El Paso has been the center of a lot of controversy lately. First, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of a debate on drug policy. When Mayor John Cook vetoed the resolution, several legislators quickly discouraged the City Council from overriding his veto. They had unanimously agreed to something as well.

Austin City Manager Marc Ott is rolling out a new initiative, calling on his employees to identify ways the city can trim its budget. In a time when Austinites are having to do the same this is a welcome sight.

The program is called Dollars and Cents and at the onset it is designed trim the budget by 2 percent. Employee’s cost-cutting ideas will be presented to the city council next month.

Today House members voted to increase their operating budgets and raise the salary cap for legislative employees. While small businesses are tightening their belts, legislators are adding notches.

Under the new rules, legislators will get an extra $1,000 per month to run their offices. At the same time they raised the amount they can carry forward from $15,000 to $25,000.

Every Session bills are filed in the Texas House that range from the humorous to the inane. But of all the work lawmakers face this Session, none might be less relevant to modern life than re-desingating the official state dinosaur. Didn’t know we had one, did you?

Cleburne ISD (mis)spent $367,000 of federal funds to, among other things, build a waterslide and rent an inflatable alligator. What, precisely, an inflatable alligator has to do with reading instruction is left unanswered. According to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), this little gem was uncovered (pdf page 10) by the Texas Education Agency because local school officials failed to provide “lesson plans or other documentation” regarding the expenditure. Just goes to show, an alligator always gets you in the… wallet.

Even ideas are known by the company they keep. Disgraced and indicted Illinois Gov. Rod “Show Me The Money” Blagojevich is hard at work today signing subsidies for the movie industry. While facing legal action for soliciting bribes in exchange for filling the Senate seat left open by Barack Obama, Blagovich is using taxpayer dollars to bribe moviemakers to come to Illinois. Says something about the morality of the entire scheme, doesn’t it?

Embattled North Forest ISD has taken another hit, according to the Houston Chronicle, losing its bid for a massive tax increase. The measure failed by a 4-1 margin – thanks in large part to ACORN.

On a Saturday in November, less than 5 percent of the registered voters in the Humble school district foisted a massive tax hike on everyone else. The system of letting such important matters be decided on non-standard election dates – and by so few people – has got to change. This makes a mockery of democracy.

Talk about misplaced priorities… Alvin ISD is getting fined $1,800 because one kid shared some pizza. It seems the sharing of non-approved pizza is a big bureaucratic no-no, and was witnessed by a Texas Department of Agriculture monitor. Since 2004, schools have had to squash such nefarious activity or face stiff penalties from the Ag department.