Your turn! What do you think?

Baby you can drive my car

Texas roads aren’t just known for their excessive speeds, they also seem to be a favorable testing ground for experimental automobiles because of our regulatory framework (the rules and regulations which govern the enforcement of our laws).   Last week Google tested a prototype car which needs no driver—although the manufacturer required that there be a person sitting in the driver side while someone else sat in the passenger seat.  This first ever vehicle—which navigates itself—operates in much the same way that airplanes behave when the instruments are set for automatic pilot.

The company brought the car out here from California and did a test drive from New Mexico to Texas and around Austin as part of Texas’ Department of Transportation Forum held to highlight transportation solutions for the future.  There’s still some question about whether the vehicle was “street legal” because neither Austin, nor the state have laws that regulate “self-driving” technology. Three states, California, Nevada and Florida all have laws in place to address such technological innovations, giving new meaning to “who’s in the driver’s seat.”

And if you need oil and gas to run those vehicles, Texas promises to be the place that can help with that too.  A recent survey of the oil and gas boom in Texas highlighted that the Lone Star state is responsible for over half of the rigs in the U.S. and more than 1 in 5 rigs in the world is operating out of Texas.

Who would have expected that in the early 1990s as the industry stalled and the Texas economy stagnated? Indeed back then, many political scientists and economists spoke of Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of “creative destruction”—the process of change that occurs within economic structures where old and outdated economic forces are destroyed and new ones are created.  While Schumpeter was a conservative largely critical of government intervention during the Great Depression and World War II, his economic principles—when old industries die they are replaced by newly emerging ones—became  vogue during the dotcom boom and bust in the early 2000s.

In Texas, the rise of information technology (IT) as the oil and gas industry struggled was critical for maintaining Texas’ fiscal health.  Now that the oil and gas industry seems to be undergoing a resurgence, it is now IT which may be in need of entrepreneurial re-vamping.   ”Fracking” (hydraulic fracturing) is the controversial technique which creates fractures in rock formations by injecting fluid into cracks to force them to open into larger fissures allowing oil and gas to flow out of the formation so it can be extracted. It has increasingly been used around Texas to take advantage of additional gas reserves that have not been fully tapped. Its economic impact is being touted as a way forward in economically difficult times and that it reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

Wonder how long before the self-driving car learns how to fill up at the gas station?

Your turn! What do you think?

Getting out the vote and giving up the fight

Next week the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a case which has ramifications for Texas.   Since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), the federal government has expanded authority to act as a watchdog over elections throughout the country.  The VRA prohibits state and local governments from restricting voting rights and access to minority voters by mandating preclearance procedures which require some state and local governments (including Texas and eight states) to submit all changes affecting voting and elections for approval to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division or to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.  That’s what happens every 10 years after the states conduct redistricting (the drawing of the geographic boundary lines to determine the representative structure for elections).

The question in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) is whether the preclearance process has outlived its purpose.  In 2008, then President Bush’s Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the city when it re-drew voting lines eliminating the only majority black city council seat.   Alabama argues that blacks were integrated into the population, and that continued supervision by the federal courts causes confusion and delay for elections–the South is a different place from 1965.

Texas agrees.

Or at least Republican leaders do.

Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed an appeal in a federal court case which struck down Texas’ 2011 redistricting plan.  Two different federal courts have found that Texas impermissibly interfered with minority voting rights with the plan, and Abbott’s appeal is likely to be on hold while the Supreme Court resolves the Shelby county case.

What do the rest of Texans think? Not everyone agrees with Abbott.  It might surprise you to learn that a recent public opinion poll found a slim majority of Texans (about 51%) including 1/3^rd Republicans think there is some place for federal supervision over voting rights.

And speaking of opinions, wonder what Governor Rick Perry is thinking as he watches other Republican governors giving up the fight with President Obama over Medicaid funding under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  Under the law, Medicaid funding (the joint federal-state program providing health insurance to low-income persons) has been hard for governors to resist because it means more money for state budgets.  Eleven Republican are standing firm that they will not accept federal monies because they do not want to be under a national regulatory scheme (structure which allows the federal government to demand conditions from the states), while 12 Republican governors have not weighed in yet.

Trouble for Governor Perry is that this week Republican Governor Rick Scott, who had been resisting federal money, gave in and agreed that Florida will take Medicaid monies.   That draws attention to the fact that if the Governor changed his mind and let Texas participate by putting up the $15 billion (our share of the program costs), the state would receive $100 billion in federal funds in the next 10 years. Those funds could be used to expand  health care coverage for 2 million people–approximately 25% of Texans  have no insurance.

It promises to be a tough battle for the Governor.

Your turn! What do you think?

Road trip

Governor Perry took a road trip this week to California to recruit businesses from the Golden State to think about re-locating to the Lone Star state.  Judging from some reactions, not everyone thought that the Governor gave a shining performance.  The Governor has made several expeditions to try to enhance Texas’ economic growth (an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services, compared from one period of time to another).   No doubt, the Texas economy has been a source of southern pride because our Gross State Product (GSP) has continued to expand even during economic downturns, and our unemployment rate has remained below the national average for 72 consecutive months.

GSP is a measure of the economic output of a state which is a sum of all value added by industries within the state for a specific period.  Its counterpart at the national level is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which measures the same thing for the entire country. In 2012, Texas’ GSP was about 1.3 trillion while the national GDP was approximately 15.7 trillion growing faster than the national average (about 23% compared to 16% for the national average).

So what’s not to love about Perry wanting California to have a piece of the action?

Seems California Governor Jerry Brown was not happy about Perry’s $24,000 radio ad which asked whether California businesses wanted lower taxes and less regulation. Calling the ad “barely a fart”, Brown blasted Perry for trying to poach jobs, while one journalist asked Governor Perry during a press conference whether Texas’ lax regulatory standards were related to worker deaths. Hoping that California businesses will beat a path to get here, Perry was quick to respond that higher rates were due to the hazardous energy industry, not poor regulation.

And speaking of pathways, Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples is working with members of the Texas legislature to craft a resolution to challenge granting a pathway to citizenship as a policy solution for illegal immigration.  As head of the Texas Department of Agriculture,  Staples works to support private sector job creation and economic development, t0 improve consumer
protection, to promote agricultural products, and to expand trade.  Staples’ concern is about the shadow economy—unofficial, untaxed economic activity that is not declared for tax purposes and is usually carried out in exchange for cash.   His comments come as President Obama highlighted concerns in his State of the Union address about the 11-12 million undocumented persons in the U.S.  Staples would prefer to see border law enforcement efforts increased, and he intends to continue to push that message as he goes on his book tour to promote his new book and gear up for a run at the Lieutenant Governor job in 2014.

Happy travels.

Your turn! What do you think?

Escaping, Xeriscaping, and Scapegoating

Last week Governor Perry gave a record breaking seventh State of the State message (a public address to the legislature about his policy priorities for the upcoming session).     The message was notable for what the Governor focused on, but it was also important for the things Governor Perry escaped discussing.  While previously he emphasized abortion limits and tough immigration reform, the speech contained nothing about either. It’s no secret that Governor Perry is considering a second bid for the White House in 2016, but some wondered whether his silence on controversial topics signals that he is agenda setting (establishing key priorities) on issues that will win support on the campaign trail.  He supported $3.7 billion funding for water and transportation projects to be paid from the state’s Rainy Day Fund and emphasized the need for a constitutional amendment to allow the state to return tax surpluses to taxpayers.  To amend the Constitution, the legislature must pass the amendment by two-thirds vote, and the voters must vote for the provision by a majority vote.

Governor Perry’s willingness to address the state’s water shortage was met favorably by supporters of xeriscaping (a method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques such as planting drought-tolerant plants).  Regulatory mechanisms (rules that allow organizations to control certain types of behavior) allow Homeowners Associations (HOAs) to regulate what homeowners can do with their property.  HOAs (organizations in a subdivision, planned community or
condominium that make and enforce rules for properties in its
jurisdiction) frequently mandate homeowners cover their front yards with grass despite the high costs.  Watering lawns and landscaping accounts for about 50-80 percent of all home usage, but systematic attempts at reform have been limited.

Until now.

Two different proposals from Austin Democrats limit the ability of HOAs to prohibit xeriscaping. With water restrictions in place, however, such lawns wind up turning brown.  The bills prevent HOAs from banning xeriscaping with the hopes that homeowners will promote more water efficient landscapes.  Hopefully there’s some relief in sight.

And speaking of relief, there’s no way for the state legislature to avoid scapegoating (laying the blame on some other individual, group, or organization) for the problems faced by the Texas public education system given the ruling by state district judge John Dietz on Monday.  Last October over 600 school districts filed a class action lawsuit (a case supported by small groups acting on behalf of a larger group) against the state for underfunding public schools.  The lawsuit affects three-fourths of the state’s five million public school students, and the plaintiffs (the parties filing the lawsuit) argue that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education. They sued following a $5.4 billion cut to education in the last legislative cycle. The state judge found that Texas violated the state Constitution by underfunding public schools and trying to shift the responsibility to the local level. Such an approach, he said, created an unconstitutional statewide property tax. An appeal by the state will most definitely follow.

Guess that means there’s no free lunch after all.