The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 55, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 2, 2006 Page: 4 of 16
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" IT WILL TAKE A BIGGER MIRACLE TO UNITE US."
IS
lil
MSIAIE^MON
&c~r;b!
I1
two-thirds vote to bring
most bills to the floor
gives the lieutenant gover-
nor significant negative
power.
With just 11 of the 31 sen-
ators, the lieutenant gover-
nor can block just about
anything. .
Some think the lieutenant
governor is more powerful
Finally, the governor has a bully pulpit;
ences and other events.
Yes, a governor can have a tough time get-
ting something through the Legislature * as
probably more so.
The governor appoints state boards and
judgeships, albeit with the approval of two- ,
thirds of the Senate.
If the Legislature passes a bill the gover-
nor dislikes, he can veto it. It takes a two-
override a veto. Gov. Rick Perry,s threat to
veto any new taxes in 2003 kept legislators
from even thinking about it.
He can veto line items in the state budget.
as happened in the’ wake of Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.
In recent years, as agencies go through
power to name their chairmen, rather than
leave that choice to the board.
And the governor can grant pardons —
although nowadays with the recommenda-
tion of the State Board of Pardons and ,.
w
DAVE
McNEELY
than the governor. He’s
definitely powerful, but the governor is
probably more so.
In several states, the lieutenant gover-
nor is an afterthought and ticket-balancer.
picked by the gubernatorial candidate,
mostly there to take over if something
happens to the governor.
But the Texas lieutenant governor is the
most powerful in the country.
He is elected independently from the gov-
ernor, rather than as part of a ticket. Texas, ...
with several other former Confederate
states, hated top-down rule imposed by radi-
cal Republicans during Reconstruction fol-
lowing the Civil War. '
After the Democrats threw the
Republicans out,' they rewrote the Texas j uv. ^uwuiui appunna swt uuaiua <uiu
Constitution in 1876 to spread governmental commissions, and people to fill vacant
power around. Several cabinet officials
appointed by the governor in many states thirds of the Senate,
are elected in Texas. If the Legislature passes a bill the gover-
Texas also scattered, considerable authori- nor dislikes, he can veto it. It takes a two-
■ ty to boards and commissions, whose mem- thirds vote in both the House and Senate to
bers usually were appointed to six-year , o;«i, o—■■ .
j.' overlapping terms. 7
Since governors used tojiave two-year
terms along with most other state officials, a . ~
governor usually had to be a year into a sec- ’ He can call out the state, s National'Guard,
ond term before his appointees were a as happened in the wake of Hurricanes
majority. Texas shifted to four-year terms for Katrina and Rita,
most statewide offices in 1974. which In recent years, as agencies go through
allowed a governor to achieve control three Sunset review, the governor has gained the’
years intO 3 first term ° nnu/Pf trt nump thpir rhairmpn rather than
The constitution makes the lieutenant
governor president of the Texas Senate. But
since the Seriate, was dominated by
Democrats until recently, it has never orga- ...-----— —-----,
nized on a partisan basis like Congress and Paroles, after a previous governor was
most state legislatures. thought to grant too many.
To have a leader who can referee among Finally, the governor has a bully pulpit;
the 31 senators, the Senate through its rules dozens of reporters attend his press confer-
says the lieutenant governor gets to: ences and other events.
» Appoint committees and name their
chairmen; . tingsometning tnrougn me Legislature as
• Choose which bills go to which commit- Gov. Perry found repeatedly with failed
tees; efforts to re-do the state's school finance
• Recognize senators on the floor to pre- system. ..
sent legislation, thus setting the Senate,s A lieutenant governor can face the same ,:
, agenda. . problem. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst learned
• Pick the four senators to join him on the that in 2003. He got 30 senators to pass a
Legislative Budget Board with the House school finance plan, only to see it spumed
Speaker and four House members..The LBB by House Speaker Tom Craddick and the.
* writes the rough draft of the state’s two-year governor.
budget between regular legislative Sessions. Presumably in the nexfel
• Designate half the members bf the ,. governor will find out wh<
.Sunset Advisory Commission, as does the the Legislature to honor the Texas Supreme
speaker. The commission periodically ™
reviews state agencies and reports to the
Legislature if they are still fulfilling their
role, or need to be changed, phased out, or
combined with other agencies. ______________ r_.„........... ,______.....
Finally, the Senate tradition of requiring a Contact McNeely at dmcpeely@austin.rr.com.
Who is more powerful in Austin?
■
governor.
Presumably in the nexfafew months, the
governor will find out whether he can get
Court’s order to restructure school finance.
He might have to call out the National
Guard.
Dave McNeely is a political writer in Austin.
Ti
State of
FRED HARTMAN
Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
.. EDITORIAL BOARD
Wanda Garner Cash David Bloom
Editor/Publisher Managing Editor
Jim Finley 4 i Jane Howard Lee
retired Managing Editor retired Reporter
Doyle Barlow’ Danielle Lynch
Sports Editor ; , News Editor
the Union
Bush’s tax cuts created
massive budget deficits
'■"^resident Bush’s fifth State of the Union
B-^was a speech long on problems, short on
JL solutions. And one of the 2006 priorities
the president laid out in Tuesday night’s State
of the Union address was tax cuts 7-making
them permanent. He termed it irresponsible to
allow “a massive tax increase” if previously
passed cuts, set tq.expire; are not permanently
extended. ' ''
In truth, it is Bush'who is,fiscally irresponsi-
ble. Together with an almost total lack of ,
spending restraints. Bush’s tax cuts have pro-
duced a gaping imbalance between federal
----- . revenues and expenditures, and thus created
massive budget deficits,
‘When Bush took office in 2001, the United
. States had a projected 10-year surplus of $2.7
trillion, not counting Social Security and
Medicare surpluses.
But the U.S. revenue bubble burst, a reces-
sion and the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attacks
adversely affected the books. Aggravating the ’
financial dive were several rounds of tax cuts,
including Bush’s signature $1.35 trillion 2001
tax cut.
Now we have deficits as far as the eye can
seS. ■ „ - .
And with baby boomers about to put -
unprecedented demands on Social Security
and Medicare, Bush.has the nerve to call for
spending restraint incredible after years of
runaway spending on his watch — and for
making his unaffordable tax cuts permanent.
In the'final years of the BuSh presidency, the
budget deficit may well approach or exceed
$400 billion. The latest Congressional Budget
Office data also suggest President Bush is
unlikely to keep his promise to cut the federal
deficit in half by the end of his term.
According to the non-partisan CBO report,
the expiration of Bush’s tax cuts would return
the budget to a surplus of $38 billion by 2012.
If the tax cuts were made permanent, accord-
. ing to the Brookings Institution, it would
■require monumental reductions in spending or
increases in other taxes. To offset the revenue
losses in 2014 would require, for example, a
48 percent reduction in Social Security bene-
fits, a 57 percent cut in Medicare benefits or a^
117 percent increase in corporate taxes.
Even without paying for the Iraq war, terror
war, Katrina, Rita, ongoing federal entitle-
ments, programs — tax cutting is an expense
this country cannot afford.
Stemming the ruinous rise of government
debt can only be accomplished by two means:
Reducing expenditures or increasing revenues.
' That.solution, of course, leaves no wiggle
room for tax cuts. . .
And why would we extend them?
. We know now that Bush’s tax cuts dispro-
portionately benefited the rich, turned a bud-
get surplus into the largest deficits in history,
produced weak economic and j ob growth, and
brought the worse income disparities since the
1920s.
» ; That’s not just our opinion. That’s the State
of the Union.
; Editorial written by David Bloom,
managing editor of The Baytown Sun, on
behalf of the newspaper s editorial board.
OPINION
4A Thursday. February 2,2006
Senator
green
a
W Biptoton £>un
1301 Memorial Drive, P.O. Box 90
Baytown, Texas 77522
Main: (281) 422-8302
Newsroom: (281) 425-8016
Retail: (281) 425-8036
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Web site: www.baytownsun.com
202-224-2934
713-572-3337
Fax: 202-228-2856
Fax: 713-572-3777
cornyn.senate.gov/
contact/index.html
Ted Poe,
Dist. 2 Rep.
866-425-6565
866-447-0242
www.house.gov/
poe
Ron Paul,
Dist. 14 Rep.
202-225-2831
979-230-0000
www.house.gov/
paul
Gene Green,
’ Dist. 29 RepS
202-225-1688
713-330-0761
HOW TO REACH US
Wanda Garner Cash, Publisher
wgcash@baytownsuh.com-
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
sandy.denson@baytownsun.com
NEWSROOM
David Bloom, Managing Editor
david.bloom@baytownsun.com
Ddyle Barlow, Sports Editor
doyle.barlow@baytownsun.com
Danielle Lynch, News Editor
danielle.lynch@baytownsun.com
ADVERTISING
Angie Pagel, Advertising Director
angie.pagel@baytownsun.com
CIRCULATION
Janie Halter, Circulation Mgr.
janie.halter(a)baytownsun.com
PRODUCTION
Wayne Oxedine, Production Mgr.
wayne.oxedine@baytownsun.com
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Government officials
Federal
George W. Bush,
. President
202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2326
president®'
whitehouse.gov
Dick Cheney,
■ Vice President
, 202-456-2324
Fax: 202-456-2461
(vice-president®
i ’ whitehouse.gov
i; Kay Bailey
Hutchison,
Senator
202-224-5922 .
713-653-3456
Fax: 202-224-0776
(Fax:713-209-3459
butchison.senate.
7 (gov/e-mail.htm
■ .John Cornyn, www.house.gov/
WRITE TO US
The Sun welcomes letters of up
to 300 words and guest columns of
up to 500 words. Guest columns
should include a photo of the
writer. We publish only original
material addressed to The Baytown
Sun bearing the writer’s signature.
An address and phone number not
for publication should be included.
All letters and guest columns are
subject to editing,, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse to pub-
1 lish any submission.
Send signed letters to: Wanda
Garner Cash or David Bloom, The
Baytown Sun, P.O. Box 90, .
Baytown, 77522; fax them to (281)
.427-1880 or e-mail sunnews@bay- *
Saturday and by 8 a.m. Sunday. If
you do not receive your paper on .. _____________________ .
time, call (281) 425-8048 by 10 a.m. necessarily reflect the views of The
' to ensureYedelivery. Baytown Sun or its advertisers.
I
I
THE BAYTOWN SUN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Trucks in the hood
I have just finished reading the arti-
cle on the adjustment of the truck
routes in Baytown. As I live just off
Bayway Drive, this is subject that
directly affects me; for that reason I
wrote in about the truck route signs
last year when there were none on.
either Baker or Bayway. This is not a
subject that there is an easy solution
to, but the decision made did not take
all the possibilities into account.-
There is no reason for a truck of any
kind to drive through a residential area
to get into the Exxon Mobil complex.
With Spur 330 on the north and .
Highway 146 on east and Park Street
' all converging, this would seem to be
• the most logical place for truck§-to
enter the complex and Exxon Mobil
I still docs not have to open up :
I Rollingbrook for entry from the north.
The use of Park was taken away from
us for terrorist security reasons, why
.not use it for the same reason plus our
safety? 1 use that word safety lightly,
for our city officials do not really care
about this subject or we would be dis-
cussing a hazardous cargo routes, not
just truck routes. This is a subject that
should be done in committee with -
those affected if we are to get the best
possible solution.
Stephen Turnbull
Baytown
J It’s what we believe
I I appreciate your emphasis on a reli-
gious organization’s right to follow its
’ . own beliefs: Freedom of religion is. :
one of the things that has made
America great. I disagree, however,
[ with the rest of your Jan. 27 editorial.
Faith Harbour was removed from
fellowship because they are promoting
a ministry in their church that
“affirms” the homosexual lifestyle.
“Welcoming” is ho problem,
“affirming” is. It’s not a “political”
move, it is just what we’ve always
believed. The Bible is very clear on
this issue (Leviticus 18:22; 1
Corinthians 6:9-11). •
Baptists believe in the old saying,
“Hate the sin, and love the sinner.” We
are all sinners, but we do not affirm
the sin (whatever it is) of ourselves or
the people to whom we minister;
Jesus ministered to the sexually
immoral, but He never “affirmed”
their sin. Rather He said, “Go and sin
no more.” Jesus spoke against
immorality (Matthew 15:19-20).
Frankly, many “outcasts” have more
,f respect for a church that loves them
and tells them the truth than for those "
who tell them to live any way they
please.
Interestingly, denominations that
affirm immoral behavior are declining
in membership. Southern Baptists are
growing. There are some 40 SBC
churches in this immediate area (over
40,000 nationwide), all of whom will
welcome you. Attend one of them
three Sundays in q row and just see
what happens. . •. (
Southern Baptists provided more
than 10 million meals and other assis-
tance free of charge to hurricane vic-
tims last year. We provided millions to
help the victims of the tsunami . We did
not ask if they were homosexual or of
another faith. We just wanted to sho.w
the love of Jesus.
■ We’re all great sinners, but Jesus is a
great Savior. We’re not perfect, we’re
just trying to follow Are One whtfis.
I commend the Baytown Sun for
their Jan. 19 article that seemed to be
fair to both sides. There is also a good
article at Baptist Press (bpnews.net)
dated Jan. 20, .
I / Pastor David R. Brumbelow
Northside Baptist Church
Highlands
Fade away, please
Thank you for your comments con-
cerning Sheehan. For months it has
been obvious that she is a pawn for
the liberal wing of the Democratic
Party who will stop at nothing to
smear the name of President Bush
and the entire Republican Party.
This sort of thing can do nothing
but undermine the morale of our men
and women serving our country all
over the world. Now, why bring into
the ring the confirmation of possibly ”
the best qualified person to sit on the .
Supreme Court, except to carry for-
ward the liberal agenda advanced by
the likes of Sen. Kennedy. She needs
to fade into the woodwork.
Bill Ford
I Baytown
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 55, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 2, 2006, newspaper, February 2, 2006; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1191829/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.