AUSTIN — Does it matter who’s governor?

Only if you care about taxes, health care, jobless benefits and, oh, everything else.

With the Legislature gone, Gov. Rick Perry has the spotlight to himself with his final say on legislation. A stroke of his veto pen, and bills nurtured by lawmakers get tossed to the trash heap. One already has been.

But there’s a subtler power that Perry has already exercised with effect, even though Texas is a weak-governor state because of limits on constitutionally granted authority. Call it the power of suggestion.

By signaling the chance of a veto, Perry can stop a measure in its tracks, since lawmakers may give short shrift to bills considered DOA. That’s especially true for bills already hitting roadblocks.

Take a proposed expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Versions passed the House and Senate. Money was set aside for it. There was good reason to think it might proceed.

Then the proposal became a casualty of House Democrats’ delaying tactics to prevent consideration of GOP-pushed voter identification legislation. Lawmakers were scrambling to save the CHIP bill when Perry said he likely wouldn’t favor it. It died.
Pointing fingers

Now, Perry wasn’t the only one to step on the idea. Some blamed the House. Some accused the Senate of machinations to impede its passage. But once he opposed the plan, there was little incentive for lawmakers to move heaven and earth to send it to him.

Take another proposal, which would have allowed urban areas to raise gasoline taxes and fees locally to pay for local transportation projects. It steamed through the Senate, then met with House resistance. Anti-tax groups vigorously opposed it. With the proposal already in big trouble, Perry called it a “huge monstrosity with lots of taxes.”

The description was at odds with those selling it as a way to give voters a choice. Perry wasn’t the only one to say so, but his voice is a strong one, particularly with conservative voters. The foundering proposal sank.
Funds furor

Finally, take a bill to expand jobless benefits to get $555 million more in federal stimulus funds. Despite Perry’s fierce opposition, it passed the Senate. Then, like CHIP, it got stuck in the House.

You can blame the Democrats for stalling and (if supporters had the votes) giving up a chance to send Perry an unemployment benefits bill to force his hand. But you can also envision Democrats weighing the chance to kill voter ID against a bill facing a near-certain veto.

Whatever your position on these issues, Perry played a role that should be part of the debate if he runs for re-election, as promised.

Texas is a weak-governor state, on paper. In practice, the governor has the chance to affect your life every day. And already has.