The latest budget news from The Texas Tribune.
Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State speech on Tuesday was part pep rally, part budget proposal, with a dash of national politics. And, as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, Democrats weren't charmed. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100626_Wendy_Davis_S.S._036.jpg)
State Democratic lawmakers responded to Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State address Tuesday, calling his budget proposals a "Ponzi scheme." Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-02-08_at_3.26.28_PM.png)
Gov. Rick Perry told lawmakers Tuesday he is against tapping the state's $9.4 billion Rainy Day Fund to close the budget shortfall: “That approach would not only postpone tough, necessary decisions." Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-02-08_at_2.49.53_PM.png)
Gov. Rick Perry delivered his sixth State of the State speech today, addressing a joint session of the Texas House and Senate, and selling the state's fiscal troubles as an opportunity to make government more efficient. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PerryStateofState.jpg)
Gov. Rick Perry will challenge the state's colleges and universities to offer a $10,000 bachelor's degree, including books, in his State of the State speech later this morning, according to sources familiar with some of the proposals. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/perry_sots_01_09.png)
At the Texas Education Agency's first appearance before the Senate since the release of a budget that reduces school funding by $9.3 billion, senators called for a "full picture" of the state's spending on public education. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCB7840.jpg)
The chairman of the House Public Education Committee on whether the cuts to public ed will be as bad as everyone says they'll be. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Eissler3.jpg)
For our latest TribLive conversation, I sat down with the chairman of the House Public Education Committee to talk about the coming cuts to public ed: how big they're likely to be, the prospect of tens of thousands of teacher and non-instructional-staff layoffs and whether new revenue sources are on the table. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/bade6d50c47913179ae56354f785a25a/TT%20Event%20Eissler%2002%202011)
The chairman of the House Public Education Committee on whether the Rainy Day Fund should be used, in part or in whole, to reduce the size of the budget shortfall. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Eissler1CMS.jpg)
The chairman of the House Public Education Committee on how many public school teachers, administrators and non-instructional staff members are at risk of being laid off as a result of the budget shortfall. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Eissler2CMS.jpg)
For our latest TribLive conversation, I sat down with the chairman of the House Public Education Committee to talk about the coming cuts to public ed: how big they're likely to be, the prospect of tens of thousands of teacher and non-instructional-staff layoffs, whether new revenue sources are on the table and more. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/93706d3400d1647f5acd31019064dfd6/TT%20Event%20Eissler%2001%202011)
We asked three big thinkers in the Capitol community — Talmadge Heflin, Eva DeLuna Castro and Bill Hammond — to tell us what they'd do if they had the power to take on the budget shortfall themselves. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Threeway_Heflin_Castro_Hammond.jpg)
We need a balanced approach that uses our reserves and adds revenue. And we have to start by casting aside wishful thinking; we are writing the 2012-13 budget, with higher costs and increased enrollment in education and health care services — not some past budget. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Castro.jpg)
More money is not the answer to our current woes. Just as anyone managing a household budget knows, when a family’s expenses grow beyond its income, the solution is to cut back — particularly if its spending habits resemble the state's. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Heflin.jpg)
We must continue to fight to ensure that we implement cost-saving reforms that reflect Texas' commitment to prosperity and to economic growth. But our current budget shortfall isn't a time to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/010709_hammon_bill_2.jpg)
Slashing funds for community-based mental health care will hurt taxpayers and degrade the quality of life for thousands of mentally ill Texans and their families, Harris County Jail officials told Texas budget writers today in written testimony for the Senate Finance Committee. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Overcrowded-Prisons.png)
Texas leaders aren't talking about secession, after an outbreak of conversation a couple of years ago. But the germ of the idea remains in the anti-federalist talking points that fueled Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign last year and provided the outline for his book, Fed Up! Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/c9448ac23f0c46bc98d86c5b321219e3/BD%20INC%20Secede%20Sign%2002%202011)
In this week's TribCast, Evan, Ross, Reeve and Ben discuss the budget's structural deficit, the effort to repeal health care reform, the back-and-forth over House District 48 and if 2011 will be the year Texas bans smoking. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-TribCast-002.png)
The Senate Finance Committee heard public testimony today on proposed cuts to health and human services. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-02-02_at_4.20.24_PM.png)
Texas agencies facing the budget ax say the only thing left to cut are the services they fund. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on fears that many of the state's nursing homes could be forced to dramatically cut back or even close as a result. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/nursing-home-cuts.jpg)