AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM) - The third day of the legislature shows that Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is a busy man.

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is trying to put a positive spin on the budget situation. He says the goal here is not to eliminate basic state services, he says all of those will be funded.

"We're going to get caught up in this session but we're not going to leave anyone behind." He says other states have been facing this kind of budget mess for years and it's just now hitting Texas.

One thing he and other state leaders agree on. We know how much we have to spend so that how much we will spend, we won't close the gap by raising taxes.

Job Cuts Could Come

The Lt. Governor does say however that eight thousand state positions could be eliminated because of budget cuts.

Dewhurst says eliminating eight thousand positions doesn't mean eight thousand people will be out of work. "A fair amount of those are open vacancies that we're not going to fill."

He says these are very early projections that could change as we continue the process over the next few months.

Border Security

Lt. Governor Dewhurst says a couple of border security issues should be made legislative emergencies. One, a resolution calling on Congress to pass a comprehensive border security plan that includes a lot more border patrol agents.

"In our resolution we're asking Congress to triple the number of border patrol. Put 40 thousand more people on our border."

The Lt. Governor also wants a comprehensive state border security package passed that would include rolling DPS checkpoints at the border looking for drugs coming into Texas and money and guns going out of Texas.

Who Replaces Kay?

So who will take over for Kay Bailey Hutchison. Expect a lot of interest and a lot of candidates.

Dewhurst, who is one potential candidate, says he's busy right now but he'll consider it later. "I'm really focused right now on the session. I've got my plate full."

He might face current State Senator Florence Shapiro, along with Railroad Commissioners Elizabeth Ames Jones and Michael Williams, former Secretary of State Roger Williams, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and former Solicitor General Ted Cruz, former Comptroller John Sharp and maybe more.