State budget writers will propose eliminating agencies, cutting others to a quarter of their current size and mandating furloughs for state employees to balance the budget without raising taxes or using the state’s Rainy Day Fund, Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts told a hometown crowd.
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Economy
Holding Steady
Texas’ unemployment rate stabilized in October at 8.1 percent as the state added almost 48,000 jobs. That rate, the lowest we’ve seen in 2010, is 1.5 points below the national average. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on the numbers behind the gains.
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Economy
Holding Steady
Texas added almost 48,000 jobs from September to October this year according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Ben Philpott reports for KUT News and the Texas Tribune on the numbers below the job gains.
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Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: The Budget Will Be Balanced By…
For this week’s installment of our non-scientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we focused on the budget. Specifically, we asked how big the shortfall is going to be, how the Legislature will close the gap and which areas of the budget are most likely to be cut.
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Economy
Audio: An Interview With Michael Quinn Sullivan
An interview with Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and Empower Texans.
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Economy
Arlene Wohlgemuth: The TT Interview
The former budget-slashing Texas House member and current executive director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation on how she reads the mood out there, what reductions in state spending should be on the table, whether cost-shifting to local school districts is a plausible option, why lawmakers should forget about new sources of revenue, the trouble with Medicaid and what members of the Republican near-supermajority in the Legislature must do to keep the confidence of voters — and get re-elected.
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Economy
Audio: An Interview With Arlene Wohlgemuth
An interview with Arlene Wohlgemuth of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
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Economy
Wohlgemuth on the State’s Budget Woes
The former Texas House member and current director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation on how lawmakers should address the state’s multibillion-dollar budget shortfall.
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Economy
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 55
In this week’s TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Ben discuss the latest in the race for House speaker, ongoing budget woes and how governing may prove a lot harder than campaigning come January.
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Economy
The End of Pork?
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says she will join U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in calling for a ban on all Congressional earmark spending. In the past, both used the controversial budget maneuver to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars back to Texas. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports.