sentences:  Early in 2009, Pitts joined a small group of Republicans, including Byron Cook, Jim Keffer, and Burt Solomons of North Carrollton, who voted with the Democrats to topple Speaker Craddick and replace him with Joe Straus.In 2013, Appropriations chairman Pitts and Speaker Straus faced the task of reconciling an expected $4.7 billion shortfall in the state budget.Since 2003, annual spending by Texas state government has been kept in the lower single digits and below the rates of inflation and population growth.