Texas Has Money But Won't Spend It on Schools or Health Care
Every two years, Texas lawmakers go through all kinds of shenanigans, mostly to avoid passing meaningful legislation. Last session, they got distracted by such stupidity as making it a crime for airport security to frisk too close to the "forbidden triangle." Remember "Don't touch my junk?"
Texas passed a voter I.D. law making it harder for people to vote despite of the fact that only a handful of people in the whole state were even accused of trying to vote as someone else or vote more than once. This law was a pre-election gift at a time when a record number of minorities were expected to cast ballots. If he was hoping to hurt Obama's chances, Perry failed again.
The 2010-11 session's most grievous wrong was looking at the $27 billion deficit and deciding public education would have to eat $5.4 billion of it. Texas lawmakers put $48 million into the state's only jobs training bill, to get community colleges to help businesses who promised to create jobs if workers were trained. Sounds good until you consider these funds got laid on thick while public schools took a whipping for so much more.
Perry Calls a Special Session
Nobody wanted to support a budget like this and the governor needed to stall for time until he could get lined up for another shot at bringing Obama down. So he called a special session. In Texas only the governor can do that and he can only hold the session open in 30-day increments. It adds considerably to the budget and lawmakers want to go home. Caterers, hoteliers and cab drivers love it.
The public wanted education money to be restored from Texas' "rainy day fund," but it was not to be. Perry was holding out to join other states in their wrong-headed attempt to sink Obamacare. He got the votes for a measure that everyone knows got shot down by the Supreme Court. Curses, foiled again.
In the way of a bone to public education, Perry strong-armed online sellers like Amazon, making them collect and pay state sales tax. But who knows if this money made it to the classroom? Now Texas boasts an $8.8 billion surplus, according to The Austin American-Statesman 1/15/13.
Sounds good but the two-year proposed budget ($89 billion) is short of what agencies want ($96 billion.) Plus, $6.8 billion is already promised to close holes in the 2012-13 budget. School funding will not be 100% restored and health care is a big question mark. A measly 1.1 percent increase is likely for schools.
Texas' rainy day fund is up to nearly $12 billion now but there are no plans to touch it. It did get touched during the last session but only to restore some "holes" so the state could say they passed a balanced budget.
More Texans - Less Support
Perry says he's not going for the Fed's offer of money for a health care exchange to cover high risk and/or low-income patients. If you live in Texas and have carcinoid, chances are pretty good you will fall in one or the other of these categories soon.
Texas has grown by 1.6 million residents since the last lawmaking session and like everywhere else in the country, a record number of Texans are retirement age. So, does anyone have a plan for helping these folks who have already seen their drugs cut back on Medicare and the cost of co-pays and premiums jump?
Help is NOT on the way. The GOP is still making a case for reducing programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
In Case You Were Wondering
Perry still lives in an Austin mansion, where rent ($8,500 per month) and other living expenses are covered by taxpayer funds. KXAN-TV in Austin reckons the Perry preservation fund has topped $750K since Perry was elected. I'm not sure he ever lived in the recently restored governor's mansion in downtown Austin. The restoration process began shortly after he became governor as George W. Bush moved to the White House.
Then a shadowy figure torched the place before the restoration was complete. Nobody's been charged in the arson but an additional $22 million was appropriated by the legislature to repair the damage and continue restoration.
I see there's to be an open house at the governor's mansion, soon. I wonder if the Perry's will relocate. Their kids are grown so being near good schools is not an issue.
Every two years, Texas lawmakers go through all kinds of shenanigans, mostly to avoid passing meaningful legislation. Last session, they got distracted by such stupidity as making it a crime for airport security to frisk too close to the "forbidden triangle." Remember "Don't touch my junk?"
Texas passed a voter I.D. law making it harder for people to vote despite of the fact that only a handful of people in the whole state were even accused of trying to vote as someone else or vote more than once. This law was a pre-election gift at a time when a record number of minorities were expected to cast ballots. If he was hoping to hurt Obama's chances, Perry failed again.
The 2010-11 session's most grievous wrong was looking at the $27 billion deficit and deciding public education would have to eat $5.4 billion of it. Texas lawmakers put $48 million into the state's only jobs training bill, to get community colleges to help businesses who promised to create jobs if workers were trained. Sounds good until you consider these funds got laid on thick while public schools took a whipping for so much more.
Perry Calls a Special Session
Nobody wanted to support a budget like this and the governor needed to stall for time until he could get lined up for another shot at bringing Obama down. So he called a special session. In Texas only the governor can do that and he can only hold the session open in 30-day increments. It adds considerably to the budget and lawmakers want to go home. Caterers, hoteliers and cab drivers love it.
The public wanted education money to be restored from Texas' "rainy day fund," but it was not to be. Perry was holding out to join other states in their wrong-headed attempt to sink Obamacare. He got the votes for a measure that everyone knows got shot down by the Supreme Court. Curses, foiled again.
In the way of a bone to public education, Perry strong-armed online sellers like Amazon, making them collect and pay state sales tax. But who knows if this money made it to the classroom? Now Texas boasts an $8.8 billion surplus, according to The Austin American-Statesman 1/15/13.
Sounds good but the two-year proposed budget ($89 billion) is short of what agencies want ($96 billion.) Plus, $6.8 billion is already promised to close holes in the 2012-13 budget. School funding will not be 100% restored and health care is a big question mark. A measly 1.1 percent increase is likely for schools.
Texas' rainy day fund is up to nearly $12 billion now but there are no plans to touch it. It did get touched during the last session but only to restore some "holes" so the state could say they passed a balanced budget.
More Texans - Less Support
Perry says he's not going for the Fed's offer of money for a health care exchange to cover high risk and/or low-income patients. If you live in Texas and have carcinoid, chances are pretty good you will fall in one or the other of these categories soon.
Texas has grown by 1.6 million residents since the last lawmaking session and like everywhere else in the country, a record number of Texans are retirement age. So, does anyone have a plan for helping these folks who have already seen their drugs cut back on Medicare and the cost of co-pays and premiums jump?
Help is NOT on the way. The GOP is still making a case for reducing programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
In Case You Were Wondering
Perry still lives in an Austin mansion, where rent ($8,500 per month) and other living expenses are covered by taxpayer funds. KXAN-TV in Austin reckons the Perry preservation fund has topped $750K since Perry was elected. I'm not sure he ever lived in the recently restored governor's mansion in downtown Austin. The restoration process began shortly after he became governor as George W. Bush moved to the White House.
Then a shadowy figure torched the place before the restoration was complete. Nobody's been charged in the arson but an additional $22 million was appropriated by the legislature to repair the damage and continue restoration.
I see there's to be an open house at the governor's mansion, soon. I wonder if the Perry's will relocate. Their kids are grown so being near good schools is not an issue.
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