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Thanks deport. It was my understanding that Texas was looking a $27B shortfall in the face, which may or may not have been accurate. If true, $15B wouldn’t cover that so maybe Texas is counting on increased revenues from somewhere???

I really haven’t followed the budget process closely but it’s still up in the air to some extent as they are still crunching numbers. The Comptroller gave them another billion or so in the forecasted revenues so that helped them some. There are still questions about the entire budget as they put the final numbers together for final approval in both Chambers. Also don’t forget the Feds kick a lot of money to the states. However the $15 billion in reductions applies only to the state expenditures which is going to be somewere around 170 billion over two years.

Education is getting hit and that will domino down to the local ISDs with personnel layoffs, progam reductions, etc.

And this from another article in the Chronicle:
In health and human services, the proposed budget wouldn’t cover $4.8 billion due to anticipated Medicaid caseload growth, meaning lawmakers would have to act quickly to fund the program when they return in regular session in 2013.