Skip to main content
Topics

Budget

The latest budget news from The Texas Tribune.

  • The Revenue Guesstimate

    By Ross Ramsey

    Lawmakers are waiting for Comptroller Susan Combs to forecast exactly how much money the state will collect between now and August 2013 so they can write a two-year budget that spends no more than that. It's not exactly like opening the envelopes at the Oscars, but the Capitol community will be hanging on her every word. If history is a guide, her estimate of revenues will be closer to the bull's eye than the Legislature's estimate of spending. But this is a dark art; accuracy can be elusive. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Bob Daemmrich

  • Unfunded But Vital?

    By Morgan Smith

    Get acquainted with a phrase that will be oft-repeated in the upcoming 82nd Legislature’s brawls over public education: unfunded mandate. To help schools cope with any reduced funding, lawmakers will look to relax state regulations that create costs local school districts bear on their own or with limited help from the state. But will dropping these requirements hurt educational quality? Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman, Brent Hoard/Elizabeth Albert

  • A Taxing Problem

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    It's not hard to find strange bedfellows in the Texas Legislature when the bills start flying. Republicans and Democrats frequently cross the aisle to support legislation that they feel will help their constituents. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the same could be true as lawmakers try to figure out how to balance the state budget. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • A Taxing Problem

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    It's not hard to find strange bedfellows in the Texas Legislature when the bills start flying. Republicans and Democrats frequently cross the aisle to support legislation that they feel will help their constituents. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the same could be true as lawmakers try to figure out how to balance the state budget during the upcoming legislative session. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Now What?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Texas alternates election years with governing years, with legislative sessions set in the odd-numbered years after voters choose their leaders. There are variations, but it’s got a rhythm: Choose them, watch them govern, choose, watch. The elections behind us, it’s time to see what this particular bunch will do. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Biennial Blues?

    By Kate Galbraith

    Come January, as Texas lawmakers begin work to pass bills and tackle the yawning budget gap, they will go up against a simple but implacable barrier: time. Texas is one of a dwindling number of states whose legislatures hold scheduled meetings only every two years. Just three other, far smaller states — Montana, North Dakota and Nevada — still have biennial legislative sessions. Lawmakers differ on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, especially for budgeting. Regardless, Texas seems unlikely to change anytime soon. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • National Treasure

    By Matt Largey, KUT News

    Texas lawmakers have vowed to cut their way to a balanced budget, in the face of a shortfall that could be as high as $25 billion. But their task pales compared to the federal government, which ran a deficit of almost $ 1.3 trillion last fiscal year. As KUT’s Matt Largey reports, a lot's at stake for Austin when the next Congress gets down to business on the next federal budget. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • The Forever Business

    By Ross Ramsey

    Got a hole in your budget? Cut spending. Shake the couch for spare change. Raid your savings. Ask for a raise, if you think you can get away with it. And when all else fails, sell your assets, right? Not in Texas. The folks who handle the state’s real estate are focused not on the current budget mess, but on ambitious building plans they say will make long-term financial sense for taxpayers. Full Story 

    This rendering, from the Texas Facilities Commission, shows the locations for proposed new state-owned buildings in pink, sites for privately owned buildings on leased state land in blue, and a mall stretching for four blocks north of the Capitol (the light green area on the upper right).
    Credit: Texas Facilities Commision

  • The People's Choice

    By Julián Aguilar

    Three years after a crackdown that resulted in federal conspiracy charges against Laredo's former police chief, the city's electronic gaming parlors are back — most tucked in nondescript strip malls. Their resurgence owes to their popularity, says state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, who has offered a solution: Let the voters decide. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Mental Math

    By Brandi Grissom

    Texas sheriffs fear that the looming budget shortfall will turn the growing shortage of bed space for their psychologically disturbed inmates at state mental hospitals into a crisis. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Achieving Closure

    By Brandi Grissom

    Lawmakers, bureaucrats and criminal justice advocates all agree that the state’s trouble-ridden Texas Youth Commission ought to close down two of its correctional facilities. Like other state agencies, TYC has been asked to cut its budget for the next biennium by 10 percent, or $40 million. But no one at TYC is saying which lockups should get shuttered. “They don’t want to bite that bullet and show leadership,” says state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • School's Out

    By Morgan Smith

    The budget shortfall — estimated to be as much as $28 billion — will require the Legislature to take a paring knife and possibly a machete to government agencies and programs. The largest single consumer of state dollars is public education, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which funding for teacher salaries, curricular materials and the like isn’t on the chopping block, especially if lawmakers want to make good on their promises of no new taxes. But where is that money going to come from? Full Story 

    Crowded classroom in Edgewood School District, San Antonio, TX
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Sell It Like It Is

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Republican leaders in the Texas Legislature are insisting that it will be a no-new-taxes session. In response, one Democratic lawmaker is pushing to expand the definition of the word "taxes" to include fees. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Sell It Like It Is

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Republican leaders in the Texas Legislature are insisting that it will be a no-new-taxes session. In response, one Democratic lawmaker is pushing to expand the definition of the word "taxes" to include fees. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: flickr.com/photos/dborman2

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey's interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature's disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor's Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman