Lubbock Avalanche-Journal 2/7/09Mother of all battles' shaping up in budget warAUSTIN - Six years ago when the Texas Legislature faced a $10 billion shortfall, the lawmakers made substantial budget cutbacks, and all the Democrats could do was hopelessly watch because for the first time in more than 130 years the Republicans were in complete control of the state government.
And nowhere was the Republican muscle more evident than in the House of Representatives where the GOP had a solid 89-61 majority and a conservative speaker determined to cut the budget as much as possible to offset the enormous deficit.
Programs like the Children's Health Insurance Program and funding for community colleges, universities and state schools for the mentally disabled were drastically cut.
Some of those programs or institutions have yet to recover from the 2003 cutbacks, particularly state schools like Lubbock's which - as two U.S. Department of Justice investigations show - have had problems adequately caring for the nearly 5,000 residents under their watch.
This is a good example of how "savings" really aren't the truth. Because those costs just get shifted to later years. And in terms of equivalent dollars I bet that dealing with the problems like the state school settlement actually cost more in the long run than having them adequately staffed since 2003.
For a historical perspective:
CPPP 5/16/2006Special Session Tax and School-Finance Package Creates $10.5 Billion Deficit The fiscal notes for the tax and school-finance bills passed during the special session reveal a gap of $10.5 billion between the expected costs of HB 1 and anticipated revenues from HB 3, 4, and 5 in 2008-09. This deficit will place tremendous pressure on the next state budget, which could cause severe budget cutbacks, an increase in the state sales tax or other state taxes, an expansion of gambling as a source of revenue, or all of the above.
Again this is the Republicans played with the School Finance court mandated fix. They refused to deal with school funding inequities until the courts forced them to. And then they only did the bare minimum to get by. Until the next lawsuit, that is.
Oh and they plugged some of the gap this past session with the Federal Stimulus funds.
AAS 7/25/09Texas' $3.2 billion stimulus plan approvedThe U.S. Department of Education on Friday approved Texas' plan for spending billions in federal stimulus money.
The state's $3.2 billion plan includes money for textbooks and a $1.9 billion increase in school funding, which will provide for an $800 raise for all Texas teachers and other school workers.
The decision announced Friday makes $2 billion available now, with the remaining money contingent upon a second application due this fall.
Gov. Rick Perry, a critic of the federal stimulus legislation, said he was pleased that the federal government approved the state's plan.
So to sum up, I would tell your co-worker that the whole reign of Republican rule in Texas has been nothing but a shell game. Quite a lot like the Wall Street deviratives fiasco. The people in charge are not really giving us the whole truth, they wildly inflate their "success", and are running a ponzi schemes where certain contributors make off like bandits while the rest of us have to pay for the bailout eventually.
Sonia
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