Required Reading

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House Sends Campaign Disclosure Bill to Perry

Updated May 14, 1:40 p.m.

A divisive measure requiring the disclosure of certain unreported political donors passed the Texas House on a 95-52 vote on Tuesday, denying the Texas Senate’s desire to have it back in its clutches. The measure, which passed Tuesday with little of Monday’s debate, now heads to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk.

Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said now that the measure has passed the governor will take a final look at the language before determining whether he’ll sign it.

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Texas House pushes for more aggressive rainy day investing

AUSTIN — The state comptroller would have to take a bit more risk investing most of the money in the rainy day fund under a bill the House approved Thursday.

Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said his measure is about “being safe” with taxpayer dollars but also “being a better steward.”

Even if Comptroller Susan Combs continued to invest the rainy day money very conservatively, she could earn about 3 percent interest on slightly more than half of the fund balance over the next two years, Branch said. The more aggressive approach would generate about $450 million in additional earnings, he said.

The bill would require about $4.3 billion of the $8 billion currently in the rainy day fund to continue to be kept in highly liquid, low yield assets.

They are not all that different from cash, said Branch and another author of the bill, Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls.

Branch invoked a parable from the Bible as he urged colleagues to put at least some of the money to better use.

“We shouldn’t be burying our treasure,” he said.

 

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After Plant Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation

WEST, Tex. — Five days after an explosion at a fertilizer plant leveled a wide swath of this town, Gov. Rick Perry tried to woo Illinois business officials by trumpeting his state’s low taxes and limited regulations. Asked about the disaster, Mr. Perry responded that more government intervention and increased spending on safety inspections would not have prevented what has become one of the nation’s worst industrial accidents in decades.

“Through their elected officials,” he said, Texans “clearly send the message of their comfort with the amount of oversight.”

This antipathy toward regulations is shared by many residents here. Politicians and economists credit the stance with helping attract jobs and investment to Texas, which has one of the fastest-growing economies in the country, and with winning the state a year-after-year ranking as the nation’s most business friendly.

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Top senator vows his charter school plan will pass

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The top proponent for school choice in the Texas Legislature vowed Wednesday that his much-watched effort to expand charter schools in Texas will become law — even though it could still face a tough road in the House.

Speaking to a midday charter school rally at the state Capitol featuring hundreds of activists, parents and teachers — some of whom brought their classes from Dallas, San Antonio and Austin — Sen. Dan Patrick cried, “I feel really good!”

“For the first time in almost 15 years, this Legislature is going to pass a bill addressing charter schools,” Patrick said. “Raising the cap, allowing for more flexibility, innovation and an opportunity for those 100,000 parents who are on a waitlist.”

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Obama kicks off jobs campaign in Texas

President Obama was back in campaign mode Thursday as he sought to push his plans and his administration’s record on job growth during a trip to Austin, Texas.

The president told roughly 400 people crammed into a technical high school gym that the “rubble” from the worst recession since the Great Depression has now been cleared away — the economy has added millions of jobs and the unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level since 2008 — and now it’s time to work even harder to realize more gains.

“All of us have to commit ourselves to doing better than we’re doing now,” Obama said.

The president ticked through his plans to grow the middle class — “the true engine of economic growth” — including making America a magnet for good jobs, helping people get the education they need to perform those jobs, and ensuring that people who are working hard are able to earn a decent living. Though he conceded some of his proposals to realize those goals, from tax reform to a minimum wage increase, haven’t gone very far.

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