On July 18, the Texas Legislature will be back to finish its business -- and then some.
And if they don't pass all 20 items that Gov. Greg Abbott has put on the agenda for a special session, then they'll just be lazy.
In an interview on a Lubbock radio show, the governor ramped up the pressure for lawmakers to approve the conservative and controversial items he wants passed during the special session -- from a bathroom bill to property tax reform to new limits on cities to annex and enact local ordinances on tree cutting, development and other things.
Pressure, perhaps. But his crack may just make some lawmakers angry, especially those in the Texas House, after they just completed a fractious 140-day session that left the Senate and the House far apart on many of those same issues.
Meanwhile, talk to Texans and many have little clue what the political hubub in Austin is all about -- even that a special legislative session is scheduled to start or what many of the issues are.
Some -- including many Republican voters -- say they couldn't care less about why Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick think the issues are so important they need attention this summer. Some say they would prefer that the Legislature stay home.
Quite a number aren't even familiar with the issues, even after five months of headlines about the legislative fighting over them.
We've got it all and more, in this week's Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.
From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics
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On July 18, the Texas Legislature will be back to finish its business -- and then some.
And if they don't pass all 20 items that Gov. Greg Abbott has put on the agenda for a special session, then they'll just be lazy.
In an interview on a Lubbock radio show, the governor ramped up the pressure for lawmakers to approve the conservative and controversial items he wants passed during the special session -- from a bathroom bill to property tax reform to new limits on cities to annex and enact local ordinances on tree cutting, development and other things.
Pressure, perhaps. But his crack may just make some lawmakers angry, especially those in the Texas House, after they just completed a fractious 140-day session that left the Senate and the House far apart on many of those same issues.
Meanwhile, talk to Texans and many have little clue what the political hubub in Austin is all about -- even that a special legislative session is scheduled to start or what many of the issues are.
Some -- including many Republican voters -- say they couldn't care less about why Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick think the issues are so important they need attention this summer. Some say they would prefer that the Legislature stay home.
Quite a number aren't even familiar with the issues, even after five months of headlines about the legislative fighting over them.
We've got it all and more, in this week's Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop on the Legislature in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.
From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics
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