Former State Rep. Jim Solis pleads guilty

From Valley Central, we learn that former State Rep. Jim Solis (D-Harlingen) entered a guilty plea in federal court Friday for his role in an extortion and bribery scheme. Prosecutors say the 47-year-old Solis paid for favorable pretrial rulings from former state District Judge Abel C. Limas:

Solis stood quietly before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen, who repeatedly asked Solis if he was pleading guilty because he is guilty.

"Yes," Solis said.

[...]

Solis faces up to 20 years in prison and a maxiumum of a $250,000 dollar fine.

According to court documents, Solis turned over $250,000 dollars to the federal government this morning.

Solis’ sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 1.

Limas pleaded guilty on March 31 to one federal count of racketeering. He will be sentenced in July.

Solis is out on bond.

- JP

TX Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson on Failed US Energy Policy

Patterson spoke April 26 at a Permian Basin Petroleum Associated rally in Midland.


Related: Speakers question science behind lizard concerns

- JP

Texas House approves redistricting plan

The Associated Press reports that the Texas House of Representatives has put its stamp of approval on a redistricting plan which would likely guarantee a continued Republican majority, but it would be smaller than the advantage the GOP enjoys now:

The map was approved on a 92-52 vote after a marathon debate that dragged into the wee morning hours Thursday. It would pit several Republicans against each other, the natural result of an unsustainably large supermajority.

Some Republican members and activists wanted to make the map a much bolder grab for conservative seats and limit the number of losses. But House leaders easily beat back those attempts. Either way, there is only so much they can do given the constraints of federal anti-discrimination laws and shifts in population away from conservative rural areas and toward the suburbs that have seen explosive and diverse population growth.

The emotional and heated debate ended up dragging on for some 16 hours, the longest single session in the House so far this year and testament to the importance lawmakers place on their own futures. The map faces a final procedural hurdle before it can move to the Senate.

“I recognize that some members are not going to be pleased with the results of the map,” said Rep. Burt Solomons, the north Texas Republican who is leading the redistricting effort. “It’s very personal ... to everyone here.”

Republicans rode a conservative wave in the 2010 elections and now have a lopsided 101-49 majority in the 150-member House, a supermajority so big that they can conduct business even if Democrats don’t show up for work. That didn’t stop Democratic lawmakers from trying to derail the map Wednesday on procedural grounds, to no avail.

[More]

- JP

NRO: Rick Perry’s Tenth Commandment

National Review deputy managing editor Kevin D. Williamson has a rather lengthy profile piece on Gov. Perry at NRO. Here are some excerpts:

People constantly ask Governor Perry if he’s thinking about running for president. In fact, they ask him if he’s thinking about running for president so often that by now he almost certainly must be thinking about running for president, even if he wasn’t thinking about it before. He plays down that sort of thing (except when he doesn’t) and protests that he’s got plenty to keep him busy in Austin. And he is busy: He’s hip-deep in a ferocious fight to balance the state budget without instituting new taxes or liquidating the state’s rainy-day fund. He has a long list of parochial Texas action-items on his gubernatorial to-do list, like pushing down the cost of a bachelor’s degree from a state university to $10,000 and keeping his bespoke boot heel on the neck of the trial lawyers. But he’s also very busy in his campaign to renew — or reinvent — American federalism, taking an extraordinarily robust view of states’ sovereignty and an extraordinarily restrictive view of the “enumerated powers” listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. He’s written a book about the subject, Fed Up!, which is an order of magnitude more crotchety and idiosyncratic than your average raising-my-national-profile book. (He also published a very personal and occasionally hot-tempered defense of the Boy Scouts, On My Honor, lambasting the feminists and organized homosexuality in a way that suggests he’s not much interested in a Mitch Daniels–style truce on the social issues.)

Lots of conservatives have been in fights over public displays of the Ten Commandments, but Governor Perry is more interested in the Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Reestablishing the sovereignty of the states — and rescuing the language of states’ rights from its segregationist connotations — is a pretty good job for a high-profile governor.

Or for a president.

Speaking of presidents: Rick Perry has a complicated relationship with the Bushes, which is to say that he’s hesitant to criticize them and they hate his guts. W. stayed well away from Perry’s gubernatorial-primary melee against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose oatmeal-mushy Republicanism has a distinctly Bushian savor to it. But the mark of W. was all over the campaign against Perry. Former president George H. W. Bush endorsed Senator Hutchison, an unusual step for the habitually reserved retiree, who usually stays well removed from the dirty business of vote-grubbing, surveying the groundlings from the heights of his eminence. Bush père was joined in his support by former vice president Dick Cheney, who offered an endorsement and called Hutchison “the real deal.” Hutchison was further fortified by the Bush clan’s in-house Machiavelli, former secretary of state James Baker, who led the Florida recount fight in 2000 and remains their go-to fixer. W. mouthpiece Karen Hughes came out of the political woodwork to support the insurgency, along with W.’s secretary of education Margaret Spellings. Karl Rove advised Team Hutchison. The gang was all there: All this in a primary challenge to unseat an incumbent Republican governor with one of the most conservative — and most successful — records to be found: Que paso, Bushes?

Part of that was payback. Perry, generally circumlocutious on the subject of W., gave himself a little time off the leash during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. Often caricatured as yet another snake-handling southern social conservative, Governor Perry backed thrice-married dress-wearing pro-choice lapsed Catholic Rudy Giuliani, on the theory that Rudy would be a badass commander-in-chief abroad and a reliable constitutionalist at home. Politics being politics, the Texan and the New Yorker met up in Iowa, where more than a few Hawkeye conservatives were already getting restive about out-of-control federal spending on the Republicans’ watch. Governor Perry let loose the observation that “George” — and the Bushies hate it when Perry calls him “George” in public — “has never been a fiscal conservative.” Never? “Wasn’t when he was in Texas . . . ’95, ’97, ’99, George Bush was spending money.” He also criticized Bush as being limp on immigration.

The truth hurts, but there’s more to the Bush-Perry friction than that...

[More]

- JP

The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard vs. the West Texas Oil Industry

A tiny desert lizard has the potential to shut down oil and gas operations in parts of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, according to a report in the Midland Reporter-Telegram. Environmental activist groups are using the runt of a reptile in a campaign which could affect the Lone Star State's top two oil producing counties. The eco-left used a small fish called the Delta smelt in much the same manner to bring economic hardship to California's Central Valley. Coincidentally, both critters are a scant three inches long.

Called the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, it is being considered for inclusion on the federal Endangered Species listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A public rally to oppose this move is being sponsored by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association on Tuesday, April 26 at Midland Center beginning at 5 p.m. Congressman Mike Conaway will speak, as will Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson; other public officials have been invited.

"We are very concerned about the Fish and Wildlife Service listing," said Ben Shepperd, president of the PBPA, noting the service also has proposed listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken next year. "The wolf at the door is the lizard; we're concerned listing it would shut down drilling activity for a minimum of two years and as many as five years while the service determines what habitat is needed for the lizard. That means no drilling, no seismic surveys, no roads built, no electric lines."

The move would impact activity in Andrews, Crane, Gaines, Ward and Winkler counties in Texas and Chaves, Eddy, Lea and Roosevelt counties in New Mexico.

Not only would the move impact oil and gas operations but agriculture, Shepperd noted, shutting down agricultural activities like grazing and farming -- "anything that disturbs the habitat." While the industry is perfectly willing to undertake conservation measures to protect the lizard's habitat, he said, naming it an endangered species "would shut down activity and be devastating not only to Permian Basin economies but to the national economy. We are the one bright spot month after month; in our economic turnaround, the main driver is the oil and gas industry."

A public hearing by the Fish and Wildlife Service on the matter is scheduled for 6:30PM April 27 at the Midland Center. More information from the Federal Register here (pdf).

- JP

Texas Music Break: 'Yellow Rose of Texas'

by Hoyt Axton, John Hartford & friends (2007)


- JP

The Texas House Will Vote On Redistricting Tuesday

Here's an email from the Grassroots Texas Network:

On Tuesday 26 April the Texas House will vote on redistricting. This needs your immediate attention.

The current committee plan does not represent the voice of the voters and will defeat the conservative agenda. For some background, here’s a 13-minute video discussion about the redistricting plans:


Please contact everyone in the Texas House immediately (email, fax, and phone calls) and tell them to stand firm for the Nixon plan. The identity numbers for the amendment keep changing, thus "no on the Solomon plan" and "yes on the Nixon plan" will send a clearer message.

I understand that by late Monday, the actual final bill numbers will be set. At that time, there will no doubt be wide email distribution of the actual final “Nixon plan” bill to support. Then you can contact Reps again by Tuesday morning with the exact number. But for now, tell them Support the Nixon Plan.

We cannot afford to lose this - a loss will mean a major defeat for the conservative agenda.

Texas Patriots need to stand tall and be heard. We have to stop the wheeling and dealing in Austin.

Related: Texas Redistricting Plan Punishes Texas Conservatives

- JP

The California toTexas exodus continues

From TexasBusiness.com, we learn that AccentCare, a home healthcare firm, is relocating its corporate headquarters from Irvine in tax-crazed California, to Dallas. According to the company, the move will create more than 100 new jobs in the 'Plex:

The company has signed a lease for nearly 33,000 square feet at Briargrove Place, property owned and managed by Crown Sterling Properties at 17855 N. Dallas Parkway, Dallas, 75287.

AccentCare, which is moving approximately 10 people from California in addition to the more than 100 it will hire locally, will take occupancy of its new space on May 1.

[...]

“This move provides new opportunities for growth and will enable AccentCare to continue delivering the compassionate, quality care for which we have been known since our founding more than ten years ago," said AccentCare chief executive William (Biff) Comte in a prepared statement.

AccentCare has numerous locations in California, Arizona, New York, Ohio, Colorado, Oregon, Washington... and now Texas.

- JP

Stupid Border Games

Bill Kneer at The Patriot Statesman wonders, "When is enough, enough?"

Our southern border is wide open and very few elected officials have the courage to stand up and fight for America. Those in Texas like Debbie Riddle, Dan Flynn, and a few other try, but in the end they will just get paid back for standing up against Speaker Joe Straus. Debbie Riddle’s bills seem to be dying as pay back. Her Voter I.D. Bill will not come up, but Patricia Harless (Straus supporter) takes a nearly identical bill, files it under her name so she would get the credit, and gets the bill passed in House. Will Debbie Riddle not get her bills passed as payback for standing up against Strauss?

It also looks like Dan Flynn will have to work hard to keep his job for standing up against Speaker Joe Straus. They cut out his district entirely so now he will have to face a colleague in the next primary.

While our nation fights three “kinetic military operations” abroad, the great people of Mexico are being terrorized by useless scum bag drug runners. They are devastating the nation of Mexico and they are also having a direct impact of our nation. Our elected officials are sworn to serve and protect us, but they rarely do anything but play political games.

Good read. More here.

- JP

Obama has tried to mess with Texas before...

From The Looking Spoon:


- JP

Dallas reporter's questions make Obama lose his cool

Houston's own Melissa Clothier observes that not only did Obama lose some of his presidential cool under questioning from WFAA's Brad Watson, his view of Texas political history is woefully short-sighted. Kudos to Watson for asking The One the first tough question he's had to answer in recent memory.

“Why do you think you’re so unpopular in Texas?”

The President answered,”Texas has always been a Republican state.” (Aside: Uh, no it hasn’t it’s been overwhelmingly Democrat until 1950 and continued dominance for decades until it finally and fully flipped completely in the 2010 election.)

The President also implied that his election was close in Texas saying that he “lost by a few percentage points.”

Watson corrected the President and said, “You lost by about ten.”

Then Watson asked,”Was the Shuttle not awarded to Houston because of politics?” (Aside: Republicans and Democrats here in the Houston area are furious about not having a Shuttle in the city–it’s being sent to New York City to be left outside, of all things.)

President Obama answered,”I just said that was wrong.”

So Watson followed up,”So you weren’t involved in any part of the decision.”

And President Obama said,”I just said that wasn’t true.” (Aside: Note that he didn’t say, straight out, “No.”)

Another question, “Are you going to campaign in Texas or is the state written off?”

The President visibly winced when he said the words,”I never write off any state and, I love, I love Texas.”

As the interview finished and when the President thought the microphone was turned off, the President said to Watson,”Let me finish my answers, the next time we do an interview all right?”

We agree with Dr. Clouthier that there's not likely to be a "next time" for Brad Watson to sit down with Mr. Obama again.

She is also absolutely correct in her assessment that Watson's questions were more mundane than tough. Yet the president showed, as has been the case in the past, that he has relatively thin skin:

Because he’s never challenged. He’s allowed to filibuster. He understands and manipulates the reporters and they play along with the game because each one hopes he’ll be the next “exclusive”.

But you don't have to be a Texan or even a political junkie to know that Texas was a Democrat Party stronghold until Ronald Reagan came along. What kind of political environment does Obama think allowed Lyndon Baines Johnson to flourish under while preparing himself to rise from Congressman to Senator to Majority Leader and beyond? The old Lone Star State certainly wasn't a hotbed of Republicans back in the day. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Sarah Palin had said, "Texas has always been a Republican state,” the media left would be mercilessly mocking her as woefully ignorant for having said it. Obama, on the other hand, gets a lifetime free pass from his talking head lapdogs.

The full WFAA presidential interview is here.

- JP

Dems recruiting Abu Ghraib general to run for KBH Senate seat

Our Democrat friends think they may have found a strong candidate to compete for the U.S.Senate seat to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is retiring at the end of her term next year. According to the Star-Telegram, He's retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez of Rio Grande City. A graduate of what was then Texas A&I (now Texas A&M University, Kingsville), Sanchez has been earning his living as business consultant and speaker since 33-year career in the U.S. Army ended in 2006. The man has impressive credentials, but he carries some heavy baggage. Maria Recio reports:

Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, a Democrat, confirmed that Democratic Senate campaign chief Patty Murray, D-Wash., was referring to Sanchez on Thursday when she said Democrats were close to announcing a candidate in Texas.

Sanchez, reached by phone at his San Antonio home, asked where the reports of a Senate run came from and then said, "I can neither confirm nor deny."

Sanchez, the former top military commander in Iraq who was left under a cloud from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, would not discuss the Senate race. But he did respond to questions about his career and political philosophy.

"I would describe myself as during my military career as supporting the president and the Constitution," Sanchez said. "After the military, I decided that socially, I'm a progressive, a fiscal conservative and a strong supporter, obviously, of national defense."

But the shadow of Abu Grahib hangs like a heavy cloud over Sanchez if the Democrats have made him a serious offer to be their candidate and he accepts. The general claims that he was unaware of the sordid things that were going on at the prison, and he says an Army investigation cleared him. Not so fast, argues RedState.com's Beltway Whispers:

A 2004 panel that investigated prisoner abuse found Sanchez, once the nation’s highest-ranking Hispanic officer, was derelict in overseeing Iraqi detention. According to a classified report by three Army generals, Sanchez approved the use of harsh military interrogation techniques that were once limited to prisoners held at facilities in Cuba and Afghanistan.

The irony that Democrats who once raked the lieutenant general over the coals now view Sanchez as their savior will no doubt be a hallmark of the campaign.

Senator Patty Murray, who steers the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm and vaguely teased reporters earlier this week of a top Texas recruit, said in 2004 that all those responsible for Abu Ghraib — no matter where they fell in the chain of command — must be held to account for their actions.

“These actions are a disservice to the thousands of American soldiers in the region who serve us honorably each and every day, and, sadly, are likely to make their efforts to calm a troubled region even harder,” Murray said of the controversy.

When former President George Bush tapped then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to fill the nation’s top law enforcement post, Murray joined Senator Maria Cantwell in opposing the nomination over his green-lighting of Sanchez’s interrogation techniques.

In a 2004 statement, Senator Patrick Leahy accused Sanchez of authorizing “the use of techniques that were contrary to both U.S. military manuals but also international law.” “Given this incredible overstepping of bounds, I find it incredible that the reports generated thus far have not recommended punishment of any kind for high-level officials,” he added.

The onslaught of Congressional criticism came as military brass looked to give Sanchez his fourth star. The promotion never materialized and months later he retired.

With the balance of power in the U.S. Senate hanging on the 2012 election, Democrats need to tread carefully when considering which candidate they put forth to run for Hutchison's seat. The last thing they need is for the same damning photos of naked prisoners being abused that the Dems and their media pals so successfully used against George W. Bush to be turned against them. And the Republicans are no doubt salivating at the prospect of doing just that. Payback is not just a dog, but a rabid one. No matter how the Democrats try to spin this, Abu Ghraib happened while Sanchez was on watch, and that should be reason enough for them to try to find a candidate who is clean as the proverbial whistle.

- JP

Texas Music Break: 'Amarillo by Morning'

by George Strait (1996)

Oil companies' interest in the Permian Basin rekindled

Thanks to the rise in the price of crude, some big oil companies are taking a second look at the oil fields in the Permian Basin of West Texas, with plans to ramp up production there, according to the Wall Street Journal's Isabel Ordonez:

Chevron Corp. has pumped oil from this well-plowed area of west Texas and New Mexico since 1925. But in recent decades, as production in the area declined, Chevron and other companies used it primarily as a lab for oil-extraction techniques that could be employed in larger projects elsewhere.

This year, Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company by market value after Exxon Mobil Corp., plans to boost investment to $600 million in the Permian Basin, 32% more than a year earlier, and drill twice as many wells as it did in 2010 in the area. Its goal is to squeeze more oil out of these aging fields at a time when commodity-oil prices have risen to over $100 a barrel—levels not seen since summer of 2008—and access to oil in the Gulf of Mexico and lucrative foreign fields has become more of a challenge. The company is also seeking to employ new technologies only recently available to unlock significant amounts of Permian crude that were hard to reach before.

Some "people in the industry said the Permian Basin was used up, tapped out, yesterday's news," Chevron Vice Chairman George Kirkland told company employees and retirees in a recent gathering here. But "we listened to veterans here who reminded us that the best place to find oil is where it has already been found."

Chevron and other major oil companies, such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, began refocusing on this flat, arid region dotted by hundreds of rusty pump jacks last year, after the federal government temporarily banned new exploratory drilling in the deep water Gulf of Mexico following BP PLC's massive oil spill.

The revival of the Permian Basin is also driven by the widespread use of relatively new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressures to release oil from hydrocarbon deposits. In recent years, this and other technologies have unlocked shale oil and gas that wasn't previously accessible, leading to a boom of new wells across the country. Now they are being adapted and used to boost production from mature oil fields like the ones in the Permian Basin. Chevron and others are also planning to apply the techniques in previously unexplored shale areas of the basin.

The Permian Basin is especially attractive because its oil reserves, the second largest in the U.S. after Alaska, are already proven and its geology is very well known, said Matthew Jurecky, an analyst at energy consultant Wood Mackenzie. This means companies can update old wells with new technologies and add new reserves at a significantly lower cost than in other areas, such as the Gulf or Canada's oil sands.

Production in the Permian has dropped to less than half what it was in the early 1970s. But in the past five years, production in the West Texas fields has reversed the long decline and is growing again, albeit slowly. Last year the Basin's output grew by 1.5 percent to about 891,600 barrels a day from 2009, Wood Mackenzie said. The oil now flowing from the Permian has helped to replace the shortfall in offshore production to the tune of 5.51 million barrels a day in 2010, the highest output from the area since 2004.

- JP

The Burnt Orange University Goes For The Gold

From Bloomberg comes news that the UT's Investment Management Company has taken delivery of almost one billion dollars' worth of gold bullion. Board members say precious gold bars are being safely tucked away in a New York vault:

The fund, whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake last year, said Bruce Zimmerman, the endowment’s chief executive officer. The holdings are worth about $987 million, based on yesterday’s closing price of $1,486 an ounce for Comex futures.

The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”

Gold has continued on an upward trajectory of 28 percent in the past year on Comex, reaching an all-time high just shy of $1,500 an ounce.

When the second-largest U.S. academic endowment goes for the gold, it's no minor event in the eyes and minds of financial gurus. Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge calls it nothing short of "a golden tipping point":

Tipping points are funny: for years, decades, even centuries, the conditions for an event to occur may be ripe yet nothing happens. Then, in an instant, a shift occurs, whether its is due a change in conventional wisdom, due to an exogenous event or due to something completely inexplicable. That event, colloquially called a black swan in recent years, changes the prevalent perception of reality in a moment.

[...]

With an entity as large as the University of Texas calling the bluff of the Comex, the Chairman, and fiat in general in roughly that order, virtually every other asset manager is now sure to follow, considering there is not nearly enough physical gold to satisfy all paper gold in existence by a factor of about 100x. The proverbial Nash equilibrium has just been broken.

[...]

In summary - the fiat tide is now going out. And among those who will first be observed swimming naked are the very same people whose fate has been so very intrinsically linked to the perpetuation of a flawed regime (and who coined this very saying). In the meantime, hold on to your hats: should a scramble for delivery ensue, the recent parabolic move in various precious metals will seem like a dress rehearsal for what is about to transpire.

What remains to be revealed, says Durden, is what broker had enough of the precious metal to fill UT's order. He says he working on finding out. He's also hoping that the Burnt Orange gold "has likely already been leased out at least several times to various entities demanding paper allocations..." If so, then a "golden tipping point" has surely been reached.

- JP

California delegation comes to Austin for answers

Rule #1 for medical first responders is "Stop the bleeding." A delegation of a dozen state officials from California visited Austin late last week hoping to learn how to stop the exodus of companies from The Golden State. Texas is one of the prime destinations for vacating Cali corporations. The American-Statesman's Kirk Ladendorf has the story:

"Over the past three years, California has lost 1.2 million jobs, while Texas has actually gained 164,000 jobs," said Assemblyman Dan Logue, a Republican from a district north of Sacramento who organized the trip. "Texas like everybody else was hit by the recession, but they are setting an example on how to grow their way out rather than tax their way out."

A key event for the delegation was a meeting at the Capitol with Gov. Rick Perry, who has made trips to California to lure companies and jobs to Texas.

His most recent coup: eBay Inc., which plans to add 1,000 jobs in Austin over the next 10 years, with the help of state and city incentives that were approved this week.

"I am a pro-business governor," Perry said at a media event before the private meeting. "The most important thing that a governor does is having the effect of keeping a positive business climate in the state. If you do not do that first, you can't do those other things very long," such as funding education, border security, public safety and other priorities.

[...]

The day's agenda included a lunch session with Andrew Puzder, CEO of the company that owns the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurant chains.

Puzder, whose company is based near Santa Barbara, created a stir in California earlier this year when he announced a major expansion in Texas, strongly criticized California's business climate and suggested that he might move his headquarters to Texas.

Puzder said Thursday that California's permitting process makes it hard for his company to build new restaurants there and that it is difficult to employ restaurant managers without running afoul of the state's restrictive labor laws.

While the Californians' visit, along with their taxpayers' money that the delegation spread around Austin's hotels and restaurants is appreciated, they didn't need a junket to the Lone Star State to tell them that their state's toxic business climate is the problem, and easing the corporate tax burden and harsh regulations would go a long way toward solving it. This is not the stuff of rocket science, but rather Economics 101. Ladendorf illustrates this in his report:

When he returned to California from Texas, Puzder said he received a phone call at home from Gov. Jerry Brown, who wanted to talk with him about improving the business climate in the state.

He said representatives of his chain have met with state officials recently and came up with a way to reduce the permitting process from eight months to six.

In Texas, Puzder said, the same process takes six weeks, and there are no arbitrary work rules that affect restaurant managers.

"You can't build stores in California, you can't manage them in California, and, even if you can build them, you have to pay a big tax," he said. "In Texas, you can build them and run them, and you don't have to pay (income) tax."

It's a shame that there were few Democrats among the fact-finding team from California. Republicans already know how to solve the problem, but Golden State Democrats still want to tax and regulate their corporate constituents to the point where it becomes more profitable to incur the costs of moving the company away from California to more business-friendly states. Until California's elected officials learn that it takes more than tiny Band Aids to perform serious triage, they won't be able to stop the hemorrhaging.

- JP

What welfare reform?

A report released last week by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that 57 percent of the nation's immigrants with children — those in the country legally or not — use at least one government welfare program. This is a most interesting finding, coming as is does some 13 years after Congress overhauled the American welfare system. But that's nothing, compared to another statistic extracted from the study, according to The Chron's Texas on the Potomac blog: In Texas, 54 percent of legal immigrants and 70 percent of illegal immigrants receive welfare assistance, with illegal immigrants generally receiving benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children:

Overall, Texas tied with California and New York for the second highest immigrant welfare rates behind Arizona.

We should note that the study takes an expansive view of what constitutes a government welfare program, so programs such as reduced-price school lunches for low-income students are classified as welfare, according to CIS' methodology.

Texas showed 61 percent of households headed by an immigrant utilizing at least one program compared to the 42 percent of Texas natives on welfare.

"This is partly due to the large share of immigrants with low levels of education and their resulting low incomes — not their legal status or an unwillingness to work," Steve Camorata, Director of Research at CIS, said.

[...]

The welfare programs analyzed include Supplemental Security Income for low income elderly and disabled, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Women, Infants and Children food program, free/reduced school lunch, food stamps, Medicaid, public housing and rent subsidies. In fiscal year 2008, these programs totaled $517 billion. But these programs are also partially funded by individual state governments, especially Medicaid.

[...]

Camarota said changing the high immigrant usage would require changing immigration qualifications from residency of family members to an emphasis on education and skills, because the study noted higher education equates to less program assistance. The other solution would be in allowing less immigrants into the country, which correlates to less immigrant use of welfare.

- JP

Should the gas production tax exemption stay or should it go?

Texas' natural gas production tax exemption has been in place for decades. Depending on whom you ask, getting rid of it could either bring the Lone State State $2.4 billion in needed revenue or cost us a minimum of $3 billion. The Chron's Tom Fowler reports at the Fuel Fix blog:

A proposal by Texas Rep. Lon Burnham (D-Fort Worth) would undo what was supposed to be a temporary tax exemption for “high-cost” gas – essentially natural gas produced from tight sand and shale formations that require what were once the non-traditional (“extraordinary”) techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

The exemption – which reduces the standard 7.5 percent tax rate to 2 percent – was put in place temporarily in 1989 and somehow made permanent in 2003.

Burnham notes that the exemption is hardly needed, given the widespread use of the advanced drilling techniques, which were used on wells that accounted for 56 percent of Texas’ natural gas production last year.

“If more than half of the industry qualifies, it is by definition not ‘extraordinary.’ The exemption is no longer an incentive – it’s a handout,” said Burnham. “One Barnett Shale producer got a $114 million tax break last year while raking in $4.6 billion in net earnings.”

Burnham says last year the exemption cost the state $1.2 billion, money that could help save teaching jobs in Texas public schools

Naturally, the Texas Oil and Gas Association doesn’t see it that way.

The trade group argues that the removal of the tax exemption would not neatly transfer that $1.2 billion to state coffers. Rather, it would lead to a drop in natural gas production because the costs for drillers would go up.

“Drilling rigs are mobile and can leave Texas,” the group said in a statement, meaning other states with lower tax regimes would lure the rigs away. “Taxable values of gas reserves would drop. With those rigs would go the taxes that reserves and drilling activity generate, depriving schools, hospitals, community colleges and first responders of revenue in over half of the counties in the state.”

TXOGA goes on to tout the $3.2 billion the industry paid in local property taxes last year, and circulates a report written for the industry in September by Billy Hamilton Consulting that says discontinuing the tax break would lead to a 4.7 percent loss in drilling activity in 2012 and a $1.5 billion loss to the Texas economy in the first year alone.

Here's a thought: Texas doesn't have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. Bill Murchison of the Institute for Policy Innovation explains:

Texas’ state government spending from all the funds at its disposal rose nearly 300 percent between 1990 and 2010. At the same time population was growing just 115.5 percent. In other words, spending as a percent of the population nearly tripled in 20 years. Health and human services spending rose 406 percent during the period, education spending 276 percent.

As Reason magazine's Tim Cavanaugh revealed in February, Texas is actually outspending (gulp!) California:

State expenditures of $92.7 billion in 2010 mean Austin is actually outspending the Sacramento, which logged $86.6 billion in expenditures in its 2010-2011 budget. The growth rate is even higher than California’s was before the recession threw cold water on the Golden State. As Reason Foundation’s Adam Summers wrote a while back, “Since former Gov. George Deukmejian's final budget in Fiscal Year 1990-91, California's spending has skyrocketed 181 percent. Spending nearly tripled from $51.4 billion in FY 1990-91 to $144.5 billion in FY 2008-09.” Texas, by comparison, nearly quadrupled its spending.

So while Democrats such as Rep. Burnham always look for ways to increase revenues, that strategy ignores the spending side, which is exactly where Texas' budget problem can be found.

- JP

Trib: First House Redistricting Maps Presented

The first maps showing how the Texas House Redistricting Committee proposes to redraw the districts have been presented. One new Latino district has been created, the current number of black opportunity districts remains intact, and 16 incumbents are in districts where they would have to face one of their colleagues in the 2012 elections. As the Texas Tribune reports, this is just the beginning:

"I want to thank the members of the House for working with the Redistricting Committee over the past weeks and months. We have received public testimony from across the state at hearings and submitted written materials. I deeply appreciate everyone's participation," said Redistricting Chairman Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, in a written statement. "As a member, I know this is a very personal process, and I appreciate the patience and understanding that I have received from my colleagues. The map we are proposing is a fair and legal map that represents the people of Texas and our growth over the last 10 years. And, I believe the members understand this growth resulted in some difficult decisions for me personally."

[...]

The House Redistricting Committee holds its first hearings on Friday and Sunday. Other maps are expected soon. A coalition of Latino groups will unveil a map on Thursday, and individual members are certain to present — publicly and privately — their own versions of how they think the new political lines should be drawn. If lawmakers can't agree on the maps, new districts will be drawn by the Legislative Redistricting Board, a five-member panel that includes the speaker of the House, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the land commissioner and the comptroller. All five are Republicans.

- JP

Cornyn: Don't put EPA in the driver’s seat

U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas testified Tuesday against additional federal regulations for natural gas drilling:

“In my opinion, there is no need to destroy current the partnership between state and federal regulators and put the EPA in the driver’s seat,” Cornyn, R-San Antonio, said at a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing.

Cornyn said he believes states are currently effectively regulating hydraulic fracturing, a process that creates fractures in rocks by injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressures, allowing the extraction of natural gas.

“Texas and the U.S. have a bountiful supply of natural gas. This has implications for job creation, our economy and our future energy security,” said Cornyn.

In Texas the oil and gas industry is big business providing more than 1.7 million jobs and accounting for almost 25 percent of the state’s economy, according to Cornyn’s testimony.

Cornyn said additional measures imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would lead to duplicative regulation and delays which would stifle gas production and job growth.

- JP

Austin, reknown for Longhorns, politics, music &... motorsports?

The new F1 auto road racing course being constructed near Austin will also be a venue for motorcycle competition, according to a report at Racin'Today.com

Formula One’s new home in the United States now officially has a name; Circuit of the Americas. In addition to hosting a Formula One race in 2012, the facility will play host to the MotoGP series in 2013.

Those were the key items announced during a news conference at the Palmer Events Center downtown here on Tuesday afternoon.

Approximately 250 guests and media heard from each of the three partners involved in the $250 million project during the news conference.

[...]

The track will be located 20 miles southeast of downtown in Travis County. Its signature element will be a 3.4-mile, 20-turn road circuit with capacity for 120,000 fans. The track will feature elevation changes of up to 133 feet.

Asked about a likely Formula One race date, Hellmund [Tavo Hellmund, chairman of Formula 1 United States] said, “We’ve been told to be ready to go the middle of next year. That’s a Bernie (Ecclestone, president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration) and FIA question.”

The new tenant, MotoGP, has signed a 10-year contract to bring its series to the track beginning in 2013.

Update: Here's the promotional video:


- JP

Texas Music Break: 'Texas'

by Chris Rea (1989)


- JP

Houston gets snubbed for a space shuttle

A Chronicle editorial laments that Houston has a problem - neither the Space City nor the Space Center in Clear Lake will get one of the remaining spacecraft that have been taken out of service. They are destined for institutions in California, Florida and New York:

The Discovery, the flagship of the fleet which completed its final mission earlier this year, had already been earmarked for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in the nation's capital.

Photo: 747 gives shuttle a lift over Jonson Space Center (JSC)

The choice of Cape Canaveral for the Atlantis was logical since that has been the launching site and main landing destination for the shuttle program. But NASA awarded the Endeavor to the California Science Center in Los Angeles and will transfer the test prototype Enterprise from the Smithsonian to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, housed aboard an aircraft carrier permanently docked in New York City.

[...]

Local critics immediately accused NASA's [administrator Charles] Bolden of kowtowing to the pressure of presidential politics in the allocation of the shuttles. Houston Mayor Annise Parker spoke for many of us in saying, "I am disappointed for Houston, the JSC family and the survivors of the Columbia and Challenger missions who paid the ultimate price for the advancement of space exploration. There was no other city with our history of human space flight or more deserving of a retiring orbiter. It is unfortunate that political calculations have prevailed in the final decision."

Although Texas voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent, Harris County, where Houston is the county seat, went for Obama by 51 percent to 49 percent. How's that hope and change working out for you, Big H?

- JP

Want to get away from it all? Try West Texas.

Although Texas has been the beneficiary of the largest growth in the nation's population over the past decade, more than a third of the state's counties, most of them west of I-35, have actually experienced decreases in population. For someone who is looking to get away from it all, Loving County may be the ideal location. The west Texas jurisdiction has just 82 residents, making it not just the least-populated county in Texas, but in the entire nation:

With just 30 miles of paved road - that would be State Highway 302 - and another 30 of paved-turning-to-potholes county roads, most people are scattered across ranchland reached only by private roads cutting through its 673 square miles of desert, punctuated by several hundred oil and gas wells.

[...]

Finding an election judge who isn't related to someone on the ballot is especially tricky. But at least they don't have to find two. Loving County holds only a Democratic primary, even though Hopper says most residents vote Republican in the general election.

Population loss isn't unique to West Texas.

Rice University demographer Steve Murdock says it's happening all across the plains, from the Dakotas to Texas. A few East Texas counties also lost population over the decade.

Blame technology.

Agriculture is more mechanized, so it requires fewer workers, says Eduardo Segarra, chairman of the department of agriculture and applied economics at Texas Tech University.

The number of agriculture jobs has actually increased, as people leave the farm for cities and work in marketing, transportation, product development and other facets of the industry.

That helps to explain why West Texas' cities - Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland-Odessa and El Paso - are growing, even as the rural population has shrunk. But it offers little consolation to counties with few prospects for renewal.

So aside from having roughly eight square miles all to yourself, what are the advantages of life in lonely Loving County? "The greatest sunsets. The stars are just right there. You hear the coyotes howling," says Sheriff Billy Burt Hopper. "It's the last frontier."

- JP

Fred Barnes on the bid by Ted Cruz to be Texas' next U.S. Senator

Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard's Executive Editor, writes that Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz has reached a milestone of sorts in his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat which will be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison next year. The Houston conservative has raised $100,000 a week for over 10 weeks, and his election war chest now holds more than a million dollars. But he will need a lot more cash and much wider name recognition to have a fighting chance to win this high profile race:

Cruz’s fundraising in the first three months of 2011 signifies that he’s a serious candidate, though hardly a frontrunner. He’s never been elected to public office, but was considered a shoo-in to be elected state attorney general in 2010 if incumbent Greg Abbott had sought higher office. Abbott chose to run for reelection.

Cruz, 40, faces a crowded field in the Senate race. Five candidates have already announced. And when the Texas legislature adjourns in May, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is likely to join the field. Dewhurst would be the instant frontrunner.

[...]

To win the nomination, Cruz must first emerge as the main challenger to Dewhurst, the best known, wealthiest, and the leading officeholder of the candidates. “He can write his campaign a check for $25 million,” a prominent Texas Republican says.

In a statewide poll conducted in February by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune, Dewhurst was favored by 27 percent of Republican voters. Cruz was far behind at three percent. The other candidates: Michael Williams, a former state railroad commissioner, five percent, railroad commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, three percent, and former Texas secretary of state Roger Williams, two percent. Leppert was not a candidate at the time.

Cruz is focusing his campaign on “the need for new leadership” and his “proven conservative record.” All the candidates call themselves conservatives, but Cruz may be the most conservative of the bunch. He is angling for the endorsements of two significant players in Republican primaries, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and the Club for Growth.

Barns estimates that Cruz may need to raise as much as $10 million to build a higher profile with Texas Republicans and get his conservative message across. To accomplish this, the former State Solicitor General will have to continue attracting contributions of, on average, $100,000 a week or more, no small deal for a candidate without the high name recognition enjoyed by some of his GOP rivals.

- JP

TX Sheriff: Not ‘A Mile’ of Border Secure

Texas Sheriff Tomas Herrera doesn't buy into Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s claim that security at the border with Mexico is “better than it has ever been,” reports Penny Starr of CNSNews.com:

Herrera, in a telephone interview with CNSNews.com, said that not “a mile” of the 85-mile stretch of border in Maverick County, Texas, which is separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande River, is secure and that the violence of Mexican drug cartels is spilling over into the United States as cartels come into Texas and kidnap teenagers for their smuggling operations.

“They come in and kidnap some of our citizens in this county and take them into Mexico,” Herrera told CNSNews.com. “We’re talking about young kids.”

“These are high school kiddos and junior high kids that are used by the cartels to smuggle drugs into the United States,” said Herrera, who has been in law enforcement for 37 years and sheriff of Maverick County for five.

[...]

Herrera said that his sheriff’s office only has 5 deputies per shift to patrol a county that is 1,249 square miles.

“And to try to secure 85 miles of river [along the border], you can’t do it,” Herrera said.

Kidnappings aren’t the only violence that is spilling over into Texas from Mexico, according to Herrera. He said ranchers and other residents feel constantly threatened by drug cartel activity in the county.

- JP

Texas Music Break: 'God Blessed Texas'

by Little Texas (1993)


- JP

Oops! Comptroller exposes personal info on 3.5 million Texans

The state comptroller's office revealed that personal information on about 3.5 million Texans -- including names, mailing addresses, Social Security numbers and perhaps dates of birth and driver's license numbers -- was inadvertently made public on a computer server operated by the office:

Comptroller Susan Combs's office is sending letters beginning Wednesday to notify affected people.

The information was in data transferred by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) and the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS).

The TRS data transferred in January 2010 had records of 1.2 million education employees and retirees. The TWC data transferred in April 2010 had records of about 2 million individuals in their system. The ERS data transferred in May 2010 had records of about 281,000 state employees and retirees.

There is no indication the personal information was misused, Combs' office said in a prepared statement.

A special toll-free phone line at (855) 474-2065 will be activated Tuesday for Texans to check whether they should receiveg the notification letter. The toll free line will operate 24-hours a day for the first week.

- JP

Texas may ban courts from considering foreign laws

Should state courts give weight to foreign religious and cultural laws, such as the Islamic law of Shariah, in their deliberations? Texas lawmakers are considering this question, according to a report by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Anna Tinsley:

The goal "is to require a Texas court to uphold and apply only the laws ordained by the constitutions of [Texas and the United States], prohibiting any other interpretation," said Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, a former Arlington mayor pro tem. "This is now happening all over Europe ... and in Dearborn, Mich. ... and it could spread throughout the United States.

"We all know what Shariah law does to women -- women must wear burqas, women are subject to humiliation and into controlled marriages under Shariah law," he said. "We want to prevent it from ever happening in Texas."

A bill by Berman to prevent foreign laws from being recognized in Texas courts, as well as a twin proposal by Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, went before the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence last week. Both bills were left pending.

Texas is just one of a growing number of states -- including Alaska, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Tennessee -- to address the question of whether bans should be imposed on incorporating foreign laws into state law, according to the Institute for U.S. Law.

- JP

The NY Times on the Texas House spending cuts

NewsBuster Clay Waters catches NY Times Houston-based correspondent James McKinley Jr cranking out a steaming pile of naked bias disguised as a "news story" about the budget cuts passed recently by the Texas House. Notice McKinley's choice of "inciteful" and violent rhetoric which Waters has put in boldface:

It is hard to overstate the budget-cutting furor that has gripped lawmakers in this capital, where the Republicans who control the Legislature and all statewide offices believe voters sent them an iron-clad mandate last year to shrink the size of government.

But the Texas government was already a relatively lean operation after years of conservative fiscal policies. So when the Texas House passed its budget bill last weekend, the depth of the cutbacks necessary for the Republican majority to stick to its promise of no new taxes became clearer. It was not a pretty picture.

The bill would slash $23 billion from the current level of state and federal spending over the next two-year budget cycle -- a 12.3 percent reduction that does not take into account rising costs to meet the needs of Texas’s growing population.

In a party-line vote, the House slaughtered dozens of sacred cows. The budget bill makes huge cuts to public education, nursing homes and health care for the poor. It slashes financing for highways, prisons and state parks. It eliminates full-day preschool, cuts teacher incentive pay and reduces scholarships for college students by two-thirds.

[...]

What galls state employees and many liberals in the state is the refusal by Gov. Rick Perry and his House allies to buffer some of the pain by tapping into the more than $6 billion left in an emergency fund fed by taxes on oil production. (Last month, the House approved using $3 billion from the fund to close a deficit in the current two-year budget.)

McKinley simply cannot fathom why most Texans won't even consider swigging some of that old liberal snake oil, better known as tax increases:

But this year the two chambers are so far apart, and the public mood here is so hostile toward anything resembling a tax increase, that it is unclear how the two houses would bridge their differences.

But it would be the NY Times if the writer did not play the doom and gloom cards, and McKinley deals them down and dirty:

The House plan would give schools almost $8 billion less than current state law requires over the next two years. Medicaid would be short about $4 billion of what officials say is needed to meet the growth in case loads. One group of budget analysts predicted that 97,000 teachers and school employees would be laid off. Other analysts said that the cuts to Medicaid would force hundreds of nursing homes out of business and would have a devastating effect on rural hospitals and doctors.

Sadly, the Texas press has been no less biased than the old Grey Lady in the local coverage of this story. Thank the J-schools, which have been mass-producing stenographers for DNC talking points rather than nonpartisan journalists for decades. Simply reporting the news is so last century...

- JP

Ron Paul appears ready to run for president again

Ron Paul (R - Lake Jackson), the U.S.Congressman representing the 14th District of Texas, has the paperwork ready to form an exploratory committee to run for president and is expected to participate in a primary debate in South Carolina on May 5, the state GOP announced Friday:

“We are thrilled by the overwhelming interest we have seen so far in this debate,” said South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Karen Floyd. “The road to the White House travels through South Carolina, as our Republican electorate has selected every eventual nominee since our primary’s inception in 1980. We are looking forward to our debate as the official kickoff for the presidential primary season.”

Paul has filled out the paperwork for a presidential exploratory committee, a spokesman for Paul’s PAC Campaign for Liberty told The Daily Caller, although he has not official announced his candidacy. PAC spokesman Jesse Benton said they have all the forms prepared so that Paul can “flip the switch” as soon as he decides to run.

“I’d say this is a sign that he’s giving a really strong consideration to [running],” Benton said of the debate. “The money’s been great, the enthusiasm’s been great. … The polling in New Hampshire’s really strong so we’re feeling good.”

As a candidate in the 2008 Republican Presidential primaries, Rep. Paul accumulated just 1.6 percent of the delegates and won no states before suspending his campaign on June 12, 2008.

h/t: Caffeinated Thoughts

- JP

Ex-Dallas mayor says he discussed Senate bid with Cornyn

Tom Leppert has met with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), but the GOP Senate candidate denies that he asked for Cornyn's endorsement, according to a post on The Hill's politics blog, The Ballot Box:

The former mayor of Dallas is one of several candidates vying to succeed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas). The GOP primary is expected to be an expensive, bruising contest, which could give Democrats an edge in the open-seat race, if they can get behind a candidate early. For now, it appears the National Republican Senatorial Committee will remain on the sidelines during the primary.

Leppert said he's talked to Cornyn, who heads the NRSC, but didn't solicit his backing. "We've had real positive conversations on my running, but I have not asked him" for an endorsement, he told The Ballot Box.

Leppert also noted he's been in contact with staff at the NRSC, who indicated the committee will stay neutral in the race.

"I've met [NRSC executive director] Rob Jesmer and visited with him," he said. "My indication was they would stay out, through the primary. Of course, they're going to be very supportive of the nominee for the Republican Party."

Leppert faces former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, former solicitor general Ted Cruz, former Secretary of State Roger Williams and Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones in the race for the GOP Senate nomination.

If the field isn't crowded enough on the Republican side for political junkies, they can take some comfort in the expectation that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst will likely join the race later this year.

- JP

Not just bigger, but faster

The State House of Representatives has approved a new transportation bill which includes legislation that would allow TxDOT to jack speed limits up to 85 miles per hour, the highest in the nation:

The measure passed Wednesday on a voice vote was part of a larger transportation bill. It would authorize the Texas Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on designated lanes or entire stretches of roadway after doing engineering and traffic studies, the Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.

The Senate is considering a similar bill.

"They have high-speed roadways in Europe, and there could be some merit in having some of those highways in Texas," said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, who introduced the bill. "Given the right engineering, we should consider it."

[...]

One such stretch of Interstate 10 "is as nice a road as you can build; it's flat with a long line of sight, wide lanes and good shoulders," said Rep. Joe Pickett of El Paso. "For people like us who travel that long distance, it could be good" to raise the limit to 85 mph, he said.

Some auto insurers oppose the measure, citing safety concerns.

Don't drop the hammer down just yet. Engineering and traffic studies will have to be conducted before you can legally make 140 kilometers vanish behind you every hour. Actually, 85 mph wouldn't be such a big deal, since the Lone Star State already has 520 miles of highway where the posted limit is 80 mph.

h/t: Autoblog

- JP

Barone: Census Data Shows Texas Has The Best Ideas

Michael Barone has been looking at the data from the 2010 Census which shows that the nation's fastest growth rates in the first decade of the 21st century were in Texas, the Rocky Mountain states and the South Atlantic states. He concludes:

Public policy plays an important role here — one that's especially relevant as state governments seek to cut spending and reduce the power of the public-employee unions that seek to raise spending and prevent accountability.

The lesson is that high taxes and strong public-employee unions tend to stifle growth and produce a two-tier society like coastal California's.

The eight states with no state income tax grew 18% in the last decade. The other states (including the District of Columbia) grew just 8%.

The 22 states with right-to-work laws grew 15% in the last decade. The other states grew just 6%.

The 16 states where collective bargaining with public employees is not required grew 15% in the last decade. The other states grew 7%.

The most rapid growth in 2000-10, 21%, was in the Rocky Mountain states and in Texas. The Rocky Mountain states tend to have low taxes, weak unions and light regulation. Texas has no state income tax, no public-employee-union bargaining and light regulation.

Texas' economy has diversified far beyond petroleum, with booming high-tech centers, major corporate headquarters and thriving small businesses. It has attracted hundreds of thousands of Americans and immigrants, high-skill as well as low-skill. Its wide open spaces made for low housing costs, which protected it against the housing bubble and bust that has slowed growth in Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Barone quotes Justice Brandeis, who said the states are laboratories of reform. The less we can take from the 2010 census is that most successful experiment was the Lone Star State.

- JP

Downsized Texas RR Commission may get new name

The Texas Tribune reports that the State Senate approved a measure Monday that would change the name of the powerful Railroad Commission to the Texas Oil and Gas Commission and reduce the number of the board's commissioners from three to a single elected member:

Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, who authored the bill, said the new name would more aptly describe the functions of the commission, which include regulating the oil and gas industry and have nothing to do with railroads. The measure, he said, would also save $1.2 million this budget cycle.

[...]

The bill, which passed 29-2, would also require the commissioner to stop accepting campaign contributions a year before the general election, to make the State Office of Adminstrative Hearing more accessible to the public, and it would allow the commission to include surcharges on licenses.

- JP

Texas House redirects family planning funds to pro-life centers

Texas legislators, through a series of amendments to the state's budget, moved to redirect almost $70 million in family planning funding to organizations that offer alternatives to abortion:

The 2012-13 budget passed 98-49, largely along party lines, in the Texas House late Sunday night, and Democrats were seen voting “present” instead of rejecting amendments providing extra funding for mental health services for children, trauma care, and funding for the deaf and the blind, according to the Texas Tribune.

In a 100-44 vote Friday, the House passed an amendment by Republican Rep. Randy Weber that transfers almost $7.4 million from family planning funding to crisis pregnancy centers, which provide alternatives to abortions.

Abortion giant Planned Parenthood responded on Twitter, saying, “Outrageous! TX House just voted to take $8.3 million from family planning to give to unregulated crisis pregnancy centers for the next 2 yrs.”

House GOP then started diverting family planning funding to other health services, causing Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner to claim the amendments were causing the lawmakers to choose between funding “child one or child two.” He then urged Democrats to to abstain from voting on the amendments, which as many as 44 members did.

The budget bill will now go to the State Senate, where it will be debated and voted upon. But Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life expects the Senators will approve the House’s amendments, which also have the support of Governor Rick Perry.

- JP