Arkansas: State will house inmates in Texas. To ease the problem of overcrowding in state prisons and county jails, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) asked the legislature to allow him to use $2.65 million from the rainy-day fund to pay to house inmates in Bowie County, Texas, which has an excess of space. A key legislative committee has approved the plan, reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ……. Louisiana: Even GOPers denounce Jindal’s budget plan. Because he signed the anti-tax pledge of Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), a potential presidential candidate, proposed to solve the state’s financial problem by eliminating a tax rebate for the tax on business inventories, a solution blessed by ATR. But, reports the Washington Post, state lawmakers are opposed to the plan, with Republican state Rep. Jay Morris going so far as to call the proposal “insane.” ……. Texas: Bush raising money. Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush are hosting a fundraiser for Jeb Bush’s “Right to Rise” super-pac tonight in Dallas. The minimum donation is $5,000, but if you pledge to raise $100,000, you get a round-table discussion with the former Florida governor, reports the Washington Post. In addition, the list of those who have given or promised to raise $500,000 includes former Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, hedge fund honcho T. Boone Pickens, and a slew of folks with their roots in oil, beer or finance …….
