January 14, 2009
Hey, there's an idea!

There are many possible ways that the Rainy Day Fund could be used to help offset some of the bad budget news we got this week. Some of them will be better than others. Nearly all of them will be better than this.


Despite a tightening budgetary outlook, Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday that he wants to find a way to return some of the state's savings to taxpayers, perhaps in the form of additional school property tax cuts.

He said that could be done by tapping into the rainy day savings account, which is expected to have $6.7 billion by this summer, and collect another $2.4 billion over the next two fiscal years.

"Go talk to the people of the state of Texas and say, 'Would you like to have some of your money back or would you rather have it spent?' I know what their answer is," Perry said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News.

They would think "it's a good idea you give it to us and let us decide how it's going to be redistributed rather than government," he added.


Amazing. Is there ever a question to which Rick Perry, like the vast majority of his Republican colleagues, would propose something other than a tax cut as the answer? I guess you have to admire his ability to stay on-message, if nothing else. Thanks to Cory for the catch.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 14, 2009 to Budget ballyhoo
Comments
Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)