In their first budget vote of the legislative session, House members will have the chance to prove they meant it when campaigning on a fiscally conservative platform in November. Failing on this vote will set a poor precedent for the rest of Session.

So a Republican state senator goes to work, gets scared by the budget, advocates balancing budget by increasing taxes and spending all the savings, then declares his position is “conservative.”  Is this a joke? Because it’s not funny… It’s also what’s going on right now.

Talking about the weather is usually the last refuge of polite conversation, but discussion about Texas’ economic climate is the starting point for budget talk in Austin. It’s not a question of is it raining, but what’s the best umbrella to use. So far, the legislature hasn’t done anything to justify tapping the state savings account.

Tomorrow, as part of a university-sponsored lobbying effort called “Invest in Texas”, The University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Finance Committee, using your tax-dollars to turn right around and beg the legislature not to take away any of your tax-dollars.

On Tuesday, March 1, the House Select Committee on Voter Identification and Voter Fraud will begin hearing testimony on the Voter ID bill that passed the Texas Senate two weeks ago. While this is definitely a good start at combating those who wish to skew the will of voters, I believe there is more that could be done during this legislative session. During this session, as in previous sessions, Voter ID has been the main focus for combating fraud, but there is another problem plaguing Texas – vote harvesting.

The Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee, made up of 13 tea party organizers from around the state, have issued a unanimous call to the legislative Tea Party Caucus and statewide elected leaders to hold the line on spending the State’s Rainy Day Fund.
 

Some pretty nasty medicine was prescribed by State Rep. John Zerwas, MD, that he thinks will “dull the edge” of the current budgeting process. Sorry, doc, but yours isn’t a very sound diagnosis.

No matter how liberals try to spin it, Texas voters say in a new poll they clearly want the state’s budget balanced by spending cuts. As our own poll found, those same voters won’t be happy with legislators who do anything else.

Well, you should give State Sen. Kevin Eltife two points for consistency.  It seems that his knee-jerk reaction to principled, fiscally responsible public policy is to decry it as “crazy” and “insane”.