Budget deal would restore school funding cuts

ROBERT T. GARRETT Austin Bureau rtgarrett@dallasnews.com AUSTIN — House and Senate negotiators tentatively approved a state budget Friday that they say will all but erase the $4 billion cut to basic aid for public schools enacted two years ago. Exhausted members of a budget conference committee s...

Budget settled after tumultuous negotiations

By Kate Alexander American-Statesman Staff The Legislature’s tumultuous state budget negotiations came to close Friday when all sides agreed to a deal including more money for public schools in exchange for $1 billion in tax cuts and fee rebates. “This is a very good budget, and I don’t know how ...

State leaders reach budget deal

Top House and Senate negotiators on Friday agreed to a two-year state budget that restores about $4 billion of $5.4 billion in cuts to public education made in 2011. It also creates a path for lawmakers to put $2 billion toward water infrastructure projects. The five House members and five senato...

The skinny on Texas Lege’s bizarre budget negotiations

By Robert T. Garrett rtgarrett@dallasnews.com 12:58 pm on May 17, 2013 | Over the past 18 hours, things have gotten otherworldly as Texas leaders try to reach a budget agreement. We’ve had the House send to the Senate as budget envoys two state representatives who don’t even sit on the House’s bu...

Budget talks teeter but don’t derail

By ROBERT T. GARRETT Austin Bureau rtgarrett@dallasnews.com Published: 15 May 2013 10:47 PM AUSTIN — Budget negotiations teetered but didn’t derail Wednesday as House leaders sought to win a final dollop for public schools and Senate chiefs held out for $300 million more for higher educatio...

Budget talks continue as deadline nears

BY KATE ALEXANDER - AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF State budget talks went down to the wire Wednesday night as leaders from the House and Senate tried to finish work before a soft deadline. A budget deal seemed within reach on Tuesday, but the chief budget negotiators from both chambers spent much of t...

Budget deal close

By ROBERT T. GARRETT Austin Bureau rtgarrett@dallasnews.com Published: 14 May 2013 10:46 PM AUSTIN — Lawmakers appeared close Tuesday to striking a deal to finalize the state budget, undo $3.2 billion of last session’s cuts to public schools and create a $2 billion fund for water. The tentative p...

Budget deal would fund water projects

By Kate Alexander – American-Statesman Staff The biggest sticking point in state budget negotiations — how to channel $2 billion into water projects — appears to have been unstuck. “We will put a bow on this tomorrow,” House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said Tuesday of t...

Sen. Williams: No need to bust the spending cap

Sen. Tommy Williams, the Texas Senate’s top budget negotiator, says there won’t be a need to vote bust a state spending cap if House leaders agree to ask voters to create a constitutionally dedicated water-projects fund. “If it’s constitutionally dedicated, it doesn’t count against the spending c...

Texas Senate Passes Legislation Allowing Colleges to Run Criminal Background Checks on Students Applying for On-Campus Housing

SB 146 would apply only to state supported colleges AUSTIN – Texas colleges and universitie...

Senate Passes SB1

Budget Holds Spending Below Inflation and Population Growth ; Increases Education, Mental Health ...

Texas School District Security Act Filed by Senators Williams and Whitmire

AUSTIN - Two leading state Senators filed legislation Tuesday to give local parents and taxpayers...

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e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – May 13, 2013

You may have heard or read about budget negotiations breaking down last week between Senate and H...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – May 7, 2013

Much of the legislative spotlight remains focused on budget negotiations between Senate and House...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – April 29, 2013

I wasn’t kidding last week when I recounted how I woke up at 2:30 in the morning worried ab...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – April 24, 2013

  I appreciated my first-ever experience testifying before a congressional committee in Washingto...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – April 15th, 2013

Several good things happened last week which again reinforced the notion public service is worth ...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – April 8th, 2013

One of the more interesting and important issues still churning inside the Texas Capitol this leg...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – April 4th, 2013

Those of us in the Houston metro area know we spend way too much time stuck in traffic and too mu...

e-Message from Senator Tommy Williams – March 25th, 2013

If you’ve traveled any Texas road lately, you’ve seen and probably felt the impact of 1,000 p...