Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The fundamental power of the Legislature is the power of the purse, so when Gov. Rick Perry appropriated $50 million on his own authority, some members didn't like it. And they are right to watch out, unless they want to grant the governor — any governor, not just Perry — new power to spend without legislative approval.

In January, with no public announcement, the governor shifted $50 million from the state's Texas Enterprise Fund to its Emerging Technology Fund. The technology fund then awarded a $50 million grant for construction of a world-class laboratory for vaccine and drug therapy research at Texas A&M University.

The governor justified the transfer on grounds that the project is a good one but that taking the $50 million only from the technology fund would have drained it of money for other worthy projects.

So far, at least, no one has questioned the worthiness of the lab project. Texas wants to be in the front of the pack in biological and medical research, and this kind of investment is needed to compete.

Nor did the governor — a proud A&M alumnus — act entirely on his own. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the presiding officer of the Texas Senate, and then-House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, also signed off on the $50 million grant.

Nevertheless, the transfer of the money has raised a great many questions and criticism, particularly from Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Though the governor's transfer of $50 million from one fund to another might have been legal, Pitts said this week, it was inappropriate. The fund was set up to help finance research and development of new technologies, not pay for university buildings, he said.

Curiously, the governor did not announce the January transfer of the money and the $50 million grant until this week, and his office initially made it sound as though a 17-member advisory committee, made up of academic and business leaders, had signed off on the project. By Thursday, however, the governor's office was admitting the committee had not been asked for its endorsement.

The issue, though, is how much power to grant the governor to move money around when the Legislature is not in session. The Legislature meets for only 140 days every other year, so the governor needs some flexibility in spending, particularly for emergencies.

But there was no emergency in the A&M grant. And within days after the governor authorized the transfer, the Legislature convened, so the governor easily could have waited to win legislative approval. He didn't.

In part simply because he's been in office eight years now, the aggressive Perry has accumulated enormous power in state government. But the Legislature also has given the governor more power in such ways as subjecting more state agency top executives to his direct appointment, rather than by a board or commission.

The Legislature may act or not — but in doing nothing, it will make the governor even more powerful.