By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Texas gave away $4.3 billion in the last state budget in business tax breaks, a figure that amounts to about a third of the state's massive revenue shortfall, according to a legislative report released Friday.
The report also found that local governments lost $235 billion in state property tax exemptions, including those given for elderly and disabled homeowners.
A tally for sales tax exemptions - the state's biggest cash generator - was not available. One of the largest carve-outs was for the natural gas tax, which totaled about $1 billion a year. The exemption for bottled water sales amounted to a loss to the state of about $250 million a year.
All eyes on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in Senate race
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is considered the early favorite to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Dewhurst isn't officially in the race yet, and he says he is spending "99.9 percent" of his time on the legislative session in Austin, where he presides over the state Senate and plays a major role in what gets out of the upper chamber.
Dewhurst is widely considered to be a relatively bipartisan consensus builder, which has won him kudos at the Capitol but isn't necessarily a good calling card among conservative activists. It doesn't seem to matter to many of them that Dewhurst has supported most of their causes and was a generous donor to them before spending millions of his fortune on his own races for statewide office.
Ex-student's lawsuit against TCU headed for trial
A judge says a lawsuit filed against Texas Christian University by a former student who says she was gang-raped by three athletes can go to trial.
Also Thursday, the judge granted TCU's request for more time to prepare. A trial date hasn't been set.
The case stems from a student's 2006 allegations that she was drugged and raped while visiting a dorm room.
The three athletes were kicked out of the Fort Worth university after their arrests.
But prosecutors dropped the sexual assault charges in 2008 and never proceeded with a criminal case.
The lawsuit says TCU officials should have known that two of the athletes had criminal histories and posed a threat. George Haratsis, an attorney for TCU, says the suit has no merit and he hopes it will be dismissed.
Panel seeks progress in case that led to execution
Once again a state commission looking into the questionable execution of Cameron Todd Willigham has ended a meeting without a decision. Willingham was executed in 2004 for intentionally setting a house fire in Corsicanna that killed his three small children. But leading arson experts have said the evidence does not prove arson. Some members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission investigating the evidence say they're frustrated by a lack of action.
Today's meeting ended with a decision to ask the Texas Attorney General to determine several issues including whether the commission has jurisdiction over the Willingham case.
Family files suit in suicide
A family has filed a lawsuit against a suburban Dallas-Fort Worth school district, accusing officials of ignoring warning signs of bullying that led to their 9-year-old son committing suicide last year.
Fourth-grader Montana Lance of The Colony hanged himself in the nurse's bathroom at Stewart Creek Elementary School in the Lewisville school public district a year ago. The lawsuit was filed Friday.
The parents said the last year has been extremely difficult.
District spokeswoman Karen Permetti said the school system does not comment on pending litigation, but that an internal investigation found that bullying was not connected to the suicide.