I confess, I haven’t been paying nearly close enough attention to the budget debates going on in both chambers right now. Inside the Texas Capitol and The Red State have some excellent analyses that I urge you to read. Eddie from The Red State notes that not only is the mantra about “fully restoring CHIP funds” misleading, but there’s a little political gamesmanship going on, too:
And what would an appropriations bill be without some gubernatorial politicking. The “Pass the Buck” rider in the Article 9 of this bill would require the Office of the Comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, to make budget cuts if the budget does not balance. Strayhorn, a fierce critic of Gov. Perry, is thinking about/maybe or is running for governor in 2006. So, if the budget falls apart due to bad numbers (and it usually does) or for whatever reason, the Comptroller would be the bad guy in the black hat. This situation is a win/win for Perry because if she cuts the budget more, then she plays the heavy, and if she refuses to cut then she is abdicating her responsibility and not doing her elected job. In addition, the power of appropriation belongs to the Legislature and arguably is unconstitutional to pass this responsiblity.
If that goes through, it would make this the second straight regular session in which Strayhorn has taken a hit from the Lege. has more, while State Rep. Aaron Pena reports on how the final vote on the budget went in the House.
I dunno, maybe she can cut Texas House budgets and freeze member’s pay. It depends on how nasty she wants to get. Drop the funds for Trans-Texas Boondoggle, something like that…
If it got thrown to her, we’d have to see who suddenly contributed to her campaign, wouldn’t we?
Wouldn’t this make the position of State Comptroller more powerful than the Governor??
Sliding the Governor from 5th most powerful to 6th? Maybe. If it made her more powerful than the Light Gov, that would be news in Texas…
Paying attention to the budget debate is a waste of time until conference committee begins meeting.