Speaking of the gubernatorial race, the five largest newspapers in Texas announced plans to host a gubernatorial debate on Oct. 19th at 7:00pm in KLRU’s studio in Austin. All candidates who register 10 percent or better in a preference poll to be conducted by the newspapers in mid-September will be invited. Both Gov. Rick Perry and former Houston Mayor Bill White will receive invitations to attend. Libertarian Katherine Glass will have to improve in the polls in order to secure an invitation. Perry has repeatedly said he won’t debate White until White releases tax returns from the 1990s.

Rep. David Swinford (R-Dumas) announced that he is retiring, effective today. Last year, Swinford announced that he would not run for another term as representative of House District 87. Republican Four Price and Democrat Abel Bosquez are on the general election ballot for November 2. Due to the timing, Governor Rick Perry announced that he will not call a special election for the seat. The seat will remain vacant until the winner of the general election contest is sworn in on January 11, 2011.

At the state capitol, Texas House and Senate committees have heard testimony from the state’s budget experts regarding the predicted budget shortfall. The state’s revised business franchise tax is not living up to expectations. During a hearing this week, the Texas Comptroller’s Office said that Texas will collect $3.85 billion this year, a figure that is down $500 million from what was anticipated in the biennial revenue estimate. In addition to examining tax collections, legislators will begin considering other ways to reduce the biennial budget. As state agencies begin to submit their LARS (Legislative Appropriations Requests), look for proposed reductions to the state’s public employee workforce.

Are Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media being widely used by politicians in Texas?
For those of you who have been hoping that the use of social media is a phase that you can avoid, you better learn the lingo and join the fray. Politicians across Texas, especially statewide officials and members of the Texas Legislature, have jumped on the bandwagon.

The tweeting in Texas picked up during the 81st Legislative Session in 2009. Governor Perry tweets as does Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. Perry and Dewhurst are on Facebook as well. Some politicians choose to have campaign related pages as well as personal pages but most combine the two. Many state legislators have their Facebook pages set up to automatically accept friend requests so no potential voter feels left out.

State agencies have gotten into the act, using social media to provide information to the general public. Follow this link to Texas.gov to learn which agencies have a social media presence: http://www.texas.gov/en/Connect/Pages/social-media.aspx

During this interim, Lt. David Dewhurst charged the Senate State Affairs Committee with discussing how advances in technology and the emergence of various forms of social media have affected communications by and within governmental bodies. During a hearing on the issue on May 11th, senators heard from various groups and individuals who urged them to incorporate rules on the use of social media into the Texas Public Information Act.

What do the acronyms “LBB” and “LAR” mean? Why are they important?

As agencies begin to develop their Legislative Appropriations Requests (LARs) for the 2012-2013 biennium, it is a good time to focus on the Legislative Budget Board (LBB). The LBB is a permanent joint committee of the House and Senate that assists the Texas Legislature with fiscal matters. It creates fiscal analyses for proposed legislation, develops budget and policy recommendations for state agencies, and conducts performance reviews of state agencies to improve efficiency. The Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House serve as joint chairs of the LBB. The Chairs of the Senate Finance Committee, the House Appropriations Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee are automatic members. The Lieutenant Governor then appoints three Senate members and the Speaker appoints two House members. The LBB has been led by five directors since its creation with John S. O’Brien currently directing the agency.
The LBB was created in 1949 to address the escalating state government expenditures after the end of World War II; and to satisfy a recommendation from the State Auditor’s Office for the creation of a legislative committee for the continuous review of state spending. All state agencies were required to submit their budget requests to the LBB for review and recommendations. In 1973, the LBB’s duties were expanded to include evaluation of agency programs and estimation of the probable costs of implementing legislation introduced in the legislative session. Fiscal notes become even more critical in years of tight budgeting. A high fiscal note often kills a bill before the merits are debated.

Each agency’s appropriation request provides a fiscal expression of the agency’s strategic priorities. This fiscal expression includes quantitative information such as projected performance, projected cost, and methods of financing proposed for state services. In addition to numerical figures, information is also provided in the form of narrative language or “riders”. Each LAR is divided into two components: the “baseline” or “base level” request; and requests for consideration of “exceptional items,” which are desired services in addition to the baseline request. As a starting point for budget deliberations for the upcoming biennium, an agency’s baseline request for general revenue related (GR and GR-Dedicated) funds may not exceed the sum of amounts expended in fiscal year 2010 and budgeted in fiscal year 2011 adjusted to reflect the full five percent reduction target identified by the LBB for each agency. Agencies must also submit a supplemental schedule detailing how they would reduce the baseline request by an additional 10 percent (in five percent increments) in general revenue-related funding. The House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance Committee will start reviewing these LARs this fall.

Still curious? Then follow this link to the LBB’s website where you can access the current state budget as a publication entitled Budget 101: A Guide to the Budget Process in Texas: http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/

President Barack Obama will be in Texas in early August. He plans to headline an August 9th fundraiser in Austin for the Democratic National Committee. He is also scheduled to headline a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event the same day in Houston.

Campaign finance reports for the first six months of 2010 are due at the Texas Ethics Commission today. Expect them to begin showing up on the commission’s website as soon as tomorrow. To see how much money your favorite candidate has on hand, go to http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/cesearchSimple.html and type in their name.

Texas has been named America’s Top State for Business 2010 by CNBC. Those of you in Austin today can swing by Katz’s Deli on 6th street to watch a live broadcast touting the strength of the Texas economy.

The Texas Transportation Commission has named Howard Wolf, an attorney and businessman who was former member of the Sunset Advisory Commission and Jay Kimbrough, general counsel for the Texas A&M University System and former senior advisor to Gov. Rick Perry, to a committee assigned with the task of reorganizing the
Texas Department of Transportation. The committee, whose other members have yet to be named, will be tasked with reviewing the management audit conducted by Grant Thornton as well as recommendations from the Sunset Advisory Commission.

Going into this holiday weekend, the Capitol has been abuzz with activity. Monday, the House Committee on Environmental Regulation discussed recycling. On Tuesday, the House Select Committee on Government Efficiency & Accountability met to discuss privatization. Also Tuesday, the House Select Committee on Fiscal Stability discussed the cause of the current budget shortfall and explored possible solutions. Yesterday, the Legislative Study Group, a group of House Democrats, met to hear from invited witnesses on the subject of gambling in Texas. If you are interested in listening to any of these hearings, follow this link to the Texas House website and scroll to the bottom of the page under the heading “Archived Broadcasts”: http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/welcome.php

Texas Democrats held their state party convention last week in Corpus Christi. Despite complaints during the last presidential election, the party chose to keep the dual primary vote and caucus system called the two-step.

For those of you who have spent a lot of time up at the Texas Capitol during legislative sessions, you may recall frequent sightings of a man in full biker gear, covered in tattoos and smelling of smoke. Sputnik, who fought for the rights of motorcyclists for many years, died of a heart attack last week. The halls of the pink dome won’t be the same.

Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) filed the official paperwork Tuesday to challenge fellow Republican Joe Straus as speaker of the Texas House.

Gov. Rick Perry has set Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010, as the special election date to fill the Texas House District 84 seat vacated by the resignation of former Rep. Carl H. Isett (R-Lubbock). The state representative elected in this special election will serve out the remainder of Rep. Isett’s unexpired term.

Speaking of Governor Perry, he is in China attending the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, which is expected to draw 70 million visitors from more than 170 nations.

The Texas Republican Convention was held last week in Dallas. Houston lawyer Steve Munisteri was elected the new party chairman. Texas Libertarians also held their convention last week, selecting Houston lawyer Kathie Glass as their candidate for governor. The Texas Democratic Convention will be held in Corpus Christi June 24-26.

For those of you keeping track of the state’s sales tax collections, Comptroller Susan Combs announced that total sales tax collections have met or exceeded year ago levels for a second month in a row, following 14 months of decline. However, Texas is still about $1.5 billion behind where it was last year in terms of total sales tax collections.

Finally, the Big 12 has announced that it will continue on despite the loss of Nebraska and Colorado. The name of the division has yet to be announced but the Big Ten is already taken and the Big 12 minus 2 just doesn’t sound very powerful. Any suggestions?