Watson Wire

Happy Fourth

Sunday, July 05, 2009 |

A belated Happy Independence Day.

Happy birthday to Cooper Watson, who turned 14 on the Fourth of July.

And, of course, happy Sine Die.  Again.  Boy, that occasion has a way of getting old.

I covered most of my thoughts about the Special Session, if you want to call it special, last week.  The actual events sure didn’t change my opinion, although the leadership passed even less than the modest agenda called for:

• There was no traction at all, thankfully, on the Governor’s effort to extend the state’s ability to privatize toll roads with as few protections as possible.
• The Governor’s proposal to create a new “revolving fund,” loaning money to cities and counties for transportation projects, also went nowhere.
• And the only two items that passed were those keeping the lights on (and avoiding serious reform) at the Texas Department of Insurance, Department of Transportation, and three other agencies, and authorizing the sale of about $2 billion in bonds that voters have given us permission to sell.

When it was over, a number of those in leadership congratulated lawmakers (particularly, you know, the ones in leadership) for getting through everything in just two days.

(The truth is that the special session could have been over even faster if the Governor and Lieutenant Governor hadn’t been unwilling to give up on the idea that we need more private toll roads.)

I went home right after we adjourned.  I told Liz we were done.  In her typical “cut to the chase” approach to politics, she glanced up and said, “So why you couldn’t get that done in the regular session?”  

Uh, yeah.  Good question.