Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas If youre saying that to someone in Texas and its an odd-numbered year then youre also getting ready whether you know it or not for the legislative session.
Yeah its that time of every-other-year again where 181 new old genuine and figurative friends get together to pass some laws some of which will almost certainly mean a lot to you and your family and friends.
Im hosting an open house on the first day of the session a week from today. Come by the Capitol office (in room E1.810 in the underground extension just north of the Capitol) anytime on Tuesday Jan. 11 to meet and greet my staff and me. I hope to see you next week or any time over the next five months.
The Big Question
This session (which starts a week from today) promises to be especially important because as youve heard the state is facing a huge budget shortfall about $20 billion which would be nearly a quarter of the total budget that the legislature has discretion over.
So thats a big problem right? And its coming right after a long political campaign where some folks bragged (a lot) about how great the Texas economy is doing?
Those things might make you scratch your head and wonder if the state is doing so great how come the state budget looks so bad? What happened?
Not an entirely natural disaster
Well obviously its more than the recession. Ive been saying for a while that those in control of state finances have been balancing the budget with debt diversions and deception. And one of the biggest problems is that information about the states budget and finances simply has not been made available to Texans.
These problems have become so big that they just cant be hidden. And this ought to be the one thing we dont argue about: the state should be as honest and as open as it possibly can be so that Texans know how their money is being spent make sure problems arent being covered up and know that the Texas economy is remaining competitive.
This all goes back to the Honesty Agenda that I proposed a couple of months back and is among my top priorities for the session. And theres a very simple first step we can take toward this openness and accountability and we can take it almost immediately in the very first week of the session.
New rules for more time
Next week Ill propose a change in the Senate rules that will make sure every Texan has the time and ability to read the final version of the budget before its passed. Oh and by the way so will the senators.
Heres the problem: Every session the Texas Senate passes one version of the budget and the House of Representatives passes another. At that point a few legislators are appointed to whats known as a Conference Committee and they get together (often behind closed doors) to add some spending and programs to the budget remove some investment that some folks care about and make other changes.
Then after a month or so of work the Conference Committee report which is basically the final draft of the budget gets filed in both the Senate and the House. And legislators advocates the media and other Texans generally have about 48 hours if that to sort through an almost 1000 page document. Even with the best of intentions and effort folks are left scrambling to discover whats been changed added subtracted divided or multiplied as they try to figure out how lots of money covering lots of items more than $180 billion in the current budget (which includes $87 billion in discretionary money) will be spent.
Of course this rush to judgment is usually right at the very tail end of the session when things are totally nuts because of the final legislative crunch and the hurricane of last minute activity and distractions.
Well if were going to really reform the process and honor the right of Texans to know what their government is doing by making sure budget and fiscal information is readily and widely available a simple first step would be to give everyone just a little more time lets take five days a simple business week" to make sure were comfortable with this Conference Committee budget.
What a business week gives us
Taking one business week would help us all evaluate whether Texas even in the midst of a tough economy is maintaining its commitments to schools health care for seniors border security and other moral priorities that will keep Texas economically competitive.
It would allow Texans to see whether the legislature is adopting basic reforms that will open the states books to its people help Texas avoid these budget crises in the future and eliminate gimmicks diversions and cost-shifts that might force things like property taxes to go up.
And it would guarantee that we all have enough time to know everything we need to know about how Texas is spending its (make that our) money.
If you want to learn more about this proposed rule change click here to see the language and here for the letter I sent to my Senate colleagues this week about the proposal.
The basic truth is that Texas cant solve this budget crisis without being completely open honest and accountable about the states finances. And this rule change would help achieve that simply by making sure we all constituents and legislators have enough time to read the final version of the budget.
This is simple openness basic honesty and a fundamental first step toward accountability. It will allow us to know how our money will be spent before its too late.
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas If youre saying that to someone in Texas and its an odd-numbered year then youre also getting ready whether you know it or not for the legislative session.
Yeah its that time of every-other-year again where 181 new old genuine and figurative friends get together to pass some laws some of which will almost certainly mean a lot to you and your family and friends.
Im hosting an open house on the first day of the session a week from today. Come by the Capitol office (in room E1.810 in the underground extension just north of the Capitol) anytime on Tuesday Jan. 11 to meet and greet my staff and me. I hope to see you next week or any time over the next five months.
The Big Question
This session (which starts a week from today) promises to be especially important because as youve heard the state is facing a huge budget shortfall about $20 billion which would be nearly a quarter of the total budget that the legislature has discretion over.
So thats a big problem right? And its coming right after a long political campaign where some folks bragged (a lot) about how great the Texas economy is doing?
Those things might make you scratch your head and wonder if the state is doing so great how come the state budget looks so bad? What happened?
Not an entirely natural disaster
Well obviously its more than the recession. Ive been saying for a while that those in control of state finances have been balancing the budget with debt diversions and deception. And one of the biggest problems is that information about the states budget and finances simply has not been made available to Texans.
These problems have become so big that they just cant be hidden. And this ought to be the one thing we dont argue about: the state should be as honest and as open as it possibly can be so that Texans know how their money is being spent make sure problems arent being covered up and know that the Texas economy is remaining competitive.
This all goes back to the Honesty Agenda that I proposed a couple of months back and is among my top priorities for the session. And theres a very simple first step we can take toward this openness and accountability and we can take it almost immediately in the very first week of the session.
New rules for more time
Next week Ill propose a change in the Senate rules that will make sure every Texan has the time and ability to read the final version of the budget before its passed. Oh and by the way so will the senators.
Heres the problem: Every session the Texas Senate passes one version of the budget and the House of Representatives passes another. At that point a few legislators are appointed to whats known as a Conference Committee and they get together (often behind closed doors) to add some spending and programs to the budget remove some investment that some folks care about and make other changes.
Then after a month or so of work the Conference Committee report which is basically the final draft of the budget gets filed in both the Senate and the House. And legislators advocates the media and other Texans generally have about 48 hours if that to sort through an almost 1000 page document. Even with the best of intentions and effort folks are left scrambling to discover whats been changed added subtracted divided or multiplied as they try to figure out how lots of money covering lots of items more than $180 billion in the current budget (which includes $87 billion in discretionary money) will be spent.
Of course this rush to judgment is usually right at the very tail end of the session when things are totally nuts because of the final legislative crunch and the hurricane of last minute activity and distractions.
Well if were going to really reform the process and honor the right of Texans to know what their government is doing by making sure budget and fiscal information is readily and widely available a simple first step would be to give everyone just a little more time lets take five days a simple business week" to make sure were comfortable with this Conference Committee budget.
What a business week gives us
Taking one business week would help us all evaluate whether Texas even in the midst of a tough economy is maintaining its commitments to schools health care for seniors border security and other moral priorities that will keep Texas economically competitive.
It would allow Texans to see whether the legislature is adopting basic reforms that will open the states books to its people help Texas avoid these budget crises in the future and eliminate gimmicks diversions and cost-shifts that might force things like property taxes to go up.
And it would guarantee that we all have enough time to know everything we need to know about how Texas is spending its (make that our) money.
If you want to learn more about this proposed rule change click here to see the language and here for the letter I sent to my Senate colleagues this week about the proposal.
The basic truth is that Texas cant solve this budget crisis without being completely open honest and accountable about the states finances. And this rule change would help achieve that simply by making sure we all constituents and legislators have enough time to read the final version of the budget.
This is simple openness basic honesty and a fundamental first step toward accountability. It will allow us to know how our money will be spent before its too late.
