Texas House Committee Adopts Budget Proposal

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.