A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

In the words of Red Leader...

"Almost there:"

Gov. Rick Perry made his final rulings Friday on legislation approved by Texas lawmakers, vetoing 49 bills that came out of the five-month session.

The Republican governor had until Sunday to decide whether to sign or veto bills, but he planned to get it all done before the weekend.

On Friday, Perry announced he'd signed the 2008-09 state budget into law, allocating $151.9 billion for state programs. He used his line-item veto power to get rid of $570 million from the budget that lawmakers passed.

Vetoing bills from Democrats and Republicans alike, Perry used his veto pen on some legislation before the 140-day session ended May 28 and announced Friday he was striking down dozens of other bills.

The complete list of vetoes is here, and HB 1919 ain't on it. Now, Perry still has until Sunday to change that, but if the Chronicle is right about his wanting to finish up today, this is very good news.

As always, however, I'll withhold final judgment until Monday.

UPDATE: As "peony" indicated in the comments, HB 1919 has been signed (this report wasn't up when I hit the sack earlier this morning).

I may have jumped the gun popping the champagne earlier, but now it looks like we really made it. Thanks once again to everyone who spoke up to their representatives and Governor Perry, wrote an e-mail or letter, or - assuming you're not a resident - bugged someone living here or just sent good thoughts. I'm not going to get all Lenny on you and declare "the system works," but at least in this case, it came through pretty handily. Might be time for a drink.

Or coffee anyway, it is 6:45 in the morning, after all.