The Senate passed something early this morning. It's a muddle, but it's apparently closer to the muddle that the House passed previously, so that makes it a victory of some kind.
I'm not going to bother with any quoting because none of this is going to matter until we get to the joint committee stage. The fact that there have been several very close votes, with Democrats acting in total solidarity with a number of dissatisfied Republicans, says to me that the balancing act that each chamber has gone through may all fall apart once the differences are are ironed out and the jerryrigged compromise is duct-taped together for a final vote. Greg has some salient observations, while PinkDome asks the really important questions:
What in the hell is [Senator Florence] Shapiro wearing? White denim with some chain around her waist? Is white denim ok for the Senate Chamber? Was it casual tax bill day or something and only Flo got the memo?
One last thing. Here's a paragraph from the Statesman article that Greg linked to:
That vote also knocked out key provisions that Dewhurst had championed: new taxes on business partnerships. It also knocked out a voter referendum on those taxes. Both had been highly touted elements of the Senate version of the tax plan unveiled last week.