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.

Who's counting?

So . . . yesterday the Senate managed to get the "compromise" transportation bill out of committee, passed off the Senate floor, and delivered to the House. That journey took about 11 hours (it would normally take weeks). The House then reported receipt of the bill, referred it to a committee of the House, held a committee hearing at 10 PM, and voted it out of the committee without amendments. All of that happended on Monday! If I understand correctly, tomorrow is the earliest that the bill could be heard on the House floor. The plan is to get the bill through final passage in the House before the Governor is forced to veto the other transportation bill [Thursday at midnight]. This bill is getting railroaded through the process, and I doubt most members of the House have any idea what the bill really does. I wonder if the bill will make it out of the House without any amendments that are unfavorable to the Senate or, worse, to the Governor.

Aside from the race to avoid a special session on transportation, there's been some drama building behind the scenes in the House--rumors of an attempt to unseat the Speaker of the House. I seriously doubt that will happen in the next 13 days, especially now that the challenger [subject of the rumor] has formally announced his intent to run for Speaker in 2009.

I can't believe there are only 13 days left. With so much work left to be done--including finalizing the state budget, which is the only legislation that must be passed--two weeks still seems like an eternity. I'm so damn ready for the summer.

Actually, it tolls for me.

The word around the Capitol is that the Governor intends to call a special session on transportation if the Legislature doesn't come up with an alternative to the big toll road bill they sent to him last week. I'm not sure if he's bluffing to get the weary legislators to concede and avoid having to stick around Austin for another 30 days after the regular session ends. Some of the Texas political blogs are saying that the chairman of the Senate transportation committee is working on a compromise bill. I certainly hope so. A special session on transportation means no summer time fun for me.

The kinda good news: there are less than 20 days left in the regular legislative session. The last few weeks tend to be hectic. Consider this. The Lege passed 1,389 House and Senate bills last session. With 19 days left in the current session, they've only passed 174 bills.

it tolls for thee

There are 25 days left in the session, and it looks like we have our first real showdown between the Legislature and the Governor--a major transportation bill that flies in the face of the Governor’s transportation policy. Funny thing is . . . the Legislature’s offering is different than I expected. Since the last session [and over the campaign season] the message from the people seemed to say “we don’t want to sell our roads to private interests.” Or maybe it was more like, “we don’t want to sell our roads to foreign private interests.” The Lege heard the people and responded with a barrage of legislation to curtail or eliminate the state department of transportation’s ability to enter into long-term toll concession agreements with private entities. However, the bill the Lege sent to the Governor says, “we don’t mind selling our roads, we just don’t want TxDOT doing it for us.” The initial offering is a bill that, for the next two years, would prohibit the state or a local tolling authority from entering into any agreement with a private entity that allows the private entity to operate a toll road and collect the tolls, but with a number of exemptions for certain regional toll projects in the DFW area. The Governor doesn’t like this because the bill takes power to implement transportation policy away from the state [and the Executive Branch] and gives it to the locals. The Gov is expected to veto. With 25 days left, the Lege has the time and (it appears) the support to override the veto. The Governor has less time [less than 10 days now] to “influence” enough senators to block the veto [he only needs 11 of 31]. This should be interesting.

A point that was reinforced today is that Monday is actually much worse when I’ve had a full weekend away from work. I also experienced this feeling after Easter weekend. I guess my body and brain have too much time to unwind before they have to rewind [?] and get back into work mode. The legislative session is heading into the home stretch with the last 30 days ahead. And these last 30 can be pretty intense days as we try to finalize the appropriations bill and the Lege tries to push other “important” legislation through before it dies on the vine. Last week was slower than normal, and it seemed sooo long. I would normally welcome a slow week, but it made me realize how fatigued I was. The session may only be 100 or so days gone, but my colleagues and I started the intense work back in September of last year. So it’s really been 7 months of long hours and late nights. I’m seriously considering taking off most of June if I can swing it.

The “long” weekend was worthwhile. On Saturday night I went to the Bill Callahan [a.k.a. Smog] show at the Mohawk on Red River [formerly the Caucus Club during the (thankfully) gone daddy days of the late 90’s swing revival fad; later Le Privelege; and probably some other club before and after that]. My two previous experiences at this location were an acoustic set by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and a SXSW day party where The Wrens played. Both experiences were disappointing either because of the chatty crowd [former] or because of the chatty crowd and poor sound [latter] in such a small space. So, I was a bit apprehensive about the Bill Callahan show at this new club at the same old venue, imagining another crowd of chatty hipsters talking above the music. Plus, I don’t stay up past 11 PM much these days, so I was afraid I wasn‘t going to be able to hang. But my motivation for going was to see a friend perform in Callahan’s backing band, and I did not regret it. Saturday evening couldn’t have been better: 70 degrees with a light breeze; there was a decent opening band; several friends showed up; and I had plenty of beer money--all important ingredients for Good Times. It reminded me of why I still love living in Austin.

I wouldn’t call myself a Bill Callahan fan. I own one Smog album, which I do like; but I don’t really know the songs that well. That didn’t matter, since Callahan played mostly new material from an upcoming album. However, if your familiar with Callahan’s style, you know it’s not generally upbeat [“Rock Bottom Riser” isn’t really jumpin’]. But I really enjoyed the show: the sound was surprisingly good for the small outdoor space, and Callahan’s music worked much better live than I expected [thanks, in part, to the band]. And, even better, it seemed like the crowd was there for the music. I may have to pick up the new album [at Backspin Records].

The Mohawk has a lot of good potential if they can continue to book good bands. It seems like the previous clubs at that location always booked shitty bar bands. The venue has a nice terrace that overlooks the stage [where you can go if you don‘t want to mix it up with the riff raff], which is perfect for a spring night like last Saturday. I may have to check out another show there to see if it’s the real deal.

Freezter

Unbelievable. It’s Easter weekend in Austin, and it’s 34 degrees outside an drizzling. I can’t really complain. This will be the first weekend in since February that I didn’t go in to work. Even better, I was able to take this Friday off. The weather on Friday was beautiful [high 60’s] , and Kim and I spent most of the day working out in the yard. Pruning hedges, pulling weeds, and mowing the yard doesn’t sound like much fun, but it was very relaxing compared to the long, stressful hours I’ve put in at work during the last couple of weeks.

During the weekend of SXSW, we had guests in town and we hosted a birthday party for a friend. Unfortunately, I had to work on Saturday and Sunday. But I would be damned if I didn’t get to spend some time with friends and eat some good food and have a couple of drinks. So, I went to work for while, came back home to party with friends, and then went back to work for a 7 PM meeting with some budget committee members. I ended up staying at work until 1 AM. Last week, I was at work past midnight, again, when the House took up the appropriations bill. Luckily, the budget work slowed down enough, this week, that our bosses were able to let us off on Friday. That doesn’t mean we’re not busy still. It just means the most important work has reached a temporary lull. We will be extremely busy, again, in a week or so.

The legislative session ends on Memorial Day. So close.

I don’t do album reviews . . .

Since I wasn’t able to take in any shows during SXSW, this year, I got a couple of new-to-me “album samples in advance of purchase (pending)” to listen to on my commute to work.

Peter Bjorn and John - Writers Block. It sounds like lots of stuff I’ve heard before. It sounds like indie rock. It’s poppy and DIY sounding, and I like it. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s working for me at the moment. I find myself whistling the tunes at work a lot. Currently on heavy rotation in the car and in the home.

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away. The Shins are among my Top 5 Bands I Discovered after College. I like every song on new the album, and if I ever do a Top Ten Albums of the Year, again [not likely], I wouldn’t be surprised if this was #1 or #2. Currently on heavy rotation in the car and in the home.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder. Simply because I got hooked by The Shins and PB&J albums before I played this one, I haven’t really given it a fair listen. So far, I’m a little disappointed. CYHSY’s first record hooked me instantly, and I liked every tune. Some Loud Thunder hasn’t held my attention on the first few listens. None of the songs have hooked me.

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible. Also a victim of neglect, but I think it’s growing on me. After the first few spins, I still think Funeral is better. I think it’s because the new record has fewer hooks. It’s not the kind of album that I’m going to “get” while listening in the car. Actually, I was just listening while surfing the web, and it seems to be sinking in a bit. This one definitely deserves more of my attention.

News Implosion

A couple of weeks ago, the “Intel shell” in downtown Austin was imploded. The former Intel office building site will be cleared to make way for a new federal court building. Every day on my morning commute, I can see the rubble out of the corner of my eye as I pass 2nd Street on Lavaca. Folks in Austin have deemed the unfinished Intel building as the “symbol of the tech bust” (circa 2001). Between then and now, that area has changed completely. Now, we have the 2nd Street District with the AMLI apartments, trendy shops and restaurants, and several high-rise [higher-dollar] condo developments currently being built. I’m not sure who is going to buy and/or occupy these places when they’ve been completed. Or maybe that should be if they’re completed. Sometimes I wonder which of the downtown works-in-progress will be the symbol of the real estate bust?

The urbanist concept of the 2nd Street District is cool, I guess. But the place really doesn’t have any soul. Sure, they have the hip stores and restaurants, and I’m sure the living spaces are great. But the “District” lacks buzz; hipster/street cred: the kind you can get only after a place turns really poor, dirty, and sleazy, and then slowly gets gentrified. Give it 20 to 30 years, and it may finally attain hip status. Right now it feels like the “cookie-cutter mall experience transplanted from another city” that it’s supposed to not be. C’mon city council: let’s get some prostitutes and pushers out there, ASAP.

Work has been busy and crazy. The House and Senate budget committees both started moving at what felt like a frenetic pace over the past couple weeks. As hectic as it has been, I’ve spent fewer late nights at work this session [so far] that I did two years ago. I worked about 80 overtime hours in February. Two years ago, during the 79th Session, I worked 108 overtime hours in February. Actually, I worked every single day in February of 2005. This year, I got at least two Sundays off.

I’ve been too busy with budget matters, lately, to keep up with the bigger policy issues this session. Since it’s most closely related to my realm, I’ve been trying catch up on transportation issues. Earlier this month, the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security held an all-day public hearing on private sector toll road concessions and the Trans-Texas Corridor. Hundreds of citizens showed up: a vast majority of them in opposition of tolling concessions and the Trans-Texas Corridor. This is a policy debate that has been four years in the making, as the Texas Legislature has passed laws in the last two sessions that have established the framework for the state to enter into these types of agreements. And as one powerful senator has said, recently, each member of those past legislatures has paid a political price. Now, some of the same legislators who carried the enabling legislation are leading the charge to put the brakes on toll concessions and “comprehensive development agreements.” The proposed toll concession projects in Texas are different than the recent long-term lease-operate agreements for the Indiana State Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway, which were both constructed using public funds and then “sold” to private entities to operate and collect tolls for terms up to 99 years. The Texas projects, so-called “green field” projects, would be designed, financed, constructed, maintained, and operated by the private entities in return for the right to collect tolls for 50- to 75-year terms. The upside is that billions of private sector dollars would be available to begin highway projects, today, that the state would not have been able to finance and construct until 10 to 20 years in the future. The downside is that the private sector operators’ first priority is to generate profit for their shareholders. So, they would want to set tolls at a rate that would not only cover the costs of debt, operation, and maintenance, but at a rate that would also return a profit. That is what’s not sitting well with the voters. Well, that and the large swaths of land that would likely be gobbled up to accommodate the Trans-Texas Corridor, the segments of which would most likely be operated by private interests to make money. It will be interesting to see how this debate plays out by the end of the session.

Later this month, the budget committee work will slow down a bit, and I'll be able to listen in on the House and Senate debates. I kinda enjoy it: not because I’m a policy wonk [relative to many of my colleagues, I am not very wonkish at all], but because I get a kick out of the controlled chaos that is the Texas House of Representatives. It’s better than Jerry Springer, if only slightly more sophisticated.