Monday, January 11, 2010

Perry lacks trust in Texas voters | Rick Casey | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle


Perry lacks trust in Texas voters | Rick Casey | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"Gov. Rick Perry must be worried that the citizens of Texas are going to lose their minds and turn state government over to the Democrats.

This week on the campaign stump, he proposed two state constitutional amendments based on the notion that we can't afford democracy.

One is that any state tax increase would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Functionally this is already the case in the Senate, where everything but voter ID bills needs a two-thirds majority, but apparently Perry is concerned because Texas two years ago elected an uncomfortable number of Democrats and tossed autocratic Speaker Tom Craddick in favor of a speaker who will actually work with said Democrats.

Maybe Perry has become a great admirer of California, where a two-thirds requirement for passing a budget led to the state paying its bills with IOUs while the Legislature bickered and showboated."