Hide your wallet, change the locks on the doors and make sure you know where your kids are; the Legislature will be meeting in a special session this summer. What’s so special about it? Looks like just another opportunity for mischief.
Because of the Democratic chub-fest late in the Session (killing voter ID legislation), legislation died reauthorizing the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of Insurance and others.
Losing out on the Department of Insurance doesn’t sound nearly so bad. Illinois let theirs lapse a few years ago, and the insurance market there has been one of the only healthy segments of their economy.
But I digress. Apparently the executive branch looked under every legal rock trying to find a way to keep the agencies going until the next Session. But to no avail.
So a special session is in the works for the summer, exact date not yet announced.
Given how legislators scored (see our Index) on fiscal issues, and the tumult caused by efforts of a couple wayward Republicans to increase gas taxes and hike fees, there is no end to the mischief lawmakers could cause.
The only chance taxpayers have is for Gov. Perry to keep the call for the special very, very, very narrow. So narrow they’d only need to be in town for a couple of days.
Here’s hoping Perry can pull it off.
