Every day, Speaker Lewis gathers at the
state House to order members collect
daily fees for being here.
The same is true for members of the state
Senate. The cost of having one hundred
and fifty members of the statehouse here
totals ten thousand dollars a day
for a 30 day special session.
That adds up to three hundred thousand
dollars.
The state Senate a little cheaper.
The thirty one senators draw only fifteen
hundred dollars a day in fees.
That's forty five thousand dollars for
a 30 day session.
But those totals are only for travel and
hotel expenses.
Add lawmakers salaries and the pay and
expenses for their staffers.
And the expense of running this show
easily tops forty thousand dollars
a day.
That's over a million dollars taxpayers
will have shelled out by next Thursday.
And now comes the prospect of paying for
another 30 days in Austin.
I think this is a real crossroads for
Texas. It's more like a roadblock
because the Senate insists on raising
taxes instead of making deep budget cuts,
and the House won't have any part of
that.
We were already in a stalemate before the
session started and nothing's changed.
The just approved Senate plan barely cuts
half as much from state spending as the
House version.
The big differences in higher education.
The Senate cuts one hundred eighty six
million dollars less from colleges
and universities, diminishing the
opportunities that our institutions
of higher learning is mortgaging
the future for the sake
of avoiding a little political pain in
November.
For some folks, state employee
benefits, health care for the poor and
prisons get much fewer cuts from the
Senate than the House.
But state employees still won't get their
three percent pay raise this year from
either side.
All told, the Senate plan is three
hundred twenty one million dollars short
of cuts made by the House.
This bill doesn't balance the budget.
I'm ready to vote for a tax bill.
Oh, yeah, we're totally deadlocked and
neither side will give in.
And without a compromise that solves the
state's financial crisis, the governor
says he'll keep calling lawmakers back in
special session until they do agree.
But House Speaker Gib Lewis says that the
governor can call a special session until
Christmas if he wants to.
He's not getting a tax bill out of the
House.
Mike Snyder, Channel 5 News, Austin.