During his brief campaign for President last year, Governor Rick Perry boasted that he would bring the “Texas model” of lean government, low taxes and pro-business policies to Washington. Now Austin is borrowing from Washington’s playbook as the Lone Star State embarks on its biggest spending spree in memory.

Call it the downside of prosperity: The Texas growth spurt has produced a near $20 billion gusher of new tax revenue, and the Republican-dominated legislature, with the support of seemingly every lobby in Austin, wants to spread the bounty. The biennial general-fund budget that awaits the Governor’s signature is $102 billion compared with $84 billion two years ago

Those numbers understate the blowout because $4 billion more was snatched from the state’s rainy day fund. Add various accounting stunts and the Texas Public Policy Foundation calculates a 26% spending increase for the biennium. A broad coalition of taxpayer and tea-party groups is urging Mr. Perry to veto.

Two years ago when the state faced a $15 deficit, Mr. Perry buried tax increase talk by signing a zero-growth budget. Mr. Perry’s spokesman Rich Parsons tells us that the 26% estimated increase may be inflated because it doesn’t take into account the underfunding of Medicaid and education in that 2011 budget. Mr. Parsons says that required about $7 billion of supplemental spending bills earlier this year. But even accepting this explanation, which is in dispute, the budget is still 16% higher.