Several reveals in Patrick's agenda

We have to take his word at face value -- always a tenuous proposition with the newly-crowned lieutenant governor -- but in this case I don't think he's bullshitting anybody.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tuesday again emphasized that he will push for significant property tax and business tax cuts this year even in the face of lower oil prices and scaled-back state revenue projections.

“I am not playing small ball on tax relief,” Patrick said. “That is what the people want us to do. We have the capability to do it and we need to do it. People need tax relief.”

No surprise here.  Cutting taxes as oil keeps dropping, as the hedge fund managers keep going short, will IMHO be the biggest mistake this legislature makes.  They're blowing a hole in their budget the size of the Permian Basin, and sooner than later it will be obvious to them.  For all the rest of us, sadly, they will be the last ones to know.  This, however, is a great surprise...

“Open carry is important, but I don’t think there is support in the Legislature to pass it,” Patrick said. “The votes have not been there.” By contrast, he thinks the odds are much better for passage of a bill to allow licensed persons to carry handguns on college campuses. A campus carry bill in the Senate already has 19 co-sponsors, enough to approve the measure.

This is the first negative word I have read about open carry.  It obviously won't make it if Patrick stands against it.  And why he would incur the wrath of the gun nuts by so openly defying them in the session's first weeks is, in a word, puzzling.  I can't decide if this is another giant miscalculation on his part or something else, some machination to drive a different course.  For now I am going to wait and see how this unencumbered message gets interpreted by its recipients.

Vouchers, like tax cuts, contain no ambiguity.

Patrick also said school choice legislation is one of a handful of measures this session that he will throw his weight behind because of its importance to him. “I believe we will pass a school choice bill in the Senate and we have a good chance of passing it in the House,” he said.

In the past, Patrick has supported a proposal to give tax credits to businesses that donate money for scholarships to private and religious schools. The proposal would initially be aimed at lower-income students who attend public schools with low performance ratings.

The lieutenant governor also joined other legislative leaders in predicting that major decisions on school finance will wait until after the Texas Supreme Court has ruled on a lower court decision that overturned the current funding system. The high court is not expected to hear the appeal until the fall, well after the current legislative session has ended.

This leaves a final decision in the hands of the 85th Texas Legislature, convening in 2017.  No doubt to require lower and higher court clearance again, meaning the matter won't be settled until 2018 or '19.  Assuming the judicial branch agrees with the legislative's fixes, of course.

Every time the Lege fails on funding public education in Texas, it pushes the repairs five years into the future.  That's a wonderful legacy they're leaving the children of Texas, isn't it?

More on Patrick's agenda from Texas Leftist and Texas Politics, and still more on the just-released budget from Trail Blazers and the Observer.

Update: Lauren McGaughy at the Chronicle explains open carry's dilemma, and Dan Patrick is revealed as a flip-flopper.  I still don't quite understand why he's against it -- sometimes -- when he's said so often he's for it -- on occasion -- but that's his tea to steep in now.  Maybe someone with OCT can try to nail him down as a firm yes or a no.

A Walker wedge in Iowa

I promised I wouldn't start this early, but the Iowa Freedom Summit this past weekend provided a target-rich environment.  In particular, one emerged as the Corndog State's darling.

Before the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday, one Republican activist summed up Gov. Scott Walker’s challenge this way: “He doesn’t make the flashbulbs go off.” But at the end of the marathon day of speeches before conservatives, the Wisconsin governor emerged as the leading light.

There were plenty of well-received speeches during the day from Sen. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, but it was their home turf. The Freedom Summit, put on by Rep. Steve King and Citizens United, was a gathering of the base of the Republican base. But it was a bit of a SkyMall event—while there were lots of offerings it wasn’t clear if there was a place for the most exotic ones. Donald Trump, for example, may say he’s considering running for president, but it’s as hard to believe that he will be president as it is to understand the need for an Eye of the Dragon Mystical Safe Box.

Walker did the most to help himself politically, elevating his stature as a candidate who might achieve the elusive synthesis of pleasing the party base while also attracting a general election audience.

Not too extreme, not too moderate... the Goldilocks candidate.

Oh, Rand Paul should peel off some of the nuts, as will Ted Cruz (both have their daddy issues, after all), but Mitt and Jeb and Gov. Texass are the ones who should be the most worried.  There's only room for one of them a year from now, and they've each got so much baggage that they won't be allowed to board the plane.  Marco Rubio and Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee and Rick Frothy Mixture and Rick Oops and the rest of the baker's dozen of batshits will prevaricate and obfuscate, hoping to make it to the end of next January with something to brag about.  But there will eventually be one completely psycho goon and one slightly less so left standing, with the Tea Pees frustrated but still in line, and the biggest of money men ready to write still more checks.

That's why Walker will look so good to them once the field has been cleared.  He drives his tractor right down the middle between Romney, Bush, and Christie on the left and Cruz, Perry, Paul, Carson, Huckabee, Santorum and whomever else on the extreme farthest right.  Walker is the keynoter at the Harris County GOP's Lincoln-Reagan dinner in March, here locally.  Perhaps his aide -- the one who recently got out of prison -- will be able to accompany him.

Update: This won't help your cause, Gov. Walker.  You have to keep some semblance of hatred for poor people going at least until the primaries begin.

Update II: Some others noted the hypocrisy of the sudden advocacy of progressive populist issues such as income inequality.  That's also a non-starter in the long run; at this point they're testing themes to see what might resonate.  With their base, this one won't.  But there were some interesting developments with teleprompters, the discarding of which was a topic pioneered by Donald Trump some years ago.

Update III: There's a very good reason Bobby Jindal has not been mentioned until now, and not simply because he skipped the Iowa event for his own.

If I had to pick four finalists after South Carolina next February (and not this one), it would be Bush, Walker, Rand, and Huckster.  And they will battle to the death from there.  But there's still plenty of room in the clown car for somebody to stand up and stick out.