Dallas News has a great article today on how Gov. Rick Perry (Mr. 39%) has gone too far. The backlash from everything from forcing toll roads on Texans, HPV on schoolgirls, selling the lottery, pushing coal-fired power plants and the expanding sex-abuse scandal at the Texas Youth Commission is certainly taking it’s “toll”.
According to the Dallas News article, Gov. Rick Perry has stepped on so many toes the legislature is now in the process of limiting the Gov's powers.
"When you've been called governor for five or six years, you tend to forget that the office is mostly ceremonial and advisory," said Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillson.And:
"You're the governor of the state of Texas, your chest swells and if disaster strikes, you get in the helicopter, cameras come and you feel reasonably authoritative. Then the Legislature comes back into town, and it's a different story," Dr. Jillson said.
Starting today, thanks to legislative rules and schedules, the House and Senate will rush to make hundreds of new laws before adjourning at the end of May. When the session began in January, it seemed Mr. Perry's agenda might dominate the coming period. Now, he might be lucky to just prevent lawmakers from curtailing his own power.
Consider some bills advancing through the Legislature: a constitutional amendment to allow lawmakers to reconvene to override any vetoes the governor signed in their absence; a bill to limit the service of the governor's appointees; and a provision that makes executive mandates subject to approval by the Legislative Budget Board.
Plus, a senator has asked the attorney general to determine the limits of a governor's executive orders.
Mr. Chisum said there's little enthusiasm among lawmakers for selling the state lottery. Less for the toll roads. And the HPV executive order has caused major headaches, he said. "Those all got political, and we're not buying in," said Mr. Chisum, R-Pampa.
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