Skip to main content
Topics

Budget

The latest budget news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Benefits and Drawbacks

    By Ross Ramsey

    The insurance plan for state employees will have a $140.4 million shortfall next year — and that's the least of its problems. The projected shortfall for the two years after that is $880 million, and it will take another $476 million to replenish the legally required contingency fund. The Employee Retirement System and state leaders are surprisingly mellow about the red ink, saying growth in the cost of health benefits has actually stabilized at around 9 percent. But steady and large increases in costs threaten to erode the program, leaving policymakers to consider cuts in benefits, to negotiate lower prices or to find vast amounts of new money. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Employee Retirement System of Texas

  • TribBlog: An Off-Track Bet

    By Ross Ramsey

    The Speaker doesn't have anyone studying gambling in advance of the next legislative session, and a leading Democrat says legislators ought to get together on their own to consider the issue. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • The Shell Game

    By Ross Ramsey

    If history is any guide, the Legislature will turn to accounting illusions to mask large portions of a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion. Trouble is, such trickery is a bet on the economy roaring back to life — and that's no sure thing. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Blame It On Health Care

    By Elise Hu

    Republican lawmakers in Texas may despise the federal health care overhaul, but it's politically opportunitistic: They get to blame the staggering budget shortfall to come on the anticipated state share of the cost of reform. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • A Conversation with Deirdre Delisi

    By Evan Smith

    For the seventh event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the chair of the Texas Transportation Commission on the size of the road funding hole, the toll-versus-tax debate and whether the governor she once served as chief of staff is really not running for president. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state's budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who's reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state's border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. — and whether there's such a thing as "Obama Derangement Syndrome." The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacqueline Mermea

  • The Ditch: The Axman Cometh

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    The last time there was such a huge shortfall was in 2003, and lawmakers back then did a little bit of everything to patch up the hole — but mainly they slashed state spending. In the final part of his series on our budgetary woes, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune looks at what cuts could be in store this time. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • The Ditch: A Big Bet

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Legislative leaders are not expected to push new taxes as a remedy to the coming shortfall, and yet social service advocates say the safety net can't afford any more cuts. So where might new money come from? In part four of his series on the state budget, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune looks at one option that could succeed or fail with a roll of the dice. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 25

    By Elise Hu

    In this week's TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Reeve take on the latest topics in the Texas governor's race, big budget problems ahead and everyone's favorite political punching bag, the federal government. Full Story 

  • The Road Funding Hole

    By Elise Hu

    It's no secret the Texas Department of Transportation is broke. Texas Transportation Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi tells the Tribune's CEO/Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith just how broke the agency is. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Bob Daemmerich

  • The Ditch: Not the I Word!

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    When the recession hit and people stopped shopping, sales tax dollars dried up quickly, contributing to the multibillion-dollar shortfall that lawmakers will soon face. What to do? Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune contemplates a hugely unpopular alternative. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • The Ditch: Tax Our Way Out?

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    State lawmakers are looking at several options to cover a $10 billion-plus biennial shortfall. One way is to raise more money — but that's never simple in tax-averse Texas. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune filed this second part of his week-long series on the budget. Full Story 

  • The Ditch: How We Got Into It

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Even though we fared better than other states, lawmakers face a budget shortfall of $10 billion or more when they return to Austin in 2011. Ben Philpott — who covers politics and public policy for KUT News and the Tribune — looks at the shortfall and proposed solutions. Full Story 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Grissom on the fall of Norma Chávez; M. Smith and Ramsey on the runoffs, the results, and the aftermath; Hu on the Tea Party's birthday party; Thevenot and Stiles on the path between schools and prisons; Ramshaw on prosecutors' reaction to helping hands from Austin; Hamilton on self-appointed lawyers; Galbraith on property rights and power lines; Aguilar and Grissom sit down with the mayor of Juárez to talk about his crime-ridden city; Kraft on telling the stories of Texans and other Americans who died in Vietnam; Ramsey on slots and horses and casinos; and Hamilton goes on a field trip with Jim Hightower to hear the history of populism. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • What are the Odds?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Start with a shortfall and a Legislature that doesn't want to raise taxes, then dangle budget-balancing money from "volunteers" — a.k.a., gamblers. With that strategy, promoters think they've got their best shot in years to legalize slot machines while adding $1 billion a year to state revenues. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Grissom on her two hours in Juárez, Grissom, Ramshaw and Ramsey on four of the runoffs on Tuesday's ballot, Ramshaw on the religious experience that is voting for Dallas County's DA and an energy regulator's play for a job at the entity he regulates, Mulvaney on the Texas Senate's biggest spenders, Aguilar on whether — as U.S. officials claim — 90 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes really flow south from Texas, M. Smith on the continuing Texas Forensic Science Commission follies, Stiles on how inmates spend their money behind bars and how counties are responding at Census time, Hamilton on the creative accounting and semantic trickery that allows lawmakers to raise revenue without hiking taxes when there's a budget shortfall, and Hu on Austin's first-in-the-nation car-sharing program. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Go On a Ride With Car2Go

    By Elise Hu

    Leaders in Austin are hoping the next big thing in transportation comes in a tiny Smart car. Watch as an Austin Car2Go user demonstrates how the program works. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • Fee for All!

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Every candidate vying for a legislative seat knows what lies ahead in 2011: a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion, probably higher, and state agency cuts to save as much of that amount as possible. But new revenue is a possibility as well, even if lawmakers are expert at the old sleight of hand, employing creative accounting and semantic trickery to avoid stepping on that political third rail, the tax hike. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail