On Perry's Vetoes

Yesterday, Governor Rick Perry let loose some awesome vetoes:

• He vetoed the attempt to make University regents accountable to the permanent University bureaucracy instead of an elected Governor; this had been priority legislation for Cahnman's Musings.

• He vetoed a separate attempt to gut the authority of the elected State Board of Education.

• He followed through on his threat and used his line item power to eliminate funding for the so-called 'Public Integrity Unit' of the Travis County DA's office over the ongoing Rosemary Lehmberg embarrassment.

These vetoes helped restrain the worst excesses of the legislature for which the Governor deserves commendation.

Unfortunately, the Governor let the overwhelming majority of the budget stand.  He also signed the Common Core-style data collection bill.  And those are more important.

Last month, we wrote:

The general session of the 83rd Legislature revealed a Governor who is either unable or unwilling to control the Austin insider crowd in his own party.

 While yesterday's vetoes helped to contain said 'Austin insider crowd,' they don't control them.  The Governor helped stop some bad stuff, but he still let A LOT of crap through.  An appropriate end to a heartbreaking legislative session.

Onward....

-----

Update: Just spoke with a friend who knows more about Texas politics than anyone we've ever met.   This person believes the odds were "50/50 at best" that Perry would have gotten a better deal out of the budget a second time.  In either case, the solution is to throw out these clowns in 'leadership' of the legislature.