Gov. Rick Perry today announced he will be calling a special legislative session to begin Wednesday July 1 at 10 a.m. On the call will be:

*Continuing the five state agencies whose sunset bills did not pass the Legislature in the regular session and face abolition. The agencies are: the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Insurance, Texas Racing Commission, Office of Public Insurance Counsel and Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation. Also, Perry wants the legislators to change the review schedule for certain state agencies to balance the Sunset Advisory Commission’s workload, which would be all but unmanageable in 2010 otherwise;

*Allowing TxDOT to issue general obligation bonds, which the voters approved in Proposition 12, for highway improvement projects, and for the creation, administration, financing and use of a Texas Transportation Revolving Fund to provide financial assistance for transportation projects; and

*Continuing comprehensive development agreements by TxDOT and regional mobility authorities, to design, finance, build and maintain transportation infrastructure. This will probably turn out to be the most controversial item on the call.

Thomas Schieffer, a Democrat and former ambassador to Japan during George W. Bush's presidency, today formally announced his candidacy for Governor of Texas. It was conventionally known that he would enter the race, but today sealed the deal.

Schieffer said in his speech today that the Democrats in Texas should appeal to centrists, the same way Obama did during his presidential campaign. Schieffer harped on the need for better healthcare and education in the state.

Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) has said that he is "very flattered" by Sen. Leticia Van de Putte's calling him to run for governor. But he is as yet undecided.

"I have a job I enjoy greatly, which is representing the citizens of Senate District 14," Watson said in a statement released today.  "Over the next several weeks, I will evaluate the role I intend to play in serving Texas after 2010. That service may include running for and serving in another office or running for reelection. I intend to give this issue serious consideration, and I do not anticipate making any decisions in this regard until at least sometime after the end of the anticipated special session of the legislature, and probably not until the end of the summer."

Sen. Leticia Van De Putte of San Antonio, head of the Senate Democratic Caucus, has announced that she is removing herself from consideration for a run for governor in 2010, and is encouraging Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) to run for it instead.

"If I believed for a second that it would result in a healthy debate of the issues of most importance to Texas families, I would today be announcing my candidacy for Governor of Texas," she said. "But we have all watched over the years as Perry, Hutchison, and other Republican politicians have launched their scorched earth ‘say anything to win’ vicious attacks against political opponents. To mask their utter lack of leadership, they’ll do so again, and I decline to put my family through it. That I am a Latina would only serve to amplify their attacks."

Two prominent Democratic lawmakers from Houston, Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Garnet Coleman, have sounded off on Perry's vetoes of their bills.

One veto was on Ellis' SB 488, also known as the "safe passing bill," requiring at least three feet of clearance when motor vehicle operators are passing "vulnerable road users" like bicyclists or pedestrians. Ellis said his bill "would have provided protections for bicyclists, pedestrians, tow operators, disabled persons, and other vulnerable road users. I worked with some of the most conservative members of the legislature on compromises and in the end the bill had broad bipartisan support."

Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed an objection on behalf of the State of Texas to General Motors' bankruptcy court petition, certain provisions of which he says would require dealerships in Texas to either waive state law or lose GM's business. GM, which is now mostly owned by the federal government, is looking to require all existing GM dealerships in Texas, over 400 of them employing 27,000 Texans, to sign the new agreement which would, among other things, deny them their legal right to market other brands, and the right to

Abbott called the new agreement a "take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum." Under it, dealers would also be forced to go to court in New York to voice grievances.

"GM is seeking to place short term profit above long held principles; short term accounting above long term accountability," Abbott said today in a statement. "America deserves better; Texas is demanding it."

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (TFR), a watchdog group that pushes for low government spending and taxes, today released its "Fiscal Responsibility Index," a scorecard of how lawmakers fared on taxpayer protection issues. The Legislature was more fiscally conservative than last year's, but is still failing with a score of 52.13 percent, TFR president Michael Quinn Sullivan reported.

“Unfortunately, the session itself was highlighted by missed opportunities; too much was simply not done that should have been,” noted Sullivan. “Not only did the legislature fail to provide much-needed property tax relief, it only provided tweaks to the property tax appraisal system and the state's business tax instead of the fundamental reforms that were needed.”

Last night Gov. Rick Perry, while biking in the hills near his temporary home, broke his collar bone and had to go the emergency room. He's already been released, according to the Houston Chronicle story.

Gov. Rick Perry confirmed today that there will indeed be a special session during a meeting with state leaders about how Texas will handle federal legislation that would look to massively regulate CO2 gases. 

Perry said he was currently in the process of deciding exactly when a special would be, declining to say whether it would be called by September. "We now are to a point where we can say that there will be a special session," Perry told the press. "When is still a little bit up in the air, and we will notify you ASAP." He will announce what issues will be included on the call when he announces when the session will convene, he told reporters.