The elevation of Texas Sen. Jane Nelson to be the Senate’s chief budget writer is imminent, according to a well-placed Capitol source.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is telling people he’s decided to name Nelson, R-Flower Mound, to be chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, the source said. The appointment should occur any day now, the source added.
Sen. Dan Patrick, the Houston Republican who defeated Dewhurst in the GOP runoff for lieutenant governor, has hinted for months that he would name Nelson to be the head of the chamber’s Finance Committee. The powerful panel writes the Senate’s version of the two-year state budget and decides on tax policy as well.
Sen. Tommy Williams, a Republican from The Woodlands who headed the committee last session, stepped down earlier this year to become a lobbyist for the Texas A&M University System.
![AX172_7496_9](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/dentonfracking/20141031103712im_/http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/files/2014/05/AX172_7496_9-300x241.jpg)
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst greets a supporter after he conceded defeat at Dan Patrick's hands in May (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Kern Warren)
Nelson has served on the Finance Committee for more than a decade. She is the current chairwoman of the Sunset Advisory Commission. Next session, she presumably will have to give up her current post as chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee.
Since his defeat at Patrick’s hands, Dewhurst has said he wants to help senators draft a raft of conservative bills in advance of the 2015 session, even though he will be handing the gavel off to Patrick.
Among the fiscal topics that Dewhurst has said he wants to help promote are a tighter cap on property tax appraisal growth and another effort by the state to buy down local school property tax rates.
The Legislature did that as part of a tax-swap bill in 2006 that responded to a Texas Supreme Court ruling in a school-finance case. Another such lawsuit is in the works.