Friday Roundup: On The Road Again

Today's roundup will be a bit truncated — the entire Texas Blue crew (plus a bunch of other Denton County Young Democrats) are heading to Austin for the Texas Young Democrats convention. George and I will be updating you from the road as we are able, and maybe even sending a picture or two. If you'll be there and you have time on Saturday, I invite you to attend the workshop I'm running on Coalition Building at 2:45 pm.

Have you read about the Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act? Rick Perry has, and he is excited about it:

“Freedom of religion should not be mistaken for freedom from religion. It is one thing to prevent government from sponsoring or endorsing a particular religious view. It is quite another for government to sanitize all dialogue from religious viewpoints in a public setting,” said Gov. Perry.

The "freedom from religion" argument has always seemed suspect to me. I could be alone in that, though.
You know what else has seemed suspect for a long time? My electricity rates. The House voted yesterday to cut them by 15-20%, and to offer even more relief from deregulated freedom bills for poor customers. You know how much I love oversight, and this provides more oversight on the utilities industry, including reviews of rates every six months. My utility bill is $ridiculous, on average, so I'm glad to see this.

The Senate voted to discuss it, and then the Senate voted to pass it. Now the Senate has its very own version of the budget, distinct from that of the House, and 5 members from both chambers have to hammer out the final version by sine die. The Senate version includes merit-based pay for state employees and educators as well some differences on the loan / grant financial aid front for Texas college students.

From the same Statesman article,you can see the actual excitement in that debate — everyone was happy to have Senator Mario Gallegos Jr. back in the Chamber after his liver transplant, but Senator Dan Patrick tried to spoil the party thus:

The five-hour budget debate intensified when Patrick objected to a claim from Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr., D-Houston, that property-tax cuts mostly benefit the rich. Gallegos was back in the Senate for the first time since a liver transplant this year.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, angrily demanded that Patrick spell out $3 billion in savings that Patrick claimed could be found in the budget.

"It's your time to show this body that you know what you're talking about," Whitmire said.

Patrick, host of a conservative radio show, responded, "I don't have to be lectured by you."

I would respectfully suggest that Senator Patrick ought to be lectured by somebody.Statesman's Jason Embry has a more complete telling of the tale, which includes the phrase "It Was on."
W. Gardner Selby continues to relay the hilarity from the floor. This time, it includes Rep. Fred Hill (R) suggesting to the Speaker that Rep. Eliot Naishtat's (D) voting machine is broken and has been for his entire term in the Statehouse, Lots Of Laughs, gentlemen. I am not Rolling On The Floor Laughing, but I did Laugh Out Loud.

The Dallas Morning News' Chamber Music is also full up on amusing stories. This is apparently the part of the session when everyone gets to cracking wise. It is also interesting to note that three Republican committee chairman essentially lost control of their stores this week, with rebellions stacking up to embarrass Rep. Krusee in Transportation, Chisum in Appropriations, and Delisi in Public Health. Welcome to the future, I guess.

Lastly for today, I saw this on The Politico, and I thought it was funny. See you in Austin.