If and when you go looking for the killer of legislation to bring marijuana or casinos to the state of Texas in 2021, consider the evidence against Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

The comptroller didn’t kill anything outright, and the killings weren’t intentional. He wasn’t campaigning against either pot or wagering. He hasn’t taken a loud position on either one; that’s a legislative concern, and he’s not a legislator any more.

But his unexpectedly optimistic official forecast of the state’s fiscal future all but erased any urgency for new state revenues to make the next budget balance. And that urgency — or the perception of it — is the only thing that ever gets our conservative Legislature over the hump on controversial money-making schemes.