7 days left

We're down to the final seven days of the legislative session. Rumors of the "insurgency" in the Texas House have everybody buzzing about the Capitol, watching and listening for a historic "motion to vacate the chair." I guess it would be exciting to witness history in the making. But it would most likely derail important legislation [i.e. the budget] in the process.

With one week left, only 556 House and Senate bills have been passed. Last session, 1,389 were passed. Around this time of the session, both chambers would normally work late hours and weekends to pass bills before end of session deadlines. They didn't bother working on Saturday, and they adjourned relatively early, this evening.

An amendment to temporarily stop the state motor fuels taxes during the summer was added onto another tax bill, a couple of weeks ago. The bill will be going into a conference committee between the House and Senate, soon. That's bad timing for any legislator fiscally responsible enough to remove this "gas tax holiday" provision. Regular gas is at its most expensive I've ever seen it in Austin, and I'm sure folks are seeing the same all over the state.