(Jay Root, Texas Tribune)
Gov. Rick Perry, with prominent conservative activists and Republican legislators at his side, jumped squarely back into Texas politics today with a call for more budget cuts and a vow to oppose any tax increases when the Legislature meets early next year.
Perry used Tax Day, when millions of Americans face a deadline to turn in their income tax returns, to unveil his “Texas Budget Compact.” He is asking politicians running for office this year to comply with its Tea Party-like tenets of smaller government and lower taxes.
Texas Democrats called the proposal “Rick Perry’s Shameful Compact” and said it would tie the hands of lawmakers at a time when schools are reeling from lower levels of funding and families have been hit hard by state budget cuts.
(See the full story at Texas Tribune)
OTHER STORIES:
- Local United Way Program Making A Difference With Children (KUHF Public Radio)
- Stopping Child Abuse Before it Starts (KUHF Public Radio)
- Biking With the Mayor: Parker Says Bikers Shouldn’t Have to Ride Together to Feel Safe on Roads (Houston Culture Map)
- Bush Center Grooms Future Leaders at Houston Private School (KRIV 26 News)
- Bellaire Parents Delay Grief to Chronicle Baby’s Life, Spread Word About Deadly Disease (KHOU 11 News)
- Congress Stifles Bill to Funnel Spill Fines (Houston Chronicle)
- Sugars Might be Just as Addictive as Cocaine (Houston Chronicle)
OPINIONS ON THE NEWS:
Thoughts on Another Beltway.
- … And Love Handles for All
(Frank Bruni, New York Times)
“What if fatness, even obesity, is less a lurking danger than a likely destiny, and the surprise isn’t how many seriously overweight people are out there but how few?” - We’re Too Fat. But We Can Change
(Editorial, Houston Chronicle)
“Lan Bentsen, head of the new Shape Up Houston campaign, goes around handing people a 25-pound iron weight. “Feel how heavy that is?” he asks. That, Bentsen likes to say, is the amount of extra weight that roughly a third of all Americans – the merely overweight – carry around all day, every day. “