By Robb Orr, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
With the Supreme Court's ruling on school finance finally released, Rep. Kent Grusendorf (R-Arlington), chair of the House Public Education Committee, took the next step and appointed a slew of subcommittees to tackle individual interim charges assigned to the full committee.
Grusendorf's committee later teamed up with the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee to review a joint charge relating to the potential misuse of funds for lobbying by school districts and to examine whether school districts may be skirting laws relating to competitive bids for construction projects. Officials from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Ethics Commission and the Attorney General's Office provided testimony to help ease concerns relating to schools using taxpayer dollars for lobbying instead of education. Several committee members concluded that, until TEA comes up with clearer categories in its audit reports for what constitutes "lobbying," these funds cannot be correctly tracked.
The recent trend of long-time Texas House members retiring continued this week as Rep. Marry Denny (R-Flower Mound) announced she would step down after representing her district for 12 years. Denny, who is also chair of the House Elections Committee, said she wants to spend more time with her family but will finish out her current term.
Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Perry wasted little time in setting a Jan. 17th special election to fill the vacated seat of Rep. Todd Baxter (R-Austin), who recently took a position with the Texas Cable and Telecommunications Association. Perry's announcement was met with some criticism from Texas Democratic Party Chair Charles Soechtin, who said it is "a disgrace" that the governor set such a quick special election date for Baxter's former seat when he "refused to call a timely special election to fill the heavily Hispanic and Democratic seat of the late Rep. Joe Moreno (D-Houston) in time for the people of District 143 to have a voice in last summer's special sessions."
The latest activity in U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's criminal case includes the Travis County District Attorney on Tuesday issuing a subpoena for Kim Key of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The subpoena seeks certified copies of forms filed with the commission by the Republican National State Elections Committee between 2001-2003. As requested by Judge Pat Priest, the defense team filed a letter and a post-hearing brief regarding the legality of money transfers through TRMPAC. Later, the state filed a brief in response to the defense's fillings.
In related news, a federal judge dismissed some of the charges against DeLay codefendant John Colyandro. The charges relate to a lawsuit alleging that Colyandro and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America violated the Texas Election Code by using corporate funds to influence contests for the Texas attorney general and an East Texas legislative race.
Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), Rep. Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) and the consumer group Texans for Public Justice this week each issued calls for Bill Ceverha to resign from the board of the Employee Retirement System of Texas (ERS) in light of a judge's ruling that he is liable for $196,000 for breaking election laws when serving as treasurer of Congressman Tom DeLay's political action committee. In a letter to Ceverha, Gallego described his "lack of credibility" and the fact that he had "squandered confidence due to his personal financial troubles." Similarly, Dunnam wrote to Ceverha that his constituents are not best served "by having someone who has violated Texas election laws serving on the board of a state agency that manages a $19.9 billion portfolio."
In a letter to members of the Texas congressional delegation, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday voiced his strong opposition to proposed federal legislation that slashes funding for child support enforcement. Abbott expressed alarm that the budget reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives contains provisions that will result in a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to run the Texas child support program. He said reduced funding will lead to a $3 billion drop in child support collections and will hurt a million Texas children who receive child support. Proposed cuts will "punish Texas' success" with regard to child support enforcement, he wrote, and will have "a devastating effect" on the state's child support system.
New reports released this week included TEA's 2005 Comprehensive Annual Report on Texas Public Schools, which assesses the state's public education system. The report breaks the education system down into 14 topics including state performance on academic excellence indicators, student dropouts, TEA funds and expenditures, and character education programs. The State Auditor issued three report this week: An Audit Report on Performance Measures at the Department of Banking, A Report on the Audit of the Teacher Retirement System's Fiscal Year 2005 Financial Statements and An Audit Report on Financial System Controls at Texas Tech University.
Afterthought: It seems that love doesn't conquer all. In an opinion released Tuesday, Attorney General Abbott confirmed a Texas couple's fear: that they could not marry and simultaneously retain their current jobs. Although Kerr County Tax Assessor-Collector Paula Rector is gaga for district tax appraiser Rex Emerson, Abbott stated that a marriage between the two would violate the state's nepotism law.
"The employee may retain his employment until the end of his contract with the appraisal district, or if the employee is employed at-will, he may retain his employment until the end of the pay period during which his marriage occurs," he wrote. Rector said she was disappointed with the ruling, but would wait until her retirement (which may be in three years) to marry Emerson, according to the Austin-American Statesman.