A key member of House leadership, Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, says the hot-button issue of requiring photo IDs to vote will hit the House floor Saturday. Pitts, chairman of the House budget-writing panel, just told members of that committee: "Members,...
House-Senate negotiators have reached a deal on a budget, after "one of the most harmonious conferences" in recent memory, according to one co-leader of the marathon haggle -- and some concessions to Gov. Rick Perry. While final details are still...
We told you here yesterday about 'Miss Duff.' When I heard the former Ellis County state representative speak at Speaker's Reunion Day, I called current Ellis County Rep. Jim Pitts' office to ask for her name and a Pitts aide...
While the House piddles -- Republicans are shooting down, right and left, indignant Democrats' stabs at Gov. Rick Perry's deal closing fund -- let's go back to the sales job House leaders are attempting on their use of federal stimulus...
Jim Pitts says if lawmakers didn't accept stimulus money, they'd "be left with few alternatives. We could've tapped the 'rainy day fund' to cover our budget gap or we could've substantially cut services in order to balance the budget." Bad...
BUDGET DEBATE UPDATE: While all 27 members of the Appropriations Committee drone on about their terrific work (their words), let's analyze how chief House budget writer Jim Pitts tried to defend leaders' decisions to take federal stimulus money (though, so...
The House has begun its budget debate. Chief budget writer Jim Pitts sought to defuse any rage over rejections of pet spending projects. While boasting the two year budget's "not full of special items earmarked for specific members," Pitts put...
The budget won't be on the House floor until Friday, April 17. But members are warming up their vocal chords today. First, Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, dissented when the Calendars Committee approved a rule limiting floor amendments on the...
We'll have more details on the Web shortly, but House budget writers this morning sent to the floor a two year budget that would spend nearly $4 billion less than the budget that the Senate approved last week. The key...
The House's chief budget writer, Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, drew chuckles at a symposium today with a jibe at his own party. The back story: At the session's start, GOP leaders submitted a bare bones budget. It was a few billion,...
Five conservative groups wrote lawmakers today urging they not pay for Hurricane Ike repairs out of the state's "rainy day fund," as proposed by Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, (right) and other House budget writers. "Other funds are available," said the...
A discussion on the House floor today captured an emerging irony of the Legislature's stimulus money discussion: Texas, while currently in the black, faces a long-run "structural deficit" because it cut school property taxes by a good deal in 2006,...
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