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May 16, 2006
We're Number One!
The Texas Legislature's special session ended a day early today, with Governor Rick Perry's packaged tax cut bills set to become law. Unsurprisingly, the Governor is doing a bit of gloating -- he can still summon that old cheerleader pep when he needs it, can't he?
As today's Houston Chronicle piece by Clay Robison and Janet Elliott demonstrates, however, a certain Texas grandma isn't giving little Ricky any sugar for his self-proclaimed success. In fact, she's cut a switch and started giving the Guv a verbal whipping -- one that's likely to last the next six months.
While Perry jumped up and down about Texas being "one of the continual number one places in the world to do business" (note to self, Governor, we're also "number one" in high school dropouts), One Tough Grandma -- otherwise known as Republican State Comptroller and Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn -- accused Mr. Perry of writing the "largest hot check in Texas history." She sure throws them zingers, don't she?
She argues that the special session yielded nothing more than a one-time quick fix for public school finance, paid for by a current budget surplus and likely to be eroded by rising appraisals in the near future. Perry believes the new business tax will generate adequate increased revenue as commerce (and thus business receipts) go up. The jury is out on who is right.
But one could almost feel the Governor lose that team spirit by having to put down his pom poms and defend himself from mean old Grandma. (Another note to self, Mr Perry: Get used to it.)
Look for Mrs. Strayhorn to sharpen her attack into a handful of potent projectiles in the coming weeks, and pound Perry over and over with them. The Governor will respond in kind, and off we go!
Both Chris Bell and Kinky Friedman are likely to benefit from such warfare breaking out -- how much for whom remains to be seen. But each must be ready to capture the fallout and sell himself as the palatable alternative to the fratricidal Republicans.
It will be a very interesting six months in Texas politics, to say the least.
Posted by houtopia at May 16, 2006 09:45 PM