With Spending, Texas Goes the California Way

A fact about Texas politics that outsiders are often surprised to learn is that its legislature convenes only biennially. Meeting for a few months every other spring is among the reasons why the Texas economy has performed so beautifully through the Great Recession and its aftermath. To put it bluntly, by restricting the very ability of its lawmakers to convene, the Texas Constitution helped secure the blessings of prosperity to its people in a way that should leave Californians and Illinoisans with pangs of envy.