow concealed handguns on state university campuses. We found out about it from management; they sent a memo to teachers to alert them to the walkout.

Coming soon to a House near you: The first real look at how this bunch votes on tough issues.

The budget — and its companion, a supplemental appropriations bill — will hit the floor at the end of next week. That's the first potentially divisive material to reach the full House this session. It could provide some clues to the coalitions and combatants in legislative debates ahead over contentious issues like Voter ID, college tuition, unemployment insurance, and so on.

It'll also be a test of sorts for House Speaker Joe Straus, who won that office, in part, on a pledge to let members run the House instead of following a strong hand on the tiller.

The holiday break is the last one before the end of the session, and the prospects are pretty bleak for anyone who's not trying to kill legislation. The slow start and the crush of bills promise a gnarly traffic jam over the next few weeks.

Dewey Brackin made partner in the government affairs section at Gardere Wynne Sewell’s Austin office. He's a former assistant AG and specializes in the food and beverage industry's dealings with regulators and lawmakers.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed John Chupp of Arlington to the 141st Judicial District Court, replacing Judge Len Wade of Fort Worth. Chupp's an attorney with the Guerrero Law Office; Wade's leaving the bench to join a Fort Worth law firm.

The Guv wants Olen Underwood of Willis to continue on as presiding judge of the Second Administrative Judicial Region for four more years.

Perry named Larry Holt of College Station to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Holt's an attorney.

Gerry Evenwel of Mt. Pleasant — the retired director of benefits for Pilgrim's Pride — is Perry's newest appointee to the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee, charged with developing a health plan for Texas prison inmates.

And Perry named Glyn Crane of Longview, Carolyn Harvey of Tyler, and Ann Schneider of Austin to the Aging and Disability Services Council. Crane is president of Troy Business Forms. Harvey is director of nursing at Behavioral Hospital of Longview. Schneider is a former nurse and founder of several healthcare businesses.

The Dallas-based Allyn & Co. won Pollie Awards — the Oscars of political advertising — for ads it did for state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and for its campaign for Smoke-Free Dallas.