The de-Bushing of Texas

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Apr 26, 2001

Texas Session: Bush Aftermath Monopolizing Agenda

By Connie Mabin

Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - It's been dubbed by some the "de-Bushing" of Texas: plugging holes in the state budget, banning new charter schools, overhauling the criminal justice system.

A swift unraveling of George W. Bush's Texas legacy is dominating the first legislative session since the two-term governor became president.

A tougher hate-crimes bill, which Bush supporters killed last session, passed the Democratic-controlled Texas House this week and is making its way through the Republican-controlled Senate.

Legislation that would provide poor defendants with better court-appointed lawyers - a bill vetoed by Bush in 1999 - was approved by the Senate. Other death penalty reforms Bush opposed are moving forward.

Bush's environmental initiatives are being toughened. Lawmakers from both parties have declared that breaking down barriers children face to get Medicaid a priority. Bush opposed the idea two years ago.

It is no secret that with the chance to get a fellow Texan into the White House, lawmakers in both parties in 1999 agreed to support Bush's ideas and not to push certain controversial issues that could hurt him.

"If that meant enacting some laws that you really didn't feel like were in the best interest of the people that you serve, but it wasn't going to pain them too much, then you convinced yourself that you were doing it for the greater purpose, the greater good," said Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Democrat.

That session, Texas had a $6 billion surplus and Bush won his tax cut.

"The tax reduction and all the tax credits that we gave last time - were they prudent? No. Are we paying a price for them now? Yes," Turner said.

Republicans have joined Democrats in blaming Bush's $3 billion worth of tax cuts for shortfalls in the current budget.

Republican Sen. Chris Harris is sponsoring a bill calling for the repeal of 1997 school property tax cuts. Harris said he would not have voted for the tax cuts if he had known the problems they would create.

"I think his sole purpose was to show people across the country that he could do a tax cut, and he did it at our expense," said Sen. Mario Gallegos, a Democrat.

A $718 million emergency appropriations bill was passed this session to cover cost overruns in the prison and Medicaid programs.

Lawmakers, faced with a slowing economy, are now drafting the tightest two-year budget in a decade. Legislators said they will make it through this session by penny-pinching, but they warned the next session could bring tax increases.

Bush's popularity is still high. Several dozen lawmakers have signed a resolution praising his proposed federal tax cuts. And they said that because the Legislature only meets every two years, it is normal to tinker with previous legislation.

"I happen to think not only were the tax cuts right, ending social promotion, all of those issues that we worked on along with the governor" were right, said Gov. Rick Perry, Bush's GOP successor who in 1999 presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor.

Troubling to many legislators is the state's criminal justice system, which Bush ardently defended. Texas is the nation's No. 1 death penalty state. Forty inmates were put to death last year, the highest number by any state in U.S. history.

The presidential campaign focused the national spotlight on a system that has drawn criticism for, among other things, failing to adequately defend the poor.

This session has brought unprecedented change.

The Senate has approved an overhaul of the indigent defense system, calling for better-trained court-appointed attorneys and kicking in state money for the first time to hire defense attorneys for the poor.

Inmates now also have easier access to post-conviction DNA testing, a reform backed by Perry and both parties.

This week, the House passed a ban on executing retarded killers, another measure Bush opposed.

Pending legislation includes the option of a life-without-parole sentence for capital murder (the only options now are death or life with parole); increased compensation for people who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned; a moratorium on the death penalty.

In the area of environmental protection, the House passed a bill last week that toughened a plan pushed by Bush in 1999 that allowed 700 outdated industrial plants to apply voluntarily for pollution permits. Only one has done so.

A House committee has approved a bill that would delay a ban on social promotion, or the advancing of unqualified students to the next grade. Bush supported the ban and has proposed doing the same thing nationally.

Supporters of the delay say a new, tougher standardized exam that will be used to evaluate students has not itself been tested.

Democrats and Republicans in the House also got behind a bill that would ban new charter schools for two years and increase their regulation.

Charter schools receive taxpayer money - $218 million last year - but are free from most state regulations. With backing from Bush, Texas began its charter school experiment in 1995, and Bush talked up charter schools during his presidential campaign.

But several of Texas' 193 charter schools have been forced to close because of declining attendance, financial mismanagement and embezzlement. Students did considerably worse than other youngsters on last year's state exam.

AP-ES-04-26-01 1257EDT

This story can be found at : http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGACJBUQ0MC.html

-- (unr@veling.his legacy), April 26, 2001

Answers

I guess this means it's time to start raising taxes in Texas.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 27, 2001.

No, it means that you and Dumbya are both worthless shits.

-- conservatives are worthless shits (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 27, 2001.

This may be my last post for the day, as my daughter is flying in soon and I must depart to pick her up at the airport, but things ARE moving along more smoothly here in Texas since Bush moved along to the White House. Some of you might even remember the concern I had over this election regarding whether to vote for Bush and get him out of Texas or save the rest of the country from his thoughts and vote against him.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), April 27, 2001.

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