Category Archives: Budget ballyhoo

No Paxton settlement money in the budget

The Lege takes a stand. Texas budget negotiators want to ban Attorney General Ken Paxton from using state funds to pay a $3.3 million whistleblower settlement. This week, they adopted a provision that would bar the Office of the Attorney General from using … Continue reading

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Abbott follows through on veto of legislative funding

So here we go. Gov. Greg Abbott followed through Friday on a threat to veto a section of the state budget that funds the Texas Legislature, its staffers and legislative agencies. The governor’s move targeting lawmaker pay comes after House … Continue reading

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House passes its budget

The rites of spring in Texas: The start of baseball season, the first 90-degree day, and in odd-numbered years, the House Budget Amendment-Palooza. The Texas House on Thursday night unanimously passed its proposed two-year, $246 billion state budget after members … Continue reading

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Today is not the day we expand Medicaid

Tomorrow isn’t looking so good either. The Texas House on Thursday rejected an attempt to direct the governor and state health officials to use billions in federal dollars to expand health care coverage for uninsured Texans, including working poor who … Continue reading

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Where are the stimulus funds for the schools?

Ridiculous. For more than a year, the federal government has been pumping billions of dollars into school districts across the country to help them meet the demands of the pandemic. Most states have used that pot of stimulus funds as … Continue reading

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Republicans will never hold Ken Paxton accountable for anything

Don’t be a chump and expect them to. Texas lawmakers are preparing to arm Attorney General Ken Paxton with $43 million to fight Google in court. A key committee in the State Senate on Wednesday amended its proposed budget for … Continue reading

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Will the Lege cut Ken Paxton’s budget?

The first draft budget includes a significant cut, but it’s early days. Already under investigation by the FBI and facing calls to resign from both the left and the right, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton now has the Texas Legislature … Continue reading

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Here’s the official budget forecast

“Could be worse” remains the watchword. Texas lawmakers will enter the legislative session this week with an estimated $112.5 billion available to allocate for general purpose spending in the next two-year state budget, a number that’s down slightly from the … Continue reading

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Another way Ken Paxton is costing you money

He’s something else, this guy. Texas may pay tens of millions of dollars to outside attorneys hired to handle a major lawsuit against Google — money the state did not plan to spend before a scandal enveloped Texas Attorney General … Continue reading

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State budget situation not quite as awful as feared

Still bad, but could be worse. Despite “historic declines,” state lawmakers will have more money to work with in the upcoming legislative session than Comptroller Glenn Hegar expected over the summer, he said Monday. But Hegar did not outline specifics … Continue reading

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The state deficit is quantified

Honestly, it’s not as bad as it could be. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivered bleak but unsurprising news Monday: Because of the economic fallout triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the amount of general revenue available for the state’s current two-year … Continue reading

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How low can sales tax collections go?

If we’re lucky, no lower than this. Texas collected about $2.6 billion in state sales tax revenue in May, leading to the steepest year-over-year decline in over a decade, Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Monday. The amount is 13.2% less than … Continue reading

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Down go the sales tax receipts

It’s bad. Expected, but bad. Texas collected $2.58 billion in state sales tax revenue in April — a roughly 9% drop from what the state collected the same month last year, Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Friday. That drop, from $2.8 … Continue reading

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Cities and counties are going to need their own bailout

This story is about the rough financial future that the city of Houston faces as we go through the coronavirus shutdown, but it’s not just Houston that is in this position. As Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration continues efforts to slow … Continue reading

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Coronavirus and the state budget

Ain’t gonna be great. How bad, we don’t yet know. Comptroller Glenn Hegar briefed Texas House members on the state’s economy and budget Sunday night, saying that while it was too soon for specific forecasts, both are expected to take … Continue reading

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Dan Patrick’s budget destruction

It’s not what you think it is, but it’s still bad. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Texas state government, an arcane team of 100 or so budget nerds has led a private, if stressful, life — running financial … Continue reading

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More info on the school finance bill

Here’s what we know. Before final negotiations, the House’s version of HB 3 cost $9.4 billion, and the Senate’s cost a whopping $14.8 billion, according to Texas Education Agency calculations. The final cost is around $11.6 billion, according to lawmakers, … Continue reading

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The tax swap is dead

For this session, at least. Most likely, barring anything strange. State Rep. Dan Huberty, the top public education leader in the Texas House, postponed two items of legislation Tuesday that would pay for long-term, ongoing school district tax cuts by … Continue reading

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Where goes the tax swap plan from here?

We start with the double down. Showing their usual united front, the state’s “Big Three” political leaders on Friday tried to remake their case for why the Texas Legislature should deliver on long-term, ongoing property tax relief before the session … Continue reading

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More action on the school finance/property tax front

From Tuesday: The Texas House gave preliminary approval to a priority property tax reform package Tuesday, teeing it up for negotiations with the Senate and impelling the upper chamber to act on an omnibus school finance measure. Together, the education … Continue reading

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No-nuke version of SB2 passes the Senate

Dan Patrick gets his bill, without having to do any nasty partisan maneuvering. The Texas Senate broke a logjam Monday that had paralyzed a piece of priority legislation for weeks — blunting a controversial provision in its property tax reform … Continue reading

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House approves budget, and other news

Always a major milestone. In Dennis Bonnen’s first major test as speaker of the Texas House, the chamber he oversees resoundingly passed a $251 billion budget Wednesday after a long but largely civil debate — a departure from the dramatics … Continue reading

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Inevitably, we come back to a sales tax/property tax swap

It’s an idea we just can’t seem to quit. Texas lawmakers are considering an infusion of $9 billion to improve public schools and lower property taxes over the next two years. The additional $6.3 billion in the classroom is being … Continue reading

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House passes its budget out of committee

On to the full House, then the real fight occurs. A panel of House budget writers gave initial approval Monday to a budget that would spend $115 billion in state funds, including a $9 billion infusion of new funds for … Continue reading

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What’s wrong with the Permanent School Fund?

For starters, it should have more money in it. It was a grand promise, one our forefathers made 165 years ago to all Texas children, to theirs and ours and those not yet born. With $2 million and the state’s … Continue reading

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Always beware revenue caps

They’re always a bad idea. Flanked by the state’s top legislative leaders, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that both chambers of the Texas Legislature will push to curb property tax growth by limiting how much money local governments collect without … Continue reading

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State House mulls big increase in school funding

That’s a good start. As Texas’ Republican leadership calls for property tax cuts and a school finance overhaul, the Texas House on Monday pitched a bold proposal: Pump roughly $7 billion more state funds into public schools — but only … Continue reading

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Our pretty decent revenue estimate

We’ve seen much worse. At a time when legislators are vowing to spend more money on public schools and slow the growth of Texans’ property tax bills, the state should have enough money at its disposal to do just that. … Continue reading

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Here comes the latest school finance report

I figure the smart money is always on efforts like this to fail, but you never know. After hours of discussion Wednesday, a state panel studying school finance stripped its final report of language that blamed the state for inadequate … Continue reading

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Property tax revenue up, school funding down

Welcome to Texas. An early projection has Texas decreasing state funding to public education, and largely using local taxes to fill the gap. In its preliminary budget request ahead of next year’s legislative session, the Texas Education Agency projected a … Continue reading

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Many more school districts are feeling the pinch

Not just HISD. Not by a long shot. For eight-straight years, Cypress-Fairbanks and Conroe ISDs earned the Texas Smart Schools Award, bestowed on school districts with prudent financial practices and high academic achievement. Now, Cypress-Fairbanks faces a $50 million deficit … Continue reading

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From the “Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash” files

Same song, second verse. If budget writers don’t come up with money to address a state employee pension shortfall and mounting needs for public schools, health care and transportation, credit agencies are likely to downgrade Texas’ AAA rating in the … Continue reading

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From the “Nothin’ but good times ahead” department

Given the good economic conditions in Texas right now, you’d think the budget outlook would be better than it is. The Texas economy is growing healthily, but that doesn’t mean state budget writers will have more money at their disposal … Continue reading

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The Harvey effect on the state budget

You know what the solution to this is, right? Senate leaders warned Tuesday that Hurricane Harvey could put a billion-dollar hole in Texas’ budget, an ever-growing number that could affect how much money is available for other state programs. Only … Continue reading

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