WEEKLY REPORT

February 17, 2012

State’s improving economy might change budget picture

The state’s rebounding economy should help Texas avoid another draconian budget session and could help state lawmakers to begin investing in education, transportation and a water plan, state officials told a group of manufacturers on Wednesday.

(View complete article here.)

Senator wants to add state property tax

Lawmaker pushes state income tax

In Texas, it’s rare to find a lawmaker who advocates a state income tax because, for most members of the Texas Legislature, it would be the equivalent of committing political suicide.

Texas ignoring insurance pool requirements

Texas is almost alone among the nation’s largest states in failing to start work on a key piece of the Affordable Care Act, as legislators and state agencies follow Gov. Rick Perry‘s wish to delay action until after a Supreme Court ruling and the November election.

(View complete article here.)

Texas slow to move on health care reforms

Texas is almost alone among the nation’s largest states in failing to start work on a key piece of the Affordable Care Act, as legislators and state agencies follow Gov. Rick Perry‘s dictum to delay action until after a Supreme Court ruling and the November election.

(View complete article here.)

Doggett district could be sticking point in redistricting case

Attorney General Greg Abbott signaled in a court filing Monday that U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s district could be the sticking point that could prevent a compromise in Texas’ ongoing redistricting fight.

(View complete article here.)

Primary voters won’t head to polls till at least May 29

Texas’ primary elections won’t take place until at least May 29 because of the continuing battle over the state’s redistricting maps, a San Antonio federal court announced Wednesday.

(View complete article here.)

Texans Leave the Voting to a Small Minority

With redistricting fights pushing the primaries closer to summertime — and further from the possibility of giving the state’s Republican voters any say in who should be their presidential nominee — turnout could be even lower than normal.

(View complete article here.)

BLOG: Wendy Davis gets her state Senate district back

In the redistricting battles going on before a three-judge panel in San Antonio, a compromise has been reached between state lawyers and those on behalf of minority plaintiffs and state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. According to reports from the scene, she basically won.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Jones Resigns

Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones resigned this afternoon, after weeks of defending her move to San Antonio to run for a state Senate seat there.  Jones, in a letter to Gov. Rick Perry, said she will give up her statewide position, putting to rest the question of whether she could remain in office without residing in the state capital.

Teachers Ask Perry to Govern Again and Re-fund Texas School System

Now that Rick Perry is off the campaign trail and our official and acting Governor again, some people are calling on him to do just that, act as a Governor again.

(View complete article here.)

Shapiro backs delay on STAAR grade provision

Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott on Monday got some political cover to delay for one year a controversial provision that requires new high school end-of-course exams to count toward 15 percent of students’ final grades.

(View complete article here.)

Despite Reform, Violence Rises Among Youths at Juvenile Lockups

On a rainy February day, teenage boys wearing elastic-waisted khaki pants and white T-shirts, many of them heavily tattooed, walked in single-file lines across the Giddings State School campus. A few of them lifted black windbreakers above their heads in a hopeless attempt to stay dry as they made their way from the cafeteria to their classrooms under the watchful eyes of corrections officers.

Let’s stop trying to fix state-run secure juvenile facilities

Recent revelations by the Texas Tribune and The New York Times of ongoing safety concerns in Texas’ juvenile justice system only confirm what the leading national research shows: Secure juvenile facilities are a taxpayers burden, work against rehabilitation and can make youths’ problems worse.

(View complete article here.)

Gas prices soar early this year

This has been one of Ann McSpadden’s best months ever, selling electric bikes and mopeds at Alien Scooters.  Usually her store on South Lamar Boulevard sees a drop-off after the holidays, but Feb. 1 was an “incredible day,” she said.

Perry “Absolutely” May Run for President Again

Once more with feeling?  While in Washington, D.C., for his CPAC speech this past weekend, Gov. Rick Perry told Jonathan Karl of ABC News that he “absolutely” might run again for president in 2016 — despite an underwhelming maiden voyage onto the national stage in the 2012 cycle.

(View complete article here.)

WEEKLY REPORT

February 10, 2012

Voters Asked for Cuts – Do They Like the Results?

Two years ago, the Republican primary was teeming with angry conservatives stirred up by federal fiscal policy. Not all of them were Tea Party members, but all of them seemed to get labeled that way. Whatever the description, their effect on last year’s legislative session was clear.

(View complete article here.)

EDITORIAL: Experience deficit in next Legislature spurs debate

With all the attention the failed presidential run of Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas redistricting battle and the school funding lawsuits have gotten in recent months, it’s easy to overlook other issues shaping up in Austin.

 (View complete article here.)

Disagreement continues over redistricting maps

North Texas would get a new congressional district dominated by minority voters under a new set of political maps proposed by the Texas attorney general Monday, but many Democrats and minority community leaders strongly oppose the proposal.

Texas voting map wrangling continues to put elections in limbo

Is an agreement among the multitude of parties fighting over Texas redistricting maps a real deal?

Texas’ primary date likely to get pushed back again

Last-ditch negotiations to save the April 3 Texas primaries appeared dead Tuesday, throwing the state’s messy redistricting dispute back to a federal court that must sort through a widely panned partial deal and pick a new date.

Slow Redistricting Lowers Clout of Texas Voters

Texas sales tax still exceeding expectations

Texas’ sales tax collections topped $2 billion in January, crossing that threshold the second time in three months.

Texas ranks 41^st in financial security

There is little doubt Texas has survived the Great Recession better than other states, but a study by the Corporation for Enterprise Development has found that 27.7 percent of Texas households have no financial cushion in case of an emergency. If you exclude homes and automobiles from the calculation, 50 percent of Texans have no assets they could use to survive if they suddenly lost their income.

State reviews health insurance hikes, lacks authority to halt them

Under the 2010 federal health care reform law, Texas is reviewing medical insurance companies’ rate increases of at least 10 percent to determine whether they are justified, but even if reviewers find a problem, they have no way of heading it off or even letting the public know about it.

 (View complete article here.)

State property values up slightly last year

With each new bit of positive economic news, Texas has been beating expectations and that feeds the bottom line of the state budget.

(View complete article here.)

State Negotiate $26 Billon Agreement for Homeowners

After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation’s biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said. It is part of a broad national settlement aimed at halting the housing market’s downward slide and holding the banks accountable for foreclosure abuses.

 (View complete article here.)

Texas’ slice ‘very limited’

Texas will get a $428 million slice of a $25 billion settlement between 49 state attorneys general and the nation’s largest mortgage servicers and lenders.

(View complete article here.)

Key Players Drive Texas Medical Board’s Stem Cell Rules

When the Texas Medical Board called a stakeholder meeting in July to discuss the state’s burgeoning adult stem cell industry, it was at the behest of Gov. Rick Perry, the soon-to-be presidential hopeful who had just received an injection of his own stem cells, and of Stanley Jones, the orthopedist and biotech entrepreneur who performed Perry’s experimental procedure.

(View complete article here.)

WEEKLY REPORT

February 3, 2012

Kilday Hart: State rules for health care complicates lives, industry

What could be scarier than government health care, where bureaucrats controlling huge pots of money create rules that affect both patient access and the ability of providers to make money? Thank goodness we live in Texas, where our state leaders would embrace secession before letting government paper-pushers dictate how private health care entities do business. It would rain flying pigs first, right?
(View complete article here.)

State Under Pressure As Health Law Deadlines Approach

The health law’s biggest changes don’t take effect until 2014, when states and insurers must be ready to begin signing up an estimated 32 million people in Medicaid and private insurance. But a successful rollout in two years hinges on critical decisions that states must make – and take quick action on – this year.(View complete article here.)

State Commissioner predicts $15 to $17 billion shortfall in Medicaid

Kudos to the Quorum Report’s John Reynolds for reporting State Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs’ latest prediction on the looming state Medicaid funding shortfall which will have to be addressed by the Legislature when it meets in January 2013.
(View complete article here.)

Leaders warn of more budget problems in Texas

Two key leaders of Gov. Rick Perry‘s team highlighted growing budget problems this week, with one projecting at least a $15 billion hole in the Medicaid program and another warning that the ban on social promotions will end unless lawmakers find money to help struggling students.
(View complete article here.)

Are state employees not fessing up to tobacco use?

Lord knows we all love state employees. And woe be unto any local politician who dares doubt that each and every state employee is among the best, hardest-working, finest-looking people ever created.
(View complete article here.)

Teachers group says Texas education cuts mean 32,000 job losses so far

A school advocacy group says an estimated 32,000 school employees across Texas — including 12,000 teachers — have lost their jobs due to $5.4 billion in education cuts.
(View complete article here.)

Little Agreement on How to Fix School Finance System

A teachers group has urged Gov. Rick Perry to call a special session to address education funding, but there’s still plenty of disagreement on what fixing the school funding system would actually mean.
(View complete article here.)

Some Texas political campaigns can’t gear up just yet

It’s fundamental that political candidates communicate clearly with the voters they want to represent.  But that’s a tricky task in Texas this year, with maps for congressional and legislative districts still being battled over in court.
(View complete article here.)

Redistricting Judges Tell Lawyers to Negotiate Maps

A panel of three federal judges stuck between the need for redistricting maps in a hurry and the need for maps that hold up in court told the parties to negotiate over the weekend and to bring in the results next week.
(View complete article here.)

Senate committees push boundaries on social media

Cherie Hampton recently took part in a legislative committee hearing at the Capitol on Texas’ electric power supply. And she didn’t have to leave her Houston home.
(View complete article here.)

A Divide on the Payoff of Legalizing Immigrants

Granting legal status to the illegal immigrants living in one of Texas’ largest metropolitan areas would generate at least $1.4 billion a year in revenue for state and federal agencies, with Social Security and Medicare being the largest potential beneficiaries, according to an analysis by a Houston business group.
(View complete article here.)

Decline in quail has state looking for answers

The number of bobwhite quail living on the limited and shrinking habitat declined so dramatically and obviously over several years that it couldn’t be ignored or explained away as one of those temporary population hiccups the iconic grassland game birds see when drought or flood or a severe freeze cuts deep into coveys.
(View complete article here.)

Climate science experts predict intensified drought in Texas

The extreme drought gripping Texas and the rest of the Southwest is likely to intensify, according to a panel of climate experts from Columbia University.  Richard Seager, an expert on droughts in North America, told a Washington audience that the Texas drought of the past decade has been the continent’s most serious.
(View complete article here.)

Powers of HOA in Texas reduced

Longing to hang a cross on the door? Wishing that you could capture all the rainwater that’s been gushing off the roof lately?

You’re in luck.
(View complete article here.)

Texas’ Haul From BP Spill: $100 Million, and Counting

Sand dunes rise above a windy, desolate stretch of beach, miles beyond where most tourists venture. Occasional flocks of brown pelicans are visible, arcing through the sky above the water.
(View complete article here.)

WEEKLY REPORT
January 27, 2012

Supreme Court Nixes Judge-Drawn Redistricting Maps
The U.S. Supreme Court threw out court-drawn Texas redistricting maps on Friday morning, saying a panel of federal judges should have used the Legislature’s maps as their starting point.
(View complete article here.)

Courts Moving Too Slow for April Primary Elections
The state is asking federal judges in San Antonio to speed up their schedule and try to get new political maps in place by the end of the month, so that the political parties can proceed with primary elections on April 3.
(View complete article here.)

Texas again facing possibility of two primaries
Texas could soon be facing the possibility of having its primaries split into two elections, a federal judge said Monday.
(View complete article here.)

Recent editorials from Texas newspapers

(View complete article here.)

Conservative groups disagree on gambling
A Texas conservative policy organization sent a letter to state lawmakers last week telling them that gambling is not the answer to the state’s budget woes.(View complete article here.)

TX Medicaid combats overuse of kids’ braces

Poor youngsters in Texas who were put into braces courtesy of taxpayers saw their orthodontist an average of 22 times in fiscal 2010, state Medicaid chiefs said in testimony they were to give to a legislative panel Tuesday.
(View complete article here.)

EDITORIAL: Straightening out Texas Medicaid’s dental program

Anywhere there’s public money to be had, there are people ready to take advantage — especially when state regulators aren’t doing their jobs properly.
(View complete article here.)

Officials responsible for the management of state hospitals and the patients who live there took another positive step toward protecting that most vulnerable population.
(View complete article here.)

BLOG: Judge gives little hope for sonogram law opponents

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks made it clear today that opponents of the state’s new pre-abortion sonogram requirement have little hope of overturning the law in his court.
(View complete article here.)

The revelation last year that the Texas state hospital system employed three doctors with a documented history of inappropriate behavior has lawmakers again investigating alleged abuse within the much-maligned system.
(View complete article here.)

Education officials decry ‘over-testing’ in Texas

State Board of Education members pressed the Texas education commissioner on Thursday about whether an abundance of high-stakes standardized testing is warping classroom teaching to ensure students spend more time preparing for the exams then actual learning.
(View complete article here.)

Texas cities are low on annual literacy list

Texas has routinely topped the national growth charts, but the Lone Star State’s biggest cities are behind the curve in an annual ranking of literacy rates.
(View complete article here.)

Allbaugh Caused Campaign Tensions, Perry Advisers say

When Joe Allbaugh walked into his first staff meeting at the headquarters of the Rick Perry presidential campaign on Oct. 24, the governor of Texas had already blown his once formidable lead in the polls.  But there was still hope that he could rise again, and campaign manager Rob Johnson introduced the physically imposing Allbaugh, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as a key part of the rescue effort.
(View complete article here.)

Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Review is OK’d

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association board today unanimously approved a proposal from a third-party firm to conduct a financial review of the insurer of Texas’ coastal residents — despite avid opposition from state Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, the co-chairman of the Windstorm Insurance Legislative Oversight Board.
(View complete article here.)

State allows 75 mph limit on 1,500 more miles of interstate

The Texas Transportation Commission approved Thursday raising the speed limit to 75 mph on about 1,500 miles of interstate highways in the state.
(View complete article here.)

Jim shares information about the basics of successful lobbying.

Arnold Public Affairs utilizes political experience, a rich educational background, and strong relationships with policy makers to get results for their clients.

WEEKLY REPORT

January 21, 2012

U.S. Supreme Court throws out interim legislative and congressional maps drawn by San Antonio judges

“Because it is unclear whether the District Court for the Western District of Texas followed the appropriate standards in drawing interim maps for the 2012 Texas elections, the orders implementing those maps are vacated, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

(View complete article here.)

Wentworth pushes for new approach to redistricting

In the past year, the process of redistricting in Texas has eaten up millions of taxpayers’ dollars, gummed up the Legislature’s ability to make laws and widened the already vast rift between the state’s political parties.

(View complete article here.)

State party conventions in jeopardy due to redistricting delays

Texas’ unresolved legal battle over redistricting has left the state’s two major political parties facing the possibility of postponing their state conventions and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

(View complete article here.)

Uncertainty over Texas’ maps dampens fundraising

Give political donors an opportunity to say no, and they’ll almost always accept it.

(View complete article here.)

Texas can use federal help on health care

Can Texans go it alone on health care? At least one person thinks so: Gov. Rick Perry said, “Texans have a different feeling about independence. When we came into the nation in 1845 … we were a stand-alone nation … and one of the deals was we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.”

(View complete article here.)

Editorial: Texas’ Medicaid waiver opens door to regional cooperation

Three decades of capital punishment in Texas

Thirty-five years ago today, the state of Utah executed Gary Gilmore by firing squad and restarted the death penalty in the United States. Texas followed suit, reinstating capital punishment in 1982 and quickly becoming home to the nation’s busiest execution chamber.

(View complete article here.)

Border Patrol to toughen policy

The U.S. Border Patrol is moving to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment.

(View complete article here.)

Texas redistricting trial begins in D.C.

Texas’ redistricting plans went on trial in yet another courtroom Tuesday, as a federal three-judge panel began hearing testimony to determine whether the Legislature drew the maps for Texas House, Texas Senate and congressional districts in line with the Voting Rights Act.

(View complete article here.)

Feds raid former lawmaker’s business

Federal and state investigators raided a healthcare agency Thursday belonging to former state Rep. Sergio Muñoz Sr., who serves as president of the Texas Healthcare Advocacy Association.

PEC employees rejecting joining union

An effort among some Pedernales Electric Cooperative employees to join a local labor union fell short this week after the majority of 205 linemen and similarly trained employees voted against it.

Drugmaker settles suit with Texas for $158 million

One of the world’s largest drugmakers Thursday agreed to pay the State of Texas $158 million to settle a lawsuit that accused Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries of Medicaid fraud.

Judge dismisses suit challenging Texas’ concealed carry law

A federal judge in Lubbock on Thursday threw out the National Rifle Association’s move to overturn a Texas law prohibiting 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying concealed handguns.

State pulls mental health hospitals’ power to choose doctors

Following reports by the American-Statesman that state mental health hospitals employ psychiatrists with a documented history of sexual misconduct, the Department of State Health Services has seized ultimate hiring authority of all doctors at its 10 facilities.

(View complete article here.)

Jim Arnold explains that effective lobbyists are educators who provide a necessary service by conveying facts and figures in addition to a myriad of viewpoints to those elected to make policy decisions.

“Most good lobbyists spend their time educating legislators’ about issues and developing sincere, genuine, one-on-one relationships with them and to make sure they understand the impact that legislator’s decisions will have on a lobbyists’ clients.” ~ Jim Arnold

WEEKLY REPORT

January 14, 2012

Salvaging disposal children

Texas is slowly abandoning the idea that its young population includes thousands of disposable children, and that’s all for the greater good.

(View complete article here.)

Texas can enforce sonogram law, appeals court says

A Texas law requiring women to receive sonograms before abortions, intended to dissuade patients from continuing with the procedure, is constitutional and can be enforced, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

(View complete article here.)

State workers increased in 2011, despite looming budget cuts

Even as thousands of state employees were losing their jobs last year to offset an expected $27 billion budget shortfall, numerous state agencies and higher education institutions ended up with more workers in 2011 than the Legislature authorized.

(View complete article here.)

State hospitals to add windows for patient safety

The Department of State Health Services is spending more than $100,000 to retrofit 336 doors at psychiatric hospitals with windows, a move the agency says will help prevent patients from being abused by staff members.

Texas legislators start tackling top issues between sessions

By KELLEY SHANNON

Special Contributor

Published: 10 January 2012 01:58 AM

AUSTIN — Texas legislators may work part-time, as Gov. Rick Perry frequently points out on the presidential campaign trail, but 2012 isn’t totally a year off.

Wildfires, drought, border security, coastal insurance and electricity demand are among issues lawmakers are delving into this year in legislative committee meetings between sessions.

On Tuesday, the Senate Business and Commerce Committee begins studying the impact of drought on electric generation.

The Senate’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee meets this week to discuss ways to increase affordable housing after a natural disaster. Another Senate committee convenes next week, and at least seven House panels gather within the month.

Border violence and illegal trafficking are getting legislative attention again. A House-Senate joint interim committee was named to study human trafficking and make recommendations to the full Legislature.

Perry doesn’t control what the Legislature studies between sessions, but the governor can specify emergency issues at the start of each 140-day session.

In their 2011 session, lawmakers made deep budget cuts and passed legislation on eminent domain, voter identification, windstorm insurance and food safety. All had their start in work by committees.

AT A GLANCE: Off-year topics

Health along the Texas-Mexico border

Juvenile justice system referrals

DNA testing of crime evidence

State park funding

Impact of state university research on the economy

Agriculture production and investment

State water plan and water conservation

Horse industry

Control of invasive plant and animal species

State incentives went to company linked to Medicare misuse accusations

State leaders awarded $2.1 million in taxpayer funds last year to the parent company of a hospice care firm that, according to allegations made by the Justice Department, misspent millions of Medicare dollars intended for the care of terminally ill patients.

(View complete article here.)

Trial begins in Texas lawsuit seeking $1 billion from J&J over anti-psychotic drug

A clash between Texas and Johnson & Johnson that could end up costing the drug maker $1 billion opened Tuesday with prosecutors accusing the company of plundering the state Medicaid program by overstating the safety of an expensive anti-psychotic drug and improperly influencing officials and doctors to push the medication.

(View complete article here.)

State attorney general sues drug company

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is pitted against one of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies in a trial starting this week that could bring the state more than $1 billion – one of its largest potential awards since a multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement in 1998.

(View complete article here.)

OPINION: The Next Immigration Challenge

THE immigration crisis that has roiled American politics for decades has faded into history. Illegal immigration is shrinking to a trickle, if that, and will likely never return to the peak levels of 2000. Just as important, immigrants who arrived in the 1990s and settled here are assimilating in remarkable and unexpected ways.

(View complete article here.)

Immigration Proposal Not Seen as Major Step

Comprehensive immigration reform it is not: That’s what many are saying about the Obama administration’s recently announced plan to ease restrictions on illegal immigrants trying to re-enter the U.S. after applying for legal status.

(View complete article here.)

Rivals Bash Dewhurst in Lively Senate Debate

Major Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate knocked heads Thursday night in a debate that was more lively than the presidential forums that have become a TV mainstay.

Supreme Court ready to tackle Texas redistricting case

The bitter Texas redistricting case is about to enter what is shaping up to be the final stretch in the yearlong legal battle.

(View complete article here.)

If the Courts Take More Time, So Will Texas Primaries

It takes at least two months to put a primary election together once political maps are finally drawn, and if the federal courts don’t spit out a final Texas map within the next three weeks, the state’s primary elections probably can’t be held on April 3.

(View complete article here.)

Big print is a big step toward reining in payday loan fees

Consumer advocates have long pushed to rein in these high-cost loans that target the working poor. About 10 percent of Texas residents take out small cash advances, using future paychecks as collateral. But many roll over the loans and are overwhelmed by big fees. Some relief agencies have said that the loans forced many clients to seek their help.

(View complete article here.)

Laws corralling short term lenders are a warning shot

One of the principal products of hard times is the myriad offers to make things better for a price.  The financial desperation hard times bring leads many consumers into the clutches of lenders who offer loans that carry interest rates as high as 500 percent.

USAA rates on homes going up

USAA home and condo insurance policyholders in Texas are facing another rate increase, the third announced hike in the past 12 months.

(View complete article here.)

As ordinance turns 10, foundation still helps city steer clear of smoking

“Smoking in El Paso means I have to go outside, sometimes in the cold, sometimes in the wind and all the time by myself,” said George Minjarez, an Eastsider who said he has been smoking for eight years. “And then when I walk back to where I came from, everyone knows what I’ve been doing because I smell like an ashtray.”

Pay raises stable tax rate possible for Austin Schools

If all goes well, the Austin school district can avoid asking voters for a tax rate increase for two years and might give employees a raise this summer.

Editorial Board: Accuracy needed in assessing cartel threat

A report commissioned by the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Department of Public Safety found that violence from the drug wars in Mexico is pouring over into Texas.

(View complete article here.)

Austin, state urged to improve job growth in tech sector

But while Texas is second only to California in total high-tech employment, the state’s sheer size masks an underlying problem: Texas ranks only 16th per capita when it comes to high-tech workers.

(View complete article here.)

Arnold Public Affairs worked with a number of organizations last session to pass laws to slow down the school to prison pipeline — the criminalizing of students who are disciplined in school. Not only is it terribly costly, it unnecessarily introduces more young people into the juvenile offender population. Conservative groups such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation have joined in these efforts. Read more in this January 7th article from the Austin-American Statesman.

Arnold Public Affairs and its client, the Texas Association of Goodwills, worked with a diverse coalition of organizations and Senator John Carona and Rep. Vicki Truitt during the last session to pass legislation to regulate this industry for the first time in Texas. Read more about the regulation of payday lenders by reading this article from the Texas Tribune, or this January 6th editorial from the Austin-American Statesman.