By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX – "Our decisions will affect the state of Texas and the lives of every Texan," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst before the Senate today passed HB 1, the general appropriations bill.
"This has been a particularly challenging year," he added, "probably one of the toughest sessions since World War II." He praised the Senate for its efforts during a session when the state is financially strapped and facing a $10 billion shortfall. He congratulated the 31 members for their bipartisan efforts "where every member puts Texas first."
Sen. Bill Ratliff (R-Mount Pleasant) didn't quite see it that way. While praising the efforts of the Senate Finance Committee members, he admonished his fellow senators. He said early on when the amount of the budget deficit was announced, he made up his mind that he would stay in the Senate chamber as long as necessary to force the House to produce a revenue bill. But that was not the will of the Senate, he said.
"You did have options," he said. "This body could have worked its will. But in the absence of the Senate's will to do that, you did all you could with what you had to work with. We could have done better if this Senate would have stood shoulder to shoulder and said we're not going to do this, but it didn't. I wish I could say I'm proud if this bill, but I'm not."
Ratliff said he would vote for the bill with a heavy heart. "I don't think it's worthy of the great state of Texas," he said.
"This is a product of an excruciating process," said Sen. Teel Bivins (R-Amarillo), chair of the Senate Finance Committee that shaped the bill. "It is the most difficult deliberation I've ever participated in as a member of this body." He said the final product is the best that the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate could do "with the means we have available to us."
Bivins said the committee adopted a unique approach to budgeting this session, one used previously in 1991, a zero-based budgeting process. He said they asked every agency to come before the committee "and justify every dollar they sought for us to appropriate to them for spending in the upcoming biennium."
He said the committee than engaged in a very difficult process, guided by what Bivins called IGRA (Initial General Revenue Allocation). He said the committee asked all state agencies to work within the IGRA - taking a percentage of general revenue that each agency is allocated in the current biennium and applying those percentages available to appropriate for the upcoming biennium. The result, he said, was approximately a 12.5 percent cut "across the board" for all agencies. Agency officials were asked to prioritize and "reinvent."
The committee became aware, said Bivins, that to fund core services, they would have to look for every non-tax revenue dollar they could find. To balance the budget, the Senate version relies on "a whole package of legislation that will help find new non-tax revenue," he said. Another $5.8 billion would be available from legislation outside the budget bill that will have to pass during this legislature to balance the budget.
To view a document showing additional state resources above the comptroller's revenue estimate, the committee's priorities for those funds and key actions of the committee, click here.
The budget approved by the committee "funds core services and maintains our essential populations of service throughout the state," said Bivins. "We do this without any new taxes." He said the bill also restores higher education funding to 1.3 percent less than what is being spent this biennium, maintains Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) funding for all eligible children, maintains a strong criminal justice system, and provides for a substantial increase for highway funding for critical highway needs in the state.
Bivins said the spending bill "reduces non-core spending and focuses available revenues on core services of state government."
Each chair of the Senate Finance workgroups then outlined some of the provisions of the bill grounded in their workgroup discussions.
Among those issues were health and human services issues, group health insurance benefits, public education, higher education and the criminal justice system.
To view the document showing the key recommendations of the Senate Finance Committee regarding each of those segments addressed by state funding,
click here.
To view the Legislative Budget Board's summary of the Senate Committee Report on HB 1, click here.
Numerous Democratic members of the Senate decried many of the funding cuts and described how they would affect the neediest of Texans. "These are the individuals who don't have lobbyists up here," said Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos (D-Austin). "They don't have a vote on the floor of the Senate or House."
Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) said that while it is good to talk about what the Senate budget does fund, it is important to discuss what will not be funded. "We can do better," she said. "We must, and we will."
Zaffirini again voiced her support for a $1 increase in the state's cigarette tax, noting such a tax would generate $1.4 billion for the state, meaning $800 million that could be spent on the priority funding list that is part of the Senate proposal.
Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) noted that there are misconceptions about some of the funding options. She stressed that in many, if not most cases, funding is continued for current programs, those eligible for services will continue to be served and no one receiving services or benefits will be put out on the streets.
"It hurts me to know there are some people who are being unnecessarily frightening when we worked so hard to try to find additional revenue without raising taxes," she said. "We're going to protect the people who are the neediest people but we are going to be mindful of those who are facing tough economic times and having trouble making ends meet within their own income."
"I'm not asking people to go without, but I am asking them to ride with us during the tough times," said Bivins.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte had high praise for those involved in writing the budget bill, but said she could not in good faith vote for the bill. "We can do better," she said, noting it is time the state looks closer at revenues. "I can't look in the faces of those will be affected," she said, "and tell them they don't count."