Action Update - Issue 98 : : May 1, 2007

Sen. Troy Fraser:

Senate proposal will help alleviate the stranglehold that electric companies have on the market

Our electricity market should be like any competitive commodity market – when wholesale prices rise, retail follows. Conversely, when wholesale prices fall, then retail should follow.

Last fall, I began to have concerns that competitive forces were not driving down the retail cost of electricity, even though the cost of natural gas had dropped more than 50 percent.

It also became apparent that wholesale power generators had the ability to artificially push prices higher because of their monopolistic market power in their region. Our fears were realized when TXU was recently fined $210 million for manipulating the market by withholding power.

A competitive market can work. Having said that, there are some aspects of our market that are not functioning as we intended.

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Additional comments from: Rep. Phil King: Power to the people

A Progress Report on The Top-8 Policy Issues
By Will Lutz, The Lone Star Report

The last month of the regular session is when most of the real action happens at the Capitol. Seems a good time to recap the Top 8 issues we listed at the beginning of the session.

Appraisal caps/Property taxation

The Budget & government spending

Business taxation

Toll Roads/Transportation

Corrections

Electricity

Immigration enforcement - Border Security

Higher Education

Admittedly, the list is a bit dated. Some issues

expected to be big (property taxes) turned out not to be, whereas others came out of nowhere (HPV, gubernatorial powers, TYC).

Still, here is a mid-term progress report on the big issues of the session.

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The Social Security & Medicare Trustees
Report Again—And Again
Problems Have Worsened

by JD Foster, Ph.D.

The annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees reports released on April 23 discussed changes in the programs that have occurred over the previous year and changes in their overall financial condition as measured in a number of ways. Once again, both reports share a disturbing commonality: The financial condition of both programs is terrible and got significantly worse with another year of legislative inactivity. 

The key particulars in this case are that Social Security is facing a financial abyss that got $200 billion deeper over the past year, while Medicare's abyss deepened by $3.8 trillion.

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RECOMMENDED READING

• The Tower Institute Polls Texans on Public Perceptions
  The results of these surveys are analyzed and disseminated to key legislative, academic, civic and business leaders and the general public tohelp promote sound public policy.

• House Plan Does Not Raise Average Teacher Salary
  Because the incentive pay program has already begun, tens of thousandsof teachers in more than 1,100 low-income schools will immediately seetheir pay slashed as a result of this legislative move.

• Graduation Rates Continue Their Downward Spiral
  In urban areas, graduation rates often dip below 50%—and even lower for minority students.

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