The state is facing big problems affecting vulnerable populations that will take significant money to fix at the same time that a slump in the energy industry is chipping into its revenues, House Speaker Joe Straus warned Tuesday.
“Writing a balanced and disciplined budget that appropriately funds our top priorities is going to be a significant challenge,” Straus said in a letter to House budget-writers, expressing confidence they are up to the challenge.
“This is not a theoretical exercise, but rather a task that affects children, taxpayers, and our state’s future,” he wrote.
Oil prices that stood at close to $60 a barrel when the Legislature adjourned last year are averaging “closer to $37 a barrel,” Straus wrote. And the state sales tax has marked five monthly declines.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar last year reduced his estimate of anticipated tax revenue for the current budget period by billions of dollars, while still leaving more than enough money for the state to pay its obligations.
Even before this week’s costly flooding, lawmakers were facing budget challenges such as addressing a foster care system in crisis, Straus wrote. A federal judge has ruled that the system violates the rights of children who most often “leave state custody more damaged than when they entered.”
The public school funding system also is under court challenge. A state district judge already has ruled it unconstitutional, suggesting that a fix could cost up to $11 billion. The state has appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court, which could rule this year.
In addition, Straus said, the program providing health-care benefits to retired teachers is in need of a long-term solution.
Those challenges will require “significant financial resources,” wrote Straus, R-San Antonio, and they alone would pose a challenge for lawmakers who return in regular session in January 2017.
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In addition to looking at state program needs, leaders including [Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick are setting the stage for additional tax relief in the next legislative session. Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican named by Patrick to head the Select Committee on Property Tax Reform and Relief, said there will be room for reducing taxes and that zero-based budgeting, in which all spending items must be justified, will help accomplish that goal.
Of course there’s room for property tax reductions. There’s always room for property tax reductions. We can do those other things with whatever’s left. Wafer-thin mint, anyone?
I don’t know what the Lege will do about this next year – who knows, the price of oil may go back up and we’ll all have forgotten any of this happened by then – but I do know how I’d be planning to run a campaign in 2018. The Republicans running this state are all crooks or crook-coddlers. They busted the budget giving tax breaks to big corporations, while the rest of us get standardized tests, jam-packed highways, a foster care system that kills kids, and no solutions from state leadership. They’ve been in complete control for 15 years. It’s time for a change.
Maybe that would work and maybe it wouldn’t. I doubt it could be any worse than what we’ve done before, and who knows? Maybe the business community will finally have had enough by then, especially if the Lege goes all North Carolina on gays and all Trump on immigration. Democrats would still need good candidates running on a whole lot of faith, the money to get that message out, and some clue how to boost turnout past the pathetic 1.7 million in off years level we’ve been stuck at. I can dream, can’t I? Trail Blazers has more.
There are only 2, maybe 3 ways to win an election…
Outspend…
Or put together a real public policy platform.
It’s obvious democrats and republicans havent done the latter.