Lone Star Report Recent Blog Posts

The Lone Star Report will not be publishing this Friday, Nov. 26, 2010.

A Travis County Jury has convicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on money laundering and conspiracy charges. The story is in most of the state's newspapers. Click here to read the Houston Chronicle's account.

The Austin American-Statesman published an interesting article today on the attempt by some city officials to have the Texas Open Meetings Act declared unconstitutional. The officials argue it violates their First Amendment rights to be prevented from emailing a quorum of, say, a city council and having a virtual discussion about agenda items (or the future agenda of the city council). The case is being heard in the District Court by federal judge and former legislator Rob Junell.

We wish to draw our readers' attention to one section in the story:

With help from the Texas Municipal League, [attorney Dick] DeGuerin recruited current city officials to join a new lawsuit, including Pflugerville City Council Member Victor Gonzales, who was on the witness list but did not testify Tuesday.

First the big-government city lobbyists work to make sure it's next to impossible for voters to rollback excessive property tax increases. Now they're trying to get a federal judge to throw out the Texas Open Meetings Act so they can do public business in secret.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform President Richard J. Trabulsi, Jr. issued the following statement on the Attorney General's ruling that many documents in the TWIA settlement, including bills for legal fees, constitutes public information:

“Restoring and maintaining public trust in our civil justice system has always been a primary goal of TLR.  In September, TLR requested that all important information regarding the TWIA-Ike settlements be released.  The public absolutely has a right to know the details surrounding the TWIA-Ike settlements because of the unique nature of TWIA, the involvement of elected officials in its oversight, the potential impact on premiums paid by Texans for insurance, and the possibility that our State’s general revenue fund might be impacted.”

At today's news conference, LSR asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst what he thinks of proposals from school lobbyists and superintendents to spend billions more on public education. "Everyone in America realizes that the message of this last election, whether you're living in Washington DC or you're living in Texas or you're living in the state of Washington or Maine or Florida or California -- all across this great land -- is that we've got to live within our means," Dewhurst said. "TThat's what people want they don't want to go into debt. They don't want to mortgage their kids' future ... What I would say to superintendents is public education is a huge priority, and we're going to do everything we can in the Legislature ... to put more new money into public education. But these are challenging times ... We've got to live within our means, and everybody from the Legislature has got to look at ways we can do the same job or better for less money... And we've got to figure out -- whether we're a public education superintendent or lieutenant governor -- how to do the job smarter with less resources."

Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst unveiled a rainy day fund for the Republican Party of Texas today. The party has established a $100,000 Certificate of Deposit to save for a rainy day. Dewhurst contributed $65,000 directly to RPT and helped to raise an additional $100,000 -- which the party decided to use to open its Rainy Day Fund.

"I have been so impressed with what our new chairman Steve Munisteri has done since June," Dewhurst said. "... The turnaround we've seen is nothing short of incredible ... I'm very anxious to do anything I can to help the party."

Munisteri's statement can be read here. 

Speaker Joe Straus issued the following statement on the agreement between the State Board of Education and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson to provide extra cash from the Permanent School Fund to balance the state budget:

"As a result of the good stewardship of our investment portfolio by Commissioner Jerry Patterson and the General Land Office (GLO), we will have $300 million in resources previously unavailable for our schools for the budget next session.  I applaud the SBOE and Commissioner Patterson for developing a solution that helps Texas fund our education priorities."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst issued the following statement today about the elected State Board of Education and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson reaching an agreement to provide an extra $300 million to balance the state budget:

"I want to thank Commissioner Jerry Patterson and the State Board of Education for working with us to develop a solution that will help the Legislature fund our education priorities next session. Every dime of this additional $300 million distribution, equivalent to 3,000 teacher salaries over two years, will go directly to our public schools, students and teachers."

The State Board of Education voted to increase the payout rate for the Permanent School Fund today. The rate helps fund the state's public school obligations, which in turn helps balance the state budget.

The board agreed to spend 4.2 percent of the value of the fund over the past 16 quarters. That works out to $1.58 billion plus an additional $300 million from the General Land Office (GLO). This is an increase from a previously adopted 3.5 percent rate. The board made its higher rate contingent on action of the School Land Board to send an additional $500 million from its land accounts to the State Board of Education's accounts. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, chairman of the School Land Board, agreed in writing to support such a transfer.