Texas House Committee Adopts Budget Proposal
The Associated Press
04/07/09 - 05:55 PM EDT
APRIL CASTRO
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas House committee approved a $178 billion state budget Tuesday, a 5 percent increase over the previous two-year budget but about $4 billion less than the Senate version.
The unanimous vote by the House Appropriations Committee moves the budget to the full House, where it is expected to be taken up late next week.
The budget includes about $11 billion in spending from the federal stimulus package. That federal boon has helped lawmakers deal with a projected shortfall between the amount of state revenue available and the spending needs they identified.
Neither version of the bill taps the state's savings account, the Rainy Day Fund, which is expected to have $9.1 billion if left untouched over the next two years.
The House's budget proposal could still change because, unlike the Senate, the typically rowdy chamber can add amendments to the budget during debate.
"You never know. This is the Texas House," said Rep. Jim Pitts, chairman of the committee. "Frankly, this bill has something good for everybody. I feel like it should get wide support."
Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said most of the difference between his proposal and the one adopted last week by the Senate is in bond debt.
"They did more bonding," Pitts said, referring to about $2 billion in bonds for building new roads in the Senate budget.
The Texas Transportation Department has already "announced over $2 billion worth of roads projects" from the stimulus package, Pitts said.
"They're going to have their hands full building roads," he said.
The House budget also authorizes $300 million in bonds for cancer research and prevention, compared to $600 million in the Senate version, and used lower caseload projections for Medicaid that amounted to about $1 billion less.
Once the House approves its budget, the two chambers will work out their differences in a conference committee.
Public education and health care take up the biggest percentage of the spending plan for 2010-2011. The budget proposal also gives a $1,000 bonus to retired and active state employees and retired teachers.
The House also put more than $200 million into the cash-strapped TEXAS Grants, the state's biggest college financial aid program.
About $80 billion of the spending — 45 percent — is from state dollars, mostly revenue from the sales tax. That figure represents a decrease of about 2.5 percent in state spending in the current 2008-2009 budget.
Fiscal conservatives praised the House budget.
"Chairman Jim Pitts and the committee have provided a fiscally responsible framework from which to craft the final state budget," said Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of the group Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. "Texas is being correctly positioned to weather the economic storm gripping the nation."
In addition to the 2010-2011 budget, a supplemental budget to help the state finish out 2009 is pending before the House. That plan allocates about $3 billion to help state agencies meet higher-than-expected costs in the remaining months of the fiscal year.
It includes $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money to help the state cover rising Medicaid costs.
The supplemental bill, which also is expected to go before the full House next week, also would pay for costs associated with Hurricane Ike and the restoration of the Governor's Mansion, which was heavily damaged in an arson fire last year.
