Also this need to facotr in inflation and HOW the money is being spent as well...
There are a lot of things that need to be considered in this assessment.
For one thing, many thousands of Americans have concluded that Texas fiscal policies are better than their home states. The most notable and largest group among those Americans are Californians. Apparently there is something terribly wrong in California and something terribly right in Texas.
Additionally, our revenue is not drawn from income taxes. Moreover, Texas gets back 91 cents for every dollar it sends to DC.
Texas has decided not to take the Obamacare bribes for health care which is another major conservative fiscal action which as a matter of comparison Republican Governor Kasich of Ohio has chosen to accept massive federal aid.
Our spending in Texas allows rather dramatic conservative acts such as:
1. Funding the national guard to enforce the border. Remember President Obama refused to authorize this action so it comes out of Texas coffers.
2. We are now establishing our own Ebola outbreak facilities and teams because the CDC is too busy publishing zombie brochures to be bothered with effective ebola protocols.
3. Finally Texas money is spent in Texas which is much more proximate than sending money to DC and mysteriously having some portion sent back. I am actually ok with government spending to some extent if it indeed benefits the local community rather than bureaucrats or thugs. Texas does have pretty good roads for a large state.
4. Our state legislature meets every other year for 140 days. That is a huge check on spending and out of control legislative action.