LSR Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Sunday. He blasted the University of North Texas Board of Regents' 5-4 vote to raise tuition, and praised Gov. Rick Perry for demanding reform and cost control for higher education. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday morning at 9 on WFAA, Channel 8 in North Texas. We post a clip of this week's Inside Texas Politics below. Lutz's RANT starts about eight minutes into the program (-8:15 remaining):

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on WFAA Television this Sunday. Lutz will be discussing Gov. Rick Perry's call for reform and cost control in higher education. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am on Channel 8 in North Texas.

U.S. District Judge (and former legislator) Rob Junell ruled that the Texas Open Meetings Act is constitutional. A series of city councilors tried to challenge the constitutionality of the act, as it applied to councilors emailing a quorum of the city council with remarks about the agenda. Click here to read Junell's ruling.

"Today’s ruling is a great victory for democracy and the First Amendment," said Attorney General Greg Abbott. "Openness in government is a First Amendment virtue, not a First Amendment violation. This guarantees the public will continue to have access to information about how their government works."

Right now, there's a simmering debate in Austin over whether Texas higher education policy will consist of throwing money at the status quo or whether Texas taxpayers deserve reform to make higher education a better deal for students, parents and taxpayers. Not surprisingly, the biggest supporter of the status quo is the University of Texas senior administration. Yesterday, Texas Exes President Richard Leshin sent an email to UT alumni that was a thinly-veiled attack on higher education reform, Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Public Policy Foundation. We'll deal with some of the unfair claims and statements in this email in due course. But in this week's LSR, contributing editor William Murchison discusses the need for higher education reform. We commend his article to our readers and post it here.

In a session dominated by cuts, the Senate Finance Committee voted to spend additional tax dollars on public education today. Even with the additional appropriation, declining property values and student growth will result in a per-student reduction. But the finance committee is spending more general revenue on public schools.

The Senate Finance Committee adopted the subcommittee's funding recommendations 13-2 today. (Sens. Eddie Lucio [D-Brownsville] and Judith Zaffirini [D-Laredo] voted no). We'll have more details on the budget in our subscription newsletter tomorrow.

Recently, the San Antonio Express-News published a story quoting three legislative Republicans, some of whom are reported calling for re-opening the State Board of Education's social studies standards. One of the members quoted in the story was House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands). Previously, Eissler signed a letter from the Texas Conservative Coalition supporting the standards. Jonathan Saenz, director of legislative affairs for the Liberty Institute, caught up with Eissler and offered him the opportunity to clarify his position on the standards and the confirmation of Gail Lowe (R-Lampasas), current chairman of the State Board of Education. We post an embedded link to Saenz's interview below:

Lone Star Report managing editor William Lutz will appear on Rule of Law Radio's "Live and Let Live" with Gary Johnson this evening at 9 pm Central Time. The program is live and can be heard at 90.1 FM in Austin or at http://www.ruleoflawradio.com. Lutz will be discussing the recent Lone Star Foundation-Americans for Prosperity study suggesting ways to solve the budget crisis through reduced bureaucracy. Lutz is a co-author of that study.

The Texas budget crisis affords lawmakers a great opportunity to make government more efficient.

In that spirit, the Lone Star Foundation -- publisher of this Web site -- along with Americans for Prosperity present a series of recommendations to do just that. This study proposes ideas to cut spending while providing better value to the taxpayer. We commend it to our readers.

It wouldn't be a tight budget cycle without Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst talking about using "non-tax revenue." Dewhurst is still quite quiet about the Rainy Day Fund deal between the House leadership and Gov. Rick Perry. He's hoping creation of a new finance subcommittee chaired by Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) will serve as his response.

In light of the deal brokered yesterday between House Speaker Joe Straus, Gov. Rick Perry, and Comptroller Susan Combs, we've received a lot of statements. Under the deal, Perry gives his blessing to use of the Rainy Day Fund to pay for the deficit from fiscal year 2011, but promises to veto use of the fund for 2012-13 expenses. Here are some of the statements we've received:

Rep. Tom Craddick's office issued the following statement yesterday evening:

Every session is different. But in few areas are those differences as marked as with the fate of the Smoke Free Texas Bill. In terms of the political chess-game and swaying alliances, the Smoke-Free Texas bill is one of the most interesting I've covered.

Because the bill got stuck in the committee process last session, I took a wait-and-see approach to the bill this session.Today, the bill emerged from the House Public Health Committee. Last week, it was reported favorably by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Those votes have put the bill back on my radar screen for this session.

This week, we celebrate 175 years of Texas Independence. And the week’s festivities wouldn’t be complete without pausing to remember that our freedom isn’t free. We need to remember and honor the people who died to create and preserve it.

But we need to do more than memorialize – we need to teach our children why America and Texas are special.

In this week’s issue, I penned an opinion piece calling on our elected leaders to support that very mission. But this issue is important enough that it deserves treatment on our blog as well. So we’ve made the opinion piece public. Click here to read.
 

U.S. Sen John Cornyn (R-San Antonio) grilled Secretary of Education Arne Duncan over the Doggett amendment to the Education Jobs bill and the Department of Education's ruling that Texas has not complied and is ineligible to receive $800 million in federal education aid.  Last year, former U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) amended a federal education funding bill to prohibit the Department of Education from giving money to Texas unless Gov. Rick Perry made promises about future education funding -- promises that Perry said violate the Texas constitution.

Cornyn and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas) have introduced a bill to repeal the Doggett amendment. U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Lewisville) successfully amendment the House's continuing resolution to repeal the Doggett amendment, but the U.S. Senate has yet to act on the House bill.

A transcript of the exchange between Duncan and Cornyn (provided by Cornyn's office) is posted below:

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Sunday to discuss the state budget. Lutz calls for more budget cuts, and particularly addressing the fact that there is almost one non-teacher for every teacher on school district payroll. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am on WFAA Channel 8. We post an embedded link to the video file below (Lutz's commentary starts with about 7:30 remaining in the program):

It appears Texas Democrats will use the nomination of Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley as presiding officer of the Texas Forensic Science Commission as the first confirmation fight of the 2011 Legislative Session. The Senate Nominations Committee approved Bradley's nomination today 4-2, with both of the committee's Democrats -- Sens. Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso) and Kirk Watson (D-Austin) -- voting no. The Texas Forensic Science Commission is the one looking into the arson evidence used at the trial of executed murderer Cameron Todd Willingham. The victims: his three daughters, two-year-old Amber Louise Kuykendall, and one-year-old twins Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie Willingham.

Lone Star Report Managing Editor William Lutz will be making an appearance on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics this Sunday morning. Lutz will state his opinion that the sky is not falling in regards to the state budget and that the budget presents an opportunity to cut spending and operate government more efficiently. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am on WFAA Channel 8 in North Texas.

WFAA television is reporting that Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert has announced for U.S. Senate. Click here to view WFAA's story.

In another sign that the U.S. House of Representatives is under new management, the House voted today to repeal U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett's (D-Austin) restriction on funding Texas schools. The Doggett amendment prevents the U.S. Department of Education from awarding $800 million in education stimulus money to Texas unless Gov. Rick Perry makes promises about future education funding that Perry has said would violate the Texas constitution. Perry praised the House vote.

For our subscribers, we have started our analysis of the census data in this week's issue. But we also thought our readers would enjoy links to the census numbers so they can examine the information themselves.

Click here for the Texas census homepage.

Click here for an interactive map of the data.

Also, the Texas Legislative Council has produced a series of reports on the redistricting population numbers. Click here to see the Texas Legislative Council's report and maps of existing Congressional, Legislative, and SBOE districts.

UPDATE: (10:15 a.m. 2/14/11): An earlier verison of this post had an incorrect link. We have since placed the correct link to the Master's Report in this blog post.)

On Friday, Rep. Will Hartnett (R-Dallas) issued his Master's Report recommending that the Texas House of Representatives declare Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) re-elected by four votes over Republican Dan Neil. The report will be reviewed by the select committee previously appointed by Speaker Joe Straus, and that committee's conclusions may be reviewed by the whole House.

Per the Texas Constitution, the House's decision on its own election is final. Hartnett's report provides a detailed description of the legal controversies surrounding this election result as well as detailed legal justification for his conclusion that Howard won the race.

Click here to read the report.

Rep. Will Hartnett (R-Dallas) served as master of discovery for the election contest between Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) and Republican Dan Neil. Hartnett ruled Howard won the election by 4 votes. Hartnett issued the following statement to the press: "After a thorough review of the numerous challenged ballots, I have concluded that Donna Howard won the election by 4 votes and therefore should continue to serve in the House of Representatives. Voters who moved out of Travis County, but voted at their former address subtracted a net amount of votes from Ms. Howard's margin of victory. The report will be released later this evening."

Joe Nixon, attorney for Neil, issued the following statement:

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Joe Greenhill died today. Greenhill served as chief justice 1972-1982. He was 96. “Not only this Court, but the people of Texas have lost a great treasure,” said current Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson. Click here to read the Supreme Court press office's tribute to Greenhill.

Gov. Rick Perry has ordered flags at half-staff until Tuesday and issued the following statement:

e Board of Directors of the Texas Retirement System named Brian Guthrie as the agency’s new executive director, effective Sept. 1, 2011. Guthrie replaces Ronnie Jung who is retiring.

At 5 p.m. today, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst released Senate committee assignments for the 82nd Texas Legislature. The roster of chairmen was basically established during the summer shake-up of committee chairmen.

"Texas is fortunate to have 31 hardworking and talented State Senators, and the makeup of our Senate committees reflects their considerable leadership skills and depth of experience," Dewhurst said. "From balancing the budget to redistricting, we have a lot to accomplish this session in a relatively short period of time, but I'm confident that our Senators and our Senate Committees are up to the challenge."

Click here to read the full list of committee assignments.

No, we didn't make that name up. At yesterday's Texas Association of Business annual meeting, Rep. Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton) said of Rep. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), "This is the trial lawyer slayer. Right here." That line brought the loudest applause of the entire afternoon.

Last year, Taylor engaged in a months-long legal and public relations battle with a series of Galveston attorneys over whether the state-created Texas WIndstorm Insurance Association should disclose the amount of attorneys fees in a settlement of an insurance lawsuit with owners whose homes were leveled by Hurricane Ike. Steve Mostyn, one of the attorneys in the case and current president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, filed the legal motions which temporarily kept that information from the public. (The materials were eventually released.) Mostyn is a major donor to Democratic causes and candidates. Bonnen blasted the plaintiff's attorney's saying they "were trying to destroy him [Taylor] for simply wanting true information."

The officers of the State Board of Education have assigned members to committees for 2011-2012. The committees will elect their chairmen and vice-chairmen at later dates. The officers announced the following committee assignments:

The State Board of Education has elected Bob Craig (R-Lubbock) as its vice-chairman by a 9-6 vote and Mary Helen Berlanga (D-Corpus Christi) as secretary by an 8-7 vote. The three board officers (the board chair -- currently Gail Lowe (R-Lampasas) is an appointee of the governor) jointly make the committee assignments.

Members of the board's socially conservative faction nominated Ken Mercer (R-San Antonio) for vice-chairman and Terri Leo (R-Spring) for secretary. The consequence of the vote is the board's socially conservative faction will not control the committee assignments. Unlike legislative committees, however, committees of the State Board of Education cannot unilaterally kill rules or agenda items. Final action from the board is determined by the final full board vote, though the committee's decision and rationale does often influence the final board decision.

The State Board of Education voted 9-6 to retain standards for textbooks in its operating rule. In 1995, the Texas Legislature severly restricted the ability of the board to reject books based on their content. In reaction to that law, the State Board of Education adopted an operating rule creating a procedure for the board to adopt a non-binding resolution expressing an opinion about a textbook. Included in that rule were its prior textbook standards that became non-binding as a result of the 1995 law. Board member Michael Soto (D-San Antonio) tried to remove the section of the board's operating rules that included both the textbook standards and a procedure to pass resolutions on textbooks.

The board rejected Soto's motion 9-6, with the board's four Democrats (Soto, Mary Helen Berlanga (Corpus Christi), Lawrence Allen (Houston), Mavis Knight (Dallas)) and two Republicans (Bob Craig of Lubbock and Thomas Ratliff of Mt. Pleasant) voting to strike the textbook standards, while the remaining board Republicans supported leaving them in place.

Here are some of the textbook content standards Soto wanted to remove from the State Board of Education's rules:

Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for the United States Senate today. "The reason for the campaign is very simple," Cruz said. "President Barack Obama is the most radical president ever to occupy the White House. We are facing the Epic battle of our generation. Does this nation remain a free market nation?"

Cruz joins a crowded field that will likely include Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams and former Secretary of State Roger Williams and may include Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and many more. Current U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced recently that she would not seek re-election in 2012, creating an open seat environment.

Former US President George HW Bush has endorsed former Secretary of State Roger Williams for the US Senate. "Anyone who has met Roger knows he can be trusted to bring a fresh, positive, can-do, real-world perspective that too often is missing in Washington, DC," Bush said. "I have no doubt Roger Williams will be a great senator for our state, our country and our future.”

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics this Sunday to deliver a one-minute commentary called "The RANT." Lutz addressed the continuing controversy over House Speaker Joe Straus. He noted that Joe Straus says he's a fiscal conservative, and Lutz invites him to prove it by appointing a slate of chairmen that stand up to the tax increase lobby consistently. The commentary starts with about eleven minutes to go on the clip posted below. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday morning at 9 on WFAA Channel 8 in North Texas.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics this Sunday. Lutz will give his opinion on whether House Speaker Joe Straus is a fiscal conservative. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 on WFAA, Channel 8 in North Texas.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson announced he will consider a run for lieutenant governor. His announcement comes after U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced she will not run for re-election in 2012 and current Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced he would consider a senate race after the legislative session.

“I am today announcing my interest in seeking the office of Lt. Governor,” Patterson said, “because I am eager to find new ways to put my experience and passion to work for the people of Texas.  I offer a unique skill set for the job and I look forward to bringing that before the people of Texas to once again ask for their trust. A Marine is not easily deterred,” Patterson quipped. “With a lot of years in politics, I’ve both won and lost.  Winning is better, and that is exactly what I intend to do should I run for Lt. Governor.” Patterson's full release can be read here.

Patterson served in the Texas Senate before becoming Land Commissioner and is the author fo the Texas Concealed Carry Law.

Rep. Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton) filed a constitutional amendment banning unfunded mandates to local governments today. The constitutional amendment, HJR 56, would free local government from having to comply with any mandate enacted after Jan. 1, 2012 unless the necessary funding was provided as well.

"All across the State and the nation, for that matter, citizens are telling governments they want them to live within their means and to not pass along unfunded mandates," Solomons said. "People are fed up with the federal government mandating the State of Texas to provide services that were not endorsed by its citizens or funded by the federal government -- Governor Perry campaigned on it. Well, we shouldn't be doing the same thing to our local governments."

This morning, much of the media is celebrating the demise of former Congressman Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land), sentenced yesterday to three years in prison and ten years probation for campaign finance violations. I'm reminded of the old Mark Twain quote: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) issued the following statement today:

 My congratulations to Joe Straus!

It was not easy, but at last the Republicans have met as a unified group. All candidates had their say, and then a solid majority voted to support incumbent Joe Straus for reelection as Speaker of the House.

Speaker Candidate Ken Paxton (R-McKinney) issued the following statement yesterday evening:

“On the eve of tomorrow’s official vote for Speaker, I’m proud to have the support of my good friend Warren Chisum.   He has waged a valiant and principled fight with honor and distinction.  Texans who provided us with our historic governing mandate should be embraced and welcomed into the process.   They deserve openness and transparency - including a public vote - and that is why I will remain a candidate for Speaker on the floor of the Texas House.”

Comptroller Susan Combs released a $72.2 billion revenue estimate this morning. That is down 2.9 percent from the year prior. Anemic reveue growth combined with the likelihood the state will finish in a deficit combined to produce a lower revenue estimate than last year. "The recent recession has had its impact on the state revenue outlook as major revenue sources such as the sales tax generated less money in the last couple of years," Combs said. "While we have turned the corner to an economic recovery, the revenue estimate I'm releasing today is for moderate growth."

Click here to view the full revenue estimate.

(More updates to be posted later in the day)

For months, the Capitol press corps has debated a made-up, unoffical concept. They've been debating how big is the so-called shortfall. For one thing, there's no agreed-to definition of shorthall. Everyone defines it differently, and no state agency produces it. Comptroller Susan Combs declined to give a shortfall estimate when asked, noting that her job is to estimate revenue, not spending. That said, some of the interest groups at the Capitol have given their estimates.

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility's Michael Quinn Sullivan blasted proposals to vote in secret for Speaker of the House.

"Disturbingly, a story in the Texas Tribune this morning suggests some might try to have the speakership vote hidden from public view," Sullivan said. "That would be a mistake. Every vote on the people’s business – including the selection of the third-ranking constitutional officer -- should be held on the record and in full view of the public, available for scrutiny and posterity. Therefore, we will negatively score voting for any motion that shields the 'speaker vote' from the public record. Whoever one chooses to support for speaker sets in play the kind of policy leadership coming from the Texas House."

So far, we've received reactions from elected officials and interest groups to the biennial revenue estimate. We reprint excerpts below: