Texas already has a $10K bachelor's degree ... that is about to be ended

The irony is just priceless ...

Gov. Perry challenged Texas colleges to offer a $10,000 bachelor's degree program in his State of the State Address, but there are already three schools across the state that have a program like that, the Texas Tribune reported.

That includes Brazosport College which is in the Houston area.

However, the state house is considering cutting funding to the school and if it's approved the college could be forced to shut down.  

More from the referenced Trib piece:

As it turns out, there already is a $10,000 bachelor’s degree available in Texas — and the Legislature may be on the verge of eliminating it.

Shirley Reed, the president of South Texas College, a community college in the Rio Grande Valley, was at the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to testify before the Senate Finance Committee. She heard Perry and thought, “My goodness. This is precisely what we’re doing.”

South Texas College is one of three community colleges in Texas — the others are Brazosport College and Midland College — authorized to offer a Bachelor of Applied Technology degree. It’s a real, honest-to-goodness bachelor’s degree, designed for students who already have an Associate of Applied Science — a technical degree that often doesn’t transfer to traditional universities. It can be leveraged into middle management positions or even the pursuit of a master’s degree. And the cost tends to be in the $10,000 range.

“It’s probably the most cost-effective, affordable bachelor’s degree you could have in Texas,” Reed says.

At Brazosport, for example, four years' worth of tuition and fees for a Bachelor of Applied Technology degree comes to $9,168. To be fair, that does not include books. Ken Tasa, the dean of educational programs and services at Brazosport, estimates that eight semesters' worth of brand-new textbooks could run a tab as high as $4,000, tipping the bill significantly over Perry’s $10,000 limit. Between the internet and the campus library, however, there are ways of skirting those costs.

So, mission accomplished? Not so fast — the Bachelor of Applied Technology program is highly controversial and may not be around much longer.

The House’s base budget not only eliminates all funding for Brazosport, it eliminates funding for all of the state’s Bachelor of Applied Technology programs. 

There's more there about how this degree has met with considerable resistance from the educational establishment, which believe that a four-year degree from a two-year college encroaches on university turf. But I'm sure the governor has another wand to wave that will make that go away. After all he appoints all those regents, you see.

As for how Perry is hoping to get his $10,000 degree, she says she is still scratching her head. “I just assumed that meant it was all online,” she says.

Rick Perry pronounces and college administrators across the state scratch their heads. You can just picture it, can't you?

The problem is believing anything he says in the first place.

Rick Perry's state of delusion

This is the same governor who also promised Texans lower utility rates if the markets were deregulated. The reason he cannot deliver on any of his grandiose schemes is because he consistently speaks of fantasy as if it was reality. Among the many hats he wears -- drugstore cowboy, malicious moron -- Rick Perry is also a carnival barker.

There weren't a whole lot of specific policy proposals in Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State address on Tuesday, but there was one nugget to give aspiring college students hope. "It's time for a bold, Texas-style solution to their challenges," Perry said with all the gusto of a commercial voiceover. He proposed a four-year tuition freeze and then proposed the coup de grace: Universities should create degrees that only cost $10,000 including textbooks. That would undoubtedly be good news for students.

That is, until you do some digging. Perry wasn't saying that universities should lower their tuition costs across the board. Instead, Perry wants schools to create a special type of degree, in addition to what they already offer.

Bargain rates, in other words, for what could easily become a bargain product.

In a Feb. 4 letter to state university presidents that got little attention, Perry outlined his ideal $10,000 product. He asked that the program "be scalable, so at least 10 percent of the degrees you produce use this approach." What would be "this approach?" In addition to accepting more Advanced Placement and dual credits, Perry asked that the new programs use "online and blended classes" and "no-frills campuses." So while a degree might still say University of Texas, the actual product would differ from the degrees for more economically advantaged students.

Of course we don't know what the final product would look like. But at first glance the proposal feels like offering a luxury vacation—where tourists stay at the Motel 6. And it was one of many proposals in the State of the State that looked better before the details emerged.

At this point he will say and do anything to make a good impression on any group of conservative mad-hatters. He's running for vice-president of the United States.

Update: From the Austin Statesman ...

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, head of the Senate Democrats: “We absolutely agree that we’re blessed to live in this state and its biggest asset are the people of Texas… The people in charge aren’t living up to what the people of Texas need.”

State Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, chair of the House Democrats: “The Republicans got the reins in 2003… They’ve wrecked the car. They’ve put it in the ditch.”

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth: “Gov. Perry has been waking up in a very different reality than a lot of people in Texas… He would rather climb a tree to tell us a lie than stay on the ground and tell us the truth.”

State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin: “My glasses are not rosy enough or thick enough to believe what I just heard… Rick Perry’s economic miracle is a deception. Now, it’s time for him to come clean.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio: “2011 is Rick Perry’s Madoff moment. The Ponzi scheme is up.”

The Weekly (in-between freezes) Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is hoping for a swift, player-friendly resolution to the NFL labor situation as it brings you this week's roundup.

Bay Area Houston submits a press release from Rick Perry: TX Gov Rick Perry puts the Chupacabra on emergency legislation.

Off the Kuff conducted an interview with Houston city attorney David Feldman to discuss the upcoming city council redistricting process.

Harold at Letters From Texas poked fun at the Texas weather on both Wednesday and Friday.

While the Big Gas Mafia is pumping diesel fuel into the ground in the name of national security and energy independence, they have been quietly planning to ship a bunch of it to China. TXsharon at BLUEDAZE: Drilling Reform for Texas wants you to think about who profits and who pays for this so-called "clean energy."

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that privatizing essential services promotes profits, not the general welfare. The Corpus Christi Caller Times pretends (or not) to be all stupid about the rolling blackouts.

Texans came to the shivering realization last week that the energy capital of the world can't keep its lights on. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs provides the reveal.

How bad is the budget disaster that the Texas GOP hath wrought? Libby Shaw spells it out over at TexasKaos. See Rick Perry Lays a $30 Billion Rotten Egg on Texas.

Public Citizen asked a series of questions over at TexasVox about our rolling blackouts: who's to blame? (hint: coal and natural gas) who saved our bacon? (hint: renewables) and who profited?

Eye On Williamson points out that Congressman John Carter wants to increase the amount of mercury in our air: Rep. Carter wants to increase corporate profits by harming nature.

It's always good to know that someone is sticking up for the stupid and belligerently ignorant. McBlogger offers his thanks to Speaker Boehner for being that someone.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote last week on the release -- after many months -- of the video tape of a number of Houston police officers beating up 15 year old Chad Holley. The public has a right to see this video. Houston's political leaders should be less concerned about Houston's image and the unlikely prospect of civil disorder, and more concerned with high rates of poverty in Houston that help drive young people to crime.

Super Sunday Funnies

"The energy capital of the world can't keep the lights on"

The cold weather that swept across Houston brought with it the cruel irony of rolling blackouts: the Energy Capital of the World couldn't keep the lights on.

Wednesday's frigid onslaught knocked out 50 generating units statewide, eliminating 7,000 megawatts of capacity and leaving the state about 4,000 megawatts short.

This, of course, isn't supposed to happen. Temperature-related demand, extreme hot or cold spells, largely can be anticipated.

"You would think that the financial incentives would be to be up and ready," said David Cruthirds, publisher of the Cruthirds report, a newsletter that tracks electricity issues in the southern U.S. "It does raise a question of the planning."

It also raises the question of how much customers are willing to pay to ensure it doesn't happen again.

"We don't have enough flexibility on the system today to address the situation," said Brett Perlman, a power industry consultant and former member of the Public Utility Commission. "We in Texas have not invested substantially in demand response and other technologies."

Apparently it's going to cost consumers more -- a LOT more -- to keep Texas from falling into an Iraqi sometimes-the-power-is-on, sometimes-it-ain't situation.

I asked yesterday, I'll ask again: you don't suppose the invisible hand of the free market could be fingering us, do you?

Wall Street investors know how to profit from Texas' deregulation scheme. The largest plants serving the Houston region have already been both bought and sold twice, at enormous gain. Now, electricity consumers throughout the state have been forced to pay billions of dollars to the old utilities for those power plants based on the false assumption that deregulation would make them less valuable. (We have been fighting this absurd payment in court.) And consumers of municipally owned utilities in cities such as Austin and San Antonio, which were exempt from deregulation, get fairer and more accountable rates.

Mexico decided not to help us thaw out after all. Can you blame them, after all the nastiness from the conservative xenophobes?

And now even Paul Burka is cranky. He didn't get a hot breakfast.

I was on my way to Houston on Wednesday to speak to the Greater Houston Partnership when I was caught in the rolling blackout. I made it as far as Elgin on U.S. 290, where the traffic lights were blinking red and cops were standing in the bitter cold, directing motorists. My intention was to stop at McDonald’s for a breakfast sandwich and coffee. The drive-through line was quite long and very slow, and the speaker at which I sought to place my order wasn’t working. As I was contemplating my next move, a young woman who worked there emerged from the building and started walking down the line of cars. She informed me that the only thing they could serve was sausage biscuits and bottled water, because the power was out. And cash only, please; credit cards couldn’t be processed. Eventually I got my stale sausage biscuit and headed on my way.

As I got back on the highway, I reflected that my breakfast experience was the perfect metaphor for the great budget meltdown of 2011. Nothing in state government works. ERCOT, which exists to make certain that the grid function correctly, failed miserably. State officials couldn’t even explain what went wrong, much less fix it. That’s as hard to swallow as my biscuit.

We run state government on a shoestring. We have a $10 billion structural budget deficit and nobody has the slightest interest in fixing it. Is anyone surprised that we can’t even get through a winter storm without having our infrastructure fail us?

Planned Parenthood gets ACORNed

In the James O'Keefe tradition, ultraconservative extremists again dress up as pimps and hoes in order to try to smear another organization helping poor people.

Anti-abortion activist Lila Rose, a photogenic young activist who Religious Right leaders hope to make the new face of the anti-abortion movement, claims that the video Religious Right groups are circulating “proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Planned Parenthood intentionally breaks state and federal laws and covers up the abuse of young girls it claims to serve.”  False.  In fact, far from proving a pattern of illegal activity, the Live Action project demonstrated that Planned Parenthood has strong institutional procedures in place to protect young women.  When Live Action activists appeared at numerous facilities presenting themselves as seeking help with a child sex trafficking ring, Planned Parenthood wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting an FBI investigation.  Live Action attempted its “sting” across the country; the one Planned Parenthood staffer who violated those procedures and is featured in Live Action’s video was fired.

Political groups that are intent on denying women the ability to have an abortion under any circumstances have long targeted Planned Parenthood and the public funds it receives to provide health care and sexuality education to low-income women.

The current campaign heated up in 2008, when

“…more than 50 leaders from anti-abortion organizations banded together to form the National Coalition to Defeat Planned Parenthood. The coalition, spearheaded by Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, met for the first time in September and quickly issued its plan to cripple Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a major provider of reproductive health services for poor and uninsured women, by ending any federal, state, or local government funding to the group.”

These people are on the same old mission from God. And that means they can justify anything they can think of doing, even terrorist acts like assassinating a physician in his own church.

They are the extreme of the most extreme. Judge them by their words ...

"... there’s got to be a concerted effort that we take Planned Parenthood out. They’ve put out a hit on all children, but they’ve set themselves up to put out a hit on black and Hispanic babies especially. It’s time that we take them out."

And judge them by their actions.

Now their allies in Congress have tried -- and failed, for now -- to redefine the word 'rape' in their never-ending crusade to further restrict women's reproductive choices. A skit this week on the Daily Show may have influenced the result.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape Victim Abortion Funding
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

It's time to stand up against these lunatics, and stand up for the good work Planned Parenthood has done for 90 years. Sign this petition and then call your representatives in Washington and Austin.

Call them even if he or she is a turd-eating conservative, like mine.

Some call BS on yesterday's rolling blackouts across Texas

McBlogger has an interesting conspiracy theory:

(F)actor in the most recent capacity report which showed the state with adequate generation capacity through 2014. Suddenly, because of weather conditions which we’ve known about for days, there is an issue? How many generators have been effected? Given our excess of capacity and the massive increase in wind generation, it’s gotta be one hell of an outage to cause us to have to suffer rolling blackouts. Such an outage could realistically only be intentional ...

Think I’m crazy? Remember that CA’s problem in 2001 was caused by engineered capacity constraints, which created an artificial demand/ supply imbalance that enriched energy traders. Can anyone honestly look me in the eye and tell me my theory is crap?

Didn’t think so. No, it looks like Perry has found a very nice way to pay back campaign contributors without too many questions.

UPDATE – We’ve also received word that not long after Perry’s press release, ERCOT terminated rolling blackout activity in Houston metro. Wanna bet the generators suddenly jumped up capacity?

UPDATE TWO – Dewhurst says it’s all about a broken pipe (sure) and low gas pressure (whatev). That gas pressure one I find particularly funny since the compressors at the feed can be adjusted.

He's got more there that I left out of the above excerpt on the TCEQ authorization to exclude facilities from penalty for exceeding clean air standards during the "emergency".

Houston media picks up the scent from another angle ...

"It particularly troubled me because both ERCOT and generators had so much advance notice,” said PUC commissioner Ken Anderson. “It's not as if this weather was a particular surprise."

So it was a surprise that 50 power generating units statewide went down. The last time Texans encountered rolling blackouts (April 2006) only seven generators were lost.

"The number is unprecedented, and that is one of the questions that the commission is going to need to look at," Anderson said.

Another question the Public Utility Commission will tackle: Why ERCOT didn't follow protocol in sending out that electricity reserves were running critically low.

The PUC received one advisory at 3:20 a.m. Wednesday, but the next update it got from ERCOT came at 6:05 a.m. -- nearly three hours later, when the rolling blackouts were already underway.

Steps in the middle were missing --like alerting the media – 11 News was not forewarned as required, and 11 News viewers were not either.

"We need to know why, and if the reasons aren't good, and if they don't deal, relate to reliability, then it's not acceptable," Anderson said.

While a formal investigation won't likely begin until the bad weather has cleared ERCOT may face some tough initial question as early as Thursday morning at regularly scheduled meeting of the PUC.

Is this another benefit of deregulation? In a privatize-everything environment, is the invisible hand of the free market fingering us? Is it credible that the generating plants in North Texas actually have uninsulated water pipes, causing equipment to be shut down? It's possible that maintenance has suffered because they've laid off a bunch of laborers, I suppose. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost ...

Mexico came to our rescue, thank goodness. Cue the "illegal electricity" snark.

So is this just smoke or is there a fire here? Many Texans who shivered yesterday would crave having the heat no matter which it happens to be.

Texas Vox has more.

Update: Fort Worth state rep. Lon Burnham wonders if the market was manipulated (a la Enron in California, as McBlogger speculated in the top link above).

GOP's redistricting plans are pushed to the back burner

Kos notes that with too many irons in the fire -- repealing the Affordable Healthcare Act, killing Social Security, impeaching that damn socialist communist Obama --  the Republicans are letting redistricting slide down the priority list. Via the DNCC, Noah Rothman at Campaigns and Elections:

Having made significant state-level gains in the 2010 elections, the GOP appeared to be in a prime position to influence the decennial process of congressional redistricting. But, as the process gets underway in a series of first-round states, including New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana, some party insiders are concerned that Republicans have failed to amass the funding necessary to capitalize on their advantages. 

In particular, the insiders point to the lackluster performance of Making America’s Promise Secure (MAPS), a Republican 501(c)(4) founded in 2009 in part by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to assist in the GOP’s redistricting efforts. (Costs related to redistricting have in the past been covered by the RNC through “soft money” donations, though these were banned by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms early last decade.)

On January 12, Nathan Gonzalez reported in Roll Call that MAPS has gone quiet in recent months. He quotes Brad Todd, a National Republican Congressional Committee consultant and founder of On Message, Inc., to the effect that Republican priorities shifted in 2010 to immediate electoral gains, leaving planning for redistricting in the lurch. “There was a conscious decision to win elections,” he told Gonzalez. “People got tired of paying lawyers.” With the RNC extremely short on cash, Republicans face a significant funding problem just as the redistricting efforts in first-round states are ramping up.

Reported also from June of last year by Politico ...

Outmaneuvered by the GOP during the last round of redistricting a decade ago, Democrats appear to have an early advantage as the two parties gear up again for the expensive and high-stakes battle over redrawing state legislative and congressional districts.

“I do believe that the Democrats are much better organized at this stage,” said Ben Ginsberg, a top Republican election lawyer. 

More recently -- as in a couple of weeks ago -- from Hotline On Call:

Even though Republicans made historic gains at the state level in 2010 that gave them unprecedented control over redistricting, they are currently lacking a unifying organization to lead the process.

And the absence of such a group is starting to cause alarm in Republican circles.

One such Republican is former NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds. Reynolds is particularly invested in redistricting because he helped spearhead the GOP's efforts in 2010 that netted Republicans nearly 700 new seats in statehouses across the country at the Republican State Leadership Committee. Reynolds directly oversaw the RSLC's REDMAP program, the group's primary fundraising arm.

Despite those gains, though, Reynolds said the GOP is in something of holding pattern without an organization dedicated to raising money and focused on redistricting.

"I've been surprised that I didn't see the party yearning for some sort of outside effort to get the map-making up and going," Reynolds told Hotline On Call. "Normally instead of having the party pay for that, someone on the outside would take that initiative and I haven't seen that leadership."

It's more than just a money problem and a lack of focus by the national organization. They're also hamstrung by circumstances beyond their control. Here in Deep-In-The-Hearta redistricting is under mandatory Department of Justice review to assure that there are no deleterious effects to minority representation. And the difference between  the 2003 redistricting legacy of Tom DeLay and this year's is as vast as the gap between Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales.

The Republican-dominated state legislature is also distracted with Rick Perry's emergencies, of course. Oh well, he can always call a special session.

But the red tide of 2012 swept so many GOP freshmen into office in Austin as well as Washington (Canseco, Farenthold) that there just aren't enough Republican voters to protect all of them. So some are bound to get screwed over by their new district maps. This inherently assumes, however,  that Democrats of all stripes -- young voters, disaffected progressives, and especially Latinos -- return to the polls in 2012 in numbers that can overcome a still-vigorous TeaBagger uprising. Sadly, that's no safe assumption.

With so much attention focusing on this rather glaring overlook, can they get it in gear and get after it on this project?

I'm guessing they'll start making up some ground very soon. But they just won't have the kind of success securing their grip on rulership that they have in the past.

71% of TX political "insiders" say voter ID is a 'political issue'

According to the Texas Tribune's "insiders"...

This week, we asked our insiders about voter fraud — which was simultaneously being cussed and discussed in the Texas Senate debate over photo voter ID — to see whether they think it's a real problem (14 percent), a political issue (71 percent) or both (16 percent).

One of them commented:

"Legislative emergencies should be used for true emergencies, not the issues the Governor's pollster deems red meat. Also, answers to your first question will skew the voter ID debate -- many believe voter fraud is real, but the only kind of fraud voter ID legislation addresses is voter impersonation at Election Day polling places. That type of fraud has not been shown to be a real issue, despite the AG's best efforts."

Presumably their list of "insiders" -- the list is at the link above -- is fair and balanced (I'm tired of using italics in this post but they are certainly inferred WRT the previous phrase), so this represents a pretty embarrassing truism for Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, and the Senate Republicans: three out of four see through their BS, while the remaining insider is likely a Teabagging sycophant.

But I don't think the governor is going to be too embarrassed by this poll's results. Do you?

Update: The Chronicle's op-ed is withering in its criticism and reminds us of the legal hurdles VID must still clear ...

But the bill is by no means a sure thing. The U.S. Justice Department will be reviewing it to see that it complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Texas is among Southern states with a history of discrimination against minority voters that must get clearance from that department before making such changes. Another hurdle to overcome is that voter fraud is not an issue at polling booths. If anything, voter registration and mail-in ballots are more of a concern, but neither of those activities requires a photo ID.

If the bill becomes law, it will cost about $2 million to implement — at a time when we’re watching every penny. No problem, says Dewhurst. We could get a federal grant to foot the bill.

From the same feds, we assume, who spend like drunken sailors and interfere in our state business.

This is a hasty, mean-spirited bill that could cause far more problems than it solves. We urge the Justice Department to give it their full attention.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is ready to retire the phrase "blue norther" for another year as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff took an early look at fundraising for 2011 city of Houston elections.

The Big Gas Mafia says it's impossible but hydraulic fracturing causes gas to migrate, threatening lives... AGAIN. TXsharon puts 2 and 2 together at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Bay Area Houston has a press release from the governor titled Rick Perry Asks Republican Voters to Quit Their State Jobs.

A Texas republican is at the forefront of the movement to kill Medicare. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is not surprised.

This week at Left of College Station Teddy calls out Congressman Bill Flores' health care hypocrisy for voting to repeal health care reform that ensures health care for millions of Americans while voting against repealing his own government health care. Teddy also covers the week in headlines.

The Texas Cloverleaf highlights the Texas House Republican vote against open government.

Ryan at TexasVox asks "Where's the outrage?" from TCEQ approving another polluting power plant despite local opposition, warnings from the EPA, and rulings from two SOAH hearings. The facility is ironically named Las Brisas plant in Corpus Christi.

During the voter I.D. legislation fight on the floor of the Texas Senate last week, a new problem emerged on the policy. And it's not what you think this time: potential problems for minorities, or the elderly, or rural Texans, or poor folks. This time, it's a problem with your right to vote. Yes, you. Letters From Texas explains why.

Eye On Williamson points out that the state GOP's proposed budget is asking for huge sacrifices from poor and working Texans, but little or nothing from the wealthy and corporations, in the Texas GOP budget proposal is morally bankrupt.

Ever been broken down on the side of the road and everybody in the car is arguing about who's going to get out in the rain and try to fix what's wrong? Well, that's where the state's highway fund is. And our Austin representatives are "ready to have a discussion" about it. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs double-checked, and no, nobody has a roadside assistance plan, either.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw serves up a heaping helpin' of snark in Rick Perry Urges Republican Voters to Abandon Public Schools. By the reactions she got, she ruffled a few feathers. You go girl!

Neil at Texas Liberal had jury duty the past week. Neil dressed well for the responsibility and feels that you should do the same when you are called. What merits greater respect than our common society?

Egypt collapses into revolution

Thousands of inmates have broken out of their prisons (some reports indicate they were let loose by authorities) and have joined the demonstrators in the streets of cities throughout Egypt. 'Looters' and 'criminals' carrying government identification are rioting. Warplanes are repeatedly buzzing the crowds in Cairo. Police and soldiers have demonstrated an unusual amount of sympathy for the protesters, and now even hundreds of judges have joined the outcry. All this according to as-I-type broadcasts from mostly foreign services including al-Jazeera and the BBC.

This follows the resignation two weeks ago of the president of Tunisia and unrest in other Arab nations including Yemen and even Jordan.

We have revolution, and some of it is being televised, and Tweeted and Facebooked, despite the Egyptian Internet switch being turned off.

Update: Follow the al-Jazeera live blog here.

Texas state highway fund is broke down on the side of the road

Texas soon will be shelling out more per year to pay back money it borrowed for road construction than it spends from its quickly vanishing pile of cash to build new highways.

Legislative leaders characterize the state's transportation funding as a crisis. Most Texans, they say, are unaware of its severity and must be educated before the state can find new ways to finance new roads.

The gasoline tax pays for road maintenance and construction but has not increased in 20 years. Gas tax revenue peaked in 2008 and likely will decline as vehicles become more fuel-efficient.

"It's not a crisis until everybody agrees that it's a crisis. Right now, people who don't understand it are saying, 'You're crying wolf,'" said House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett, D-El Paso. "Yes, it's a crisis."

Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, agrees.

"The gravity of the situation is that in the absence of further action by the Legislature this session, we will literally be out of money for new construction in 2012 in the fastest-growing state in the country and in one of the largest states in the country," he said. "We need to begin to have a discussion about it."

Unfinished roads -- Roads to Nowhere? -- potholes, bridges broken down, then finally toll roads and Lexus lanes... but isn't this what a whole lotta Texans voted for in the last election?

What is everyone so upset about? Besides the ill eagles, as usual?

Remember: this is a financial issue mostly separated from the state's budget shortfall, which is also a crisis ... but not yet one of Rick Perry's emergencies, like voter ID, or sanctuary cities, or mandatory sonograms for women considering their reproductive options.

The transportation funding problem is separate from the state's projected $15 billion to $27 billion budget shortfall. The Texas Department of Transportation does not get any general revenue to build or maintain roads.

Legislative leaders generally agree that hiking the gasoline tax is not a viable option for several reasons, including the no-tax-increase pledge by Gov. Rick Perry and others. But Pickett wants that option on the table.

The proposed budget calls for the state to spend nearly $3 billion a year on road maintenance and nearly $800 million a year to repay debt. Less than $600 million, however, will be available per year for new road construction, which will not buy much pavement.

For example, the U.S. 290 corridor from Loop 610 to FM 2920 in Waller runs 38 miles and will cost $2.4 billion, according to TxDOT officials.

State lawmakers still have $3 billion left to authorize from a $5 billion road bond issue approved by Texas voters in 2007. Williams said he will push for that in the coming months.

The state began borrowing money in 2003 to pay for roads and now owes $11.9 billion. It will cost more than $21 billion to repay those bonds, Pickett said.

"We are trying to warn people," Pickett said, "Is this the way you really want to go? If you could get everybody around the table and put politics aside, common sense would say the conservative thing to do would be to limit borrowing capacity and put more cash in."

But hey, the Republicans elected in mass majorities just two months ago have a handle on it.

(Williams) agreed that the growing debt is a problem but said it is manageable given the size of the state, likening borrowing money for roads to buying a home with a 30-year mortgage.

A 30-year mortgage? Really, Tommy? In the current real estate market? You didn't sign us up for an ARM, did you?

Williams and Pickett agree that higher vehicle registration fees would help counter the immediate funding pressures. Current vehicle registration fees run about $60 a year in Texas.

Both said there's no benefit in assessing the state's long-term highway needs because that cost is so staggering that "you push the public away," as Pickett put it.

A report two years ago by the Texas Transportation Institute and others indicated the state's highway needs between now and 2030 would cost $488 billion.

Texans now pay 20 cents of state tax on every gallon of gasoline — a nickel of it goes to public education - which costs a person who drives 12,000 miles a year and averages 21 miles per gallon pays $7.14 a month. People who get better mileage spend less, Picket said.

A 5-cent hike in the state gas tax would raise about $575 million for roads and $190 million for schools.

"Is it OK to keep borrowing money, putting it on the credit card and paying high interest - or, should we raise the gas tax?" Pickett said.

Higher fees, more debt, and/or raising taxes are the choices. And "let's have a discussion about it" is what's coming out of the mouths of Republicans in the state legislature. I think I hear a Teapot squealing.

The Republicans have been in charge of Texas for almost 20 years now and this state is in the worst shape it has ever been in its entire history. Prior to 1998 the Democrats had been in control for about a hundred years and not once during the entire time have the state's financial consequences been this dire. Not once.

Rick Perry (and David Dewhurst, and everybody running for Kay Bailey's chair too, for that matter) has gone from boasting about the strength of the Texas economy during the campaign season to blaming all our troubles on Washington -- that is, when he can bring himself to admit we have any troubles at all. It's the same con game as his public persona; the drugstore-cowboy equivalent of bragging about how brave you are because you shot a coyote, even though nobody actually saw you do it and there's no dead coyote to be found.

The fact is that Republicans rule, and Democrats govern. I realize this is difficult to understand, particularly if you have been drinking too much tea for the past year.