Revisiting those stimulus dollars … A new Political Parlor podcast … A comeback falls short
Happy birthday to Rep. Joe Crabb and Texas Republican Party Chair Cathie Adams (today) and Charley Wilkison of the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (Saturday).
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Bitter cold and blustery. High of only 35, but wind chill values will make it feel like the teens.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
Let’s go back to 2009. Congress approved the federal stimulus package, Gov. Rick Perry said the state would seek to use the dollars for one-time expenses, Texas accepted most of the money and it was used for more than one-time expenses. We can all agree on that, right?
Apparently not.
In Houston yesterday, Perry was talking about his desire to see a balanced-budget amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Then, talking about Texas, he said, “The argument … you took stimulus dollars so therefore you were part of this problem — no, we took dollars, put them into place, one-time expenditures,” Perry said. “We said we would not create any new programs with these dollars that were ongoing costs,” according to the Associated Press.
Whether new programs were created could be a matter of interpretation. For example, some of the most knowledgeable staffers in the Legislature have told me that the $2 billion bill updating the school finance formulas would not have been possible without the stimulus dollars. Do you call a reworking of school finance programs a new ongoing program? Seems like that argument could certainly been made.
Meanwhile, a number of experts have made clear that stimulus dollars were not just used for one-time expenses.
From Bob Garrett of the Dallas Morning News in August: “About one-third of the federal stimulus money Texas accepted this year will probably translate into ongoing obligations, the Legislature’s top budget-writing adviser said today. Despite state leaders’ pleas that all stimulus dollars be spent on one-time, non-recurring items, “there are a couple of areas where that’s just not going to be possible,” said Legislative Budget Board director John O’Brien.”
And Dale Craymer of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association told the Texas Tribune, “directly very little of the stimulus money was really spent on any one-time items.”
• Here’s a sign that Perry likes the poll numbers he’s seeing: His new ad does not mention Kay Bailey Hutchison at all. Watch it here.
• There’s a new highway in the Midland area: The Nadine and Tom Craddick Highway, the Midland Reporter-Telegram reports.
• Rolling Stone put U.S. Rep. Joe Barton on its list of the Climate Killers, “the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” Also on the list are Dick Gephardt, John McCain, George Will and Warren Buffett.
• Remember that bill last year that aimed to crack down on cockfighting? The folks with the Humane Society Legislative Fund haven’t forgotten about it, and they’re blaming Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, for its demise: “It was, unfortunately, no surprise to animal advocates that Rep. Hodge would do the bidding of criminal cockfighters. In a meeting of the Subcommittee on Violent Crimes this past March, Rep. Hodge opined that ‘cockfighting is a way of life’ and ‘we all have different tastes and should respect that.’ Apparently she believes that ‘taste’ is an excuse to engage in a form of animal cruelty that is a felony offense in her state.”
• Ken Herman and I joined KUT’s Ian Crawford in the Texas Political Parlor on Thursday. We discussed the parties’ 2010 slates of candidates, the upcoming GOP debate and 2011 redistricting. You can listen here. Or you can download up in the top right corner of this page.
Stat of the day
Three years after a sexual abuse scandal rocked the Texas Youth Commission, one in five juvenile offenders in Texas youth lock-ups report being forced into sexual acts with staff or other inmates, according to a federal report. Source: Texas Tribune.
Poll watch
From Gallup: People identifying conservatives (40 percent) outnumbered both moderates (36 percent) and liberals (21 percent) across the nation in 2009. More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined.
A poll of 109 Republican leaders and political pros says Mitt Romney is most likely to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2012, followed by Tim Pawlenty and John Thune. Sarah Palin finished sixth. Source: Hotline
Countdown
24 days until the last day to register to vote.
39 days until early voting begins.
53 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed Thursday stricter smog standards, putting the Austin area in jeopardy of violating clean air rules. If Travis and surrounding counties fail the new standard, they could face federal penalties that hamper business growth and delay transportation projects. Austin American-Statesman
Former SMU football star and ESPN Analyst Craig James has made news recently regarding his role with his son and former Texas Tech Football Coach Mike Leach. But James could be making news this year in politics, too. His name is being tossed around as a possible candidate to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat when she resigns. WFAA
Texas needs more money - hundreds of billions of dollars more - to maintain its roads and bridges and build the new ones needed to serve the state’s growing population, the Texas Department of Transportation’s executive director said Thursday. Amadeo Saenz, opening a conference on transportation, said no amount of technological innovations or other improvements will be enough if Texas can’t find more money to spend on roads. Dallas Morning News
Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he would pardon Timothy Cole, a Fort Worth man who died while serving time in prison for a rape he did not commit, as soon as he receives a recommendation from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Houston Chronicle
Legalizing the status of the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants living in this country would create jobs, increase wages and boost the sagging U.S. economy, an academic study released Thursday says. San Antonio Express-News
Well almost everybody who’s been there knows you leave a little money in Las Vegas, but they say you can come back and visit it anytime. Texas taxpayers left a little green there in October, as it turns out. Gov. Rick Perry’s went to Vegas on Oct. 24 to attend a bachelor party dinner for his son - oh yes, and to also meet with Brian Sandoval, a Republican candidate for Nevada’s governor. The cost for his security detail for the overnight trip - overtime, hotel, airfare, rental cars - was $12,321, according to documents just released by the Department of Public Safety. Dallas Morning News
Everything else
The Longhorns put up a mighty fight and never gave up, but in the end, it was Alabama 37, Texas 21. Colt McCoy was injured early in the game, forcing freshman backup Garrett Gilbert into the game. After a rocky start, Gilbert threw two touchdown passes in the second half and almost led the Longhorns to a historic combeback.
Kirk Bohls: “Saviors usually don’t come in the form of freshman quarterbacks who hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass in 13 games, but he threw two in the last 17 minutes of the season against arguably the best defense in the country. He came up short. But he’s been in this position before and will be again. Of course, the last time he lost a game, he won the next 30 straight.”
Richard Justice: “They displayed the heart of a champion even while another team was being crowned. They endured their worst nightmare. They had weaknesses exposed. But they almost won because they have heart and toughness and resolve. They did themselves proud in defeat.”
Bill Carter of the New York Times reports that NBC is planning to put Jay Leno back in late night with a half-hour show to air at 10:30 our time, followed by Conan O’Brien at 11 p.m.
Elvis Presley would turn 75 today.
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