Posted on 04/14/2003 2:10:15 PM PDT by Theodore R.
Dewhurst leads well; Perry's at 0
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst seems to be getting good advice and following it.
Gov. Rick Perry seems to be getting bad advice and following it. Same for House Speaker Tom Craddick.
As land commissioner, Dewhurst was widely regarded around the Capitol as a rich doofus from Houston who'd bought his way into statewide office. Few thought he would become the most forward-thinking Republican leader in the building.
But since becoming presiding officer of the Senate, Dewhurst has gotten to know well the senators and the state's budget.
Although sharing Perry and Craddick's "no new taxes" attitude and joining them in a starting budget with zeros for every agency, Dewhurst has been more creative.
Perry's approach has amounted to "zero-based leadership," but Dewhurst has sought ways to avoid cutting vital services, such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. He knows state cuts of those programs carry a double or triple whammy because they lure federal matching funds.
That loss would cause higher local taxes because people "now on Medicaid will show up in our emergency rooms if they are dropped," said Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee, a former House member.
Lee joined several county officials at a news conference Wednesday to complain that steep state budget cuts would amount to unfunded mandates for local governments.
Although the Legislature used to be guilty of Austin-bashing, the Perry-Craddick approach could expand that to every Texas city and county.
Dewhurst approached the $10 billion budget shortfall by proposing several revenue sources or savings, including using some of the state's rainy day fund, postponing costs such as new school textbooks and using accounting tricks to push some costs into the next two-year budget.
And although Perry initially said Dewhurst and Craddick were too new in their jobs to deal with the hot potato of school finance, Dewhurst has been working with senators to craft a solution.
Though Dewhurst has been the most creative, all three leaders may have misread the electorate's message, particularly Perry.
Based on Perry's negative TV ads about Democrat Tony Sanchez and President Bush's call for straight GOP voting to back him on the Iraq war, Texans may have simply said they don't want a Hispanic whose bank had drug money laundered through it as governor and do want to kick Saddam Hussein's behind. Texans might prefer slight tax increases to cutting services to the needy.
Perry doesn't want to use the rainy day fund for continuing services and knows the "borrow-from-the future" approach risks an even greater shortfall in 2005, when he will be seeking re-election. But Dewhurst at least is trying to avoid cutting off health care to children and senior citizens.
Dewhurst could force Perry to choose to back the Dewhurst-Senate approach or take away services for children and elderly people.
For now, Dewhurst seems to be the only Republican leader doing much leading.
Dave McNeely's column appears Thursdays. Contact him at (512) 445-3644 or dmcneely@statesman.com.
Liberals obviously don't think they have to learn anything from Enron--as far as they can tell it was nothing but a gimmick they tried to use to hurt Republicans.
No, we want the government to cut out the waste and BS spending. They always spend on the "get me re-elected" programs and then threaten the vital programs.
I could walk through any state office in Texas and point, at random, to 3 out of every 10 employees and tell them to go home and the state would continue to function. I could walk through any "Gender Studies" or "Ethnic Studies" department of any campus of any state University and point to 10 out of 10 employees and send them home and the state and university would both be better off.
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