By J. Lyn Carl , Gallery Watch.com
Austin, TX – - It's gut-check time in the Texas Senate.
There was a lot of posturing and a lot of rhetoric during the fall about how to handle the state's budget problems. "This is where the rubber meets the road," says Austin political consultant Tony Proffitt.
The legislature now knows the state revenue estimate...and knows that through the remainder of the current fiscal year and for the next biennium, the state faces a nearly $10 billion shortfall. The hand wringing is over and the #2 pencils are out.
The Senate is taking its first step toward examining the budget woes this week as the Senate Finance Committee has posted its first hearing for Wednesday. The committee will hear representatives of the Legislative Budget Board give an overview of the state budget and hear testimony on the comptroller's biennial revenue estimate.
The former political adviser and spokesman for the late Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock said that although the House has not yet named committees, the Senate is moving forward and getting an early start on addressing budget problems.
"If they're (Senate Finance) looking at the math, then they're trying to put together a political philosophy," he said. "Any idea to save money is mathematically evident, but only the legislature can make up its mind if those cuts are good policy. What might be a short-term fix could have devastating long-term effects.
"And when someone says cut back on the budget, the schools will say, 'That doesn't mean us,' and others will say, 'That doesn't mean us.'"
The Senate is not immune to budgetary cuts. Senate offices have apparently agreed to cut staff spending by $1,000, according to Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos' (D-Austin) floor speech on Jan. 16.
And committee chairs have been asked to curb costs as well. Senate Administration Chair Sen. Chris Harris (R-Arlington) last week asked that committee budgets be submitted to his committee by today.
Michael Grimes, legislative director for Harris, said each committee chair received a letter from the Administration Committee last week asking them to be prudent in their budget requests.
"The letter said recognizing the current economic situation, try to find cost-savings and efficiencies in your budgets," said Grimes. He said there were no specific directives for making such cuts, that the letter was only a "heads up."
Three new standing committees were added to the Senate this session at a cost of approximately $300,000. "The way the new committees will be handled," said Grimes, "is that the committee will look at another committee with a comparable workload. They will look at the budget for those committees and look at the number and types of bills to be referred to that committee.
"For instance, the new Infrastructure Development and Security Committee is likely to take on all the transportation issues. So that committee should look at historical information on what the costs were in the past to run a committee that handled transportation issues and use those figures to help set its own budget."
So it's evident that the Senate is getting the jump on budget issues - and starting in its own backyard.
"This is reality," said Proffitt. "This is getting down to details."