By William Lutz on
3/28/2011 11:08 AM
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):
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By William Lutz on
3/26/2011 3:38 PM
As a general rule, the SBOE map adjusts the current map for population but is roughly a status quo map. Most of the districts in the map will perform roughly as the current map does in the general election.
The Solomons map does make several districts more compact than the current map, however. There are some significant changes that could affect a primary. We examine the Solomons map district by district below. (Note that when we say "current map," we mean the existing SBOE districts. Unless otherwise noted statements about "the map" that are not otherwise qualified are a reference to the Solomons proposal.)
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By William Lutz on
3/25/2011 4:29 PM
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.
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By William Lutz on
3/25/2011 3:59 PM
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."
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By William Lutz on
3/25/2011 12:10 PM
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.
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By William Lutz on
3/24/2011 1:47 PM
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.
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By William Lutz on
3/24/2011 12:42 AM
Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee voted out HB 1 -- the general appropriations act -- on a party-line vote.
The House Calendars Committee has set the supplemental bill -- HB 4 and the Rainy Day Fund Bill -- HB 275 for Thu. March 31. The committee has set HB 1 for Fri. April 1.
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By William Lutz on
3/23/2011 3:20 PM
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:
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By William Lutz on
3/20/2011 12:26 PM
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.
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By William Lutz on
3/18/2011 8:36 AM
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.
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