Perry and the Stimulus: It's Complicated
As Gov. Rick Perry has launched his presidential campaign, he’s turned to a talking point familiar to anyone who has heard him rail against the federal government over the last two years: the perfidy of the roughly $800 billion stimulus plan orchestrated by the Obama administration in 2009.
“Washington’s insatiable desire to spend our children’s inheritance on failed ‘stimulus’ plans and other misguided economic theories have given us record debt and left us with far too many unemployed,” Perry said in his announcement speech in South Carolina on Saturday.
In his 2010 book, Fed Up! Our Fight ...
Comments (35)
Texascattleco
It's simple we balanced our last budget the one two years ago, with stimulus funds. We are still benefiting from stimulus funds. It won't be available two years from now.
Polo H Town Car via Texas Tribune on Facebook
go texans !!! we can govern all USA if we wanted too,,,
Rodney Marsden via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Where's the Politifact on this?
Rodney Marsden via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why did he not take federal money for education?
Dale H Curry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Well, he can just lie about it, right?
Codie Smith via Texas Tribune on Facebook
He DID take the money for education. But it was only $800 million. A drop in the bucket when you have a $37 billion state public ed budget.
Corey Leamon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Well then Mrs. Lucy Nashed, why was this philosophy not important for federal education money?
Martin Hyman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
For every dollar Texas send to the Federal Government it gets back $.94. Not counting the federal money for the drought. Texas ranks 44th in spending for education. Stupid is as stupid does. In Texas today, the American dream is distant. Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured children in the nation. Texas is dead last in the percentage of residents with their high school diploma and near last in SAT scores. Texas has America’s dirtiest air. Source:
Martin Hyman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Here is the lik: http://texaslsg.org/texasonthebrink/?page_id=21
Marcus Aguilar via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So, federal taxes paid by Texans, and returned to Texas as part of the stimulus package and used to balance the State budget are OK. How is this different form an implicit State income tax? The same dollar went from the taxpayers pocket, around the country and back, to pay for a State obligation.
If Perry was running the State so judiciously and effectively, why did he even need to get money from the federal loan shark to make ends meet?
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Marcus, Because of Perry's Tax Plan in 2006 which resulted in a structural deficit. Read Strayhorn's letter to Perry in 2006. http://www.window.state.tx.us/news/60515letter.html
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Marcus. Btw, the Texas legislature has not fixed this structural deficit which result in an annual budget deficit until it is fixed.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There has also been a lawsuit filed regarding this.
Mac Mcclure via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Gosh Martin, Texas is just a dirty hellhole. I wonder why so many people are moving to Texas. Guess the liberal nirvana where they live was just too good to them.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Here is info regarding the lawsuit that has been filed. http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2012-presidential-election/suit-alleging-perry-signed-income-tax-supreme-cour/
Jim Hsu via Texas Tribune on Facebook
How many times can he and his people LIE? "Balanced its budgets?" $27-Billion in the hole is not what anyone, except those working for Perry, can call "balanced budget."
Rodney Marsden via Texas Tribune on Facebook
You're right Codie he did take the fed money a year later and with prodding from Doggett. Thank God for Doggett!!!!!
Kim Batchelor via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ms. Nashed, Texans get MORE than their share of federal dollars. And hypocrisy ain't becomin'.
Aldo Merino via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I encourage people to read the article in full before sounding off. The short of it: it's not really that complicated. Gov. Perry's being hypocritical about his role and Texas' use of federal stimulus dollars.
"In the second quarter of this year alone, federal stimulus money in the state budget helped create or retain 40,411 Texas jobs, according to the Legislative Budget Board, which keeps a quarterly accounting of the money and how it's spent."
Robert Adams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Gee as a Texan I sure did not see any of it in action. Probably padded the pockets of rich Texans (Job Creators)
WUSRPH
What's the problem? Perry has shown over and over that he is the High Priest of the Official Religion of Texas Politics--hypocrisy--so saying one thing and doing another is perfectly acceptable if not required. After all, we all love a good “spinner”.
Bambi Clark via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Cheap land is why they come.
Eva DeLuna Castro
http://www.lbb.state.tx.us/ARRA/ARRA%20Reports%20and%20Analysis%202011%20Q2.pdf
has answers to many commenters' questions. Page 2: Texas DID take $3.25 billion in "stabilization" funds for education (otherwise, state general revenue or Rainy Day Funds or cuts in 2010-11 would have been the options). In addition: $945 million apiece for special education (IDEA) and education of low-income children (Title I). Not in this report: The $830 million EduJobs that will get spent in the 2011-12 school year, so the bigger cuts to schools won't happen until 2012-13.
Karen Hawkins via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"For every dollar Texas send to the Federal Government it gets back $.94." This data is based on a 2005 study from the Tax Foundation Org. I'm not sure how valid the data is currently as it is both pre-recession and excludes the effect of the added stimulus money.
two times
It's not complicated. It's simple. Secessionist Rick Perry took $17B in stimulus funds from the federal government to balance Texas' budget and create Texas jobs. Thanks, Barack Obama, for creating all those American jobs in Texas.
Mary Steele
If illegal workers were forced out of 8 million of our jobs, we could get back to work and spending again!!!
Kim Batchelor via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Karen, in that same study over a longer period, 1981-2005, in all but 6 years, Texas did receive more than it paid in to the federal government. In fiscal 2009, the IRS collected about $163 billion from Texans and the state received about $224 billion, for a net gain of $61 billion. Federal spending in Texas also exceeded tax payments in 2008 by $8 billion.
Richard S. Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Regarding the $17B noted - it does not include @ $7B in Medicaid FMAP adjustment that was also a part of the Stimulus Program. Tex really used closer to $22B to write the current bienneum budget!
Gritsforbreakfast
I would dispute this statement: "In fact, Texas used the federal stimulus to balance its last two budgets."
The most recent budget was not and is not "balanced." Come 2013 the money runs out and a dip into the Rainy Day Fund is inevitable. It's not "balanced" to budget insufficient revenue to cover the final months of the second fiscal year, just another accounting gimmick.
Ross Ramsey
Grits:
You're talking about the 2012-13 budget that starts next month; this refers to the current budget and the one that proceeded it. You're right about deferred costs in the next one:
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-taxes/budget/in-texas-a-businesslike-budget-after-a-fashion/
Rudy Gonzales
Perry's in South Carolina now. Let's present verifiable facts. Talking about "Jobs", the jobs he touts in Texas came from the federal government moving personnel. Perry tried to shove through a lucrative money-making deal with the "Trans-Texas Tollway" but was voted down by the people of Texas! Perry talks about cutting taxes when he passed a form of income tax on business.(see Houston Chronicle Aug. 17th, 2011) "Perry urged lowering local property taxes while passing a "Business Margins Tax". Perry's business attitude is for those who support him financially or politically. The South Carolina primary will test the current candidates Perry, Romney and Bachmann in which the culling out will begin. Perry and Romney will duke it out and Bachmann was a flash in the pan when she won the Iowa straw poll. Perry's swipe at the Health Care Law passed by the previous Congress is meaningless as the Legislature has quietly placed avenues for implementation so Texas would not lose medical funding. Perry failed to mention that he graduated in 1972 with a 2.22 GPA in Animal Science. Perry does not have an Economics degree, a Science degree or any other degree. Perry and has become a millionaire on Texas' taxpayers. South Carolina would be sorely mistaken if Perry did win South Carolina as he openly courts the TEA party, which has been linked to the global meltdown and US credit downgrading.
Gritsforbreakfast
Gotcha, Ross. I guess you could say the last two budgets were "balanced" including federal dollars (though we've also been rapidly expanding per capita debt). Going forward, though, IMO Texas shouldn't get credit for a "balanced budget." We don't have one. It's a lie.
Eva DeLuna Castro
Grits: You have to remember, whenever a TX state official says the budget is "balanced", all that means is the legislature didn't appropriate more General Revenue dollars than the Comptroller says will be available. Even if "available" gets increased by things like speeding up tax collections -- which only borrows from future revenue -- or not spending dedicated fees like the one many Texans pay on their monthly electric bill, or delaying transfers of taxes from General Revenue to the State Highway Fund. On the spending side, postponing big payments (like to school districts) also helps "save" GR. That's how the legislature "spent" $83 billion in General Revenue for the next two years, even though only $78 b will be collected.
Gritsforbreakfast
Eva, I understand the legislative parlance, but to term Texas' 2012-2013 budget "balanced" is downright Orwellian.
Rudy Gonzales
If one looks at the fourth paragraph, one can see the two-faced rhetoric of Perry and the inconsistencies coming out of his office. Perry is just the tip of the TEA party and their "Greater than thou" attitude towards the American public. 17.4 billion federal funds for Texas' budget short fall, and this whimp is crying all the way to the bank as he has become a millionaire at the expense of the Texas taxpayer! Perry's Trans-Texas fiasco and HPV debacle point to his real desire to do for himself and his closest buddies rather than for all Texans! The three instances revealed where Perry refused federal monies shows he not in this for Texas of the population, but for himself or his well-heeled buddies and donors! Unemployment in Texas should have been taken, but Perry didn't want to comply with federal law which would hold his feet to the fire in proper utilization of funding! It's total Poppy Cock that Perry rails against the federal government but utilizes the same monies to fix budgetary shortfalls while rewarding political donors with plush appointments. And has there ever been an audit of the "Rainy Day fund" and how it's been used in the past, and who has received any of those funds and for what? This smacks of the TWIA issue and how the "Legislature" fixed it after the fact of fraud and under the table payoffs.