On Tuesday our State Legislation approved the budget that will cut 4 billion dollars from public school and legislation to reform the state hurricane insurance assoc. By passing these measures, this ends the special session that was needed to do so. Now Gov. Perry may concentrate on his presidential campaign. Or has he been setting the stage for his presidential run in 2012 all along?
Perry has been so focused on underfunding public education, the only way to balance our budget he says, he and other legislators rejected an amendment that would have used excess revenue from the Rainy Day Fund. Anything over what the Comptroller Susan Combs projected it would collect, could have been used for public education. Now this still would have left public school funding short by 1.8 billion dollars. 4 billion dollars short vs. 1.8 billion dollars short? Seems simple enough right? Nope it was rejected.
They even passed legislation the will save the state more money by approving teacher furlough days. Days that these educators will now have off unpaid.
Gov. Perry and his camp have stated that the Texas public education system is full of fat that needs to be trimmed. Wow, that sure does sound like a great presidential campaign slogan. Most of what Gov. Perry has been doing lately is nothing more then filling his resume for his presidential run in 2012. If he really believes that there is alot of fat in the education system that needs trimming, what does he think about the 10,000 dollars a month rent, being paid by tax payer money, on a mansion for Gov. Perry while the Gov.'s mansion is being renovated? That is real fat and needs to be trimmed before we start trimming our children's education.
As far as the Windstorm bill, it was a compromise that allowed the Texas Windstorm Insurance Assoc. to continue to exist while the state tries to find a better solution the can give coastal home owners access to insurance. Gov. Perry and his camp had tried to stop what they believe is a target for lawsuit abuse. Another great presidential campaign point huh.
Now Gov. Perry did not get all of his agenda items passed this session. Gov. Perry attempted to add the sanctuary cities bill to this special session after it had previously failed earlier this year. The special session ended in the same result it did not pass. That will does not affect Gov. Perry at all, you see what he actually gets passed is not as important as what he supports and tries to get passed. That is what voters look at in a presidential campaign and he know that.
The so called anti-groping bill that Gov. Perry pushed for also failed. It would have attempted to bring criminal charges against federal airport security personnel for overly invasive searches. This has failed many times before, but Gov. Perry was very vocal about it getting passed this time. It didn't, but like what we said earlier it is not what passes but what you support to get passed that counts. Even the Texas House Speaker stated that this was nothing more then an ill advised publicity stunt.
So Gov. Perry had balanced a budget, by basically beheading our public education system and its educators. He has attempted to pass legislation that really had no chance of passing, but sounds and looks good to potential voters.
If he is the answer to the Republican party's presidential race in 2012, that party is in trouble.
What do you think?
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