Posted on 01/26/2005 6:43:34 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
Lawmakers' backing sought for college aid, filmmaking, tech fund.
By Jason Embry
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday will ask lawmakers to combine two state scholarship programs, create an incentive fund for filmmakers and spend at least as much as they do now on the Children's Health Insurance Program.
While lawmakers expect to have $6.4 billion more in general state revenue to spend than they did two years ago, most of that money will go toward paying for enrollment growth in Medicaid, public schools and higher education. The Legislative Budget Board earlier this month estimated that lawmakers would have about $1.2 billion left.
Perry's budget is a summary of what he thinks they should do with the money.
In a copy of his budget obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, Perry calls for about $600 million more in general state spending than the bare-bones budget laid out by the legislative board. He also calls for lawmakers to pull about $1 billion out of the state's rainy day fund to pay for shortfalls this year in Medicaid and CHIP and for one of the most expensive items on his priority list, an emerging technology fund to spur collaboration between businesses and universities.
That would leave lawmakers with about $1.3 billion to spend after paying for the Perry proposals, Perry's budget estimates. They would then be left to debate how to spend that money or whether they should try to raise additional revenue by going back to the rainy day fund or by raising taxes and fees.
"Government should be limited in size and mission but meet essential state needs," Perry says in his budget. "This budget provides essential services without raising taxes and emphasizes my priorities."
Perry aides repeatedly described the governor's budget as an early step in a lengthy budget-writing process.
Perry will suggest drawing nearly $700 million from the current rainy day fund to pay for shortfalls in Medicaid and CHIP in the current budget cycle, which ends Aug. 31. The remaining $300 million would come out of the rainy day fund over the next two years to pay for the emerging technology fund. The rainy day fund is a savings account that lawmakers can tap in a budget squeeze.
Perry thinks that the state should use the rainy day fund wisely, but he also does not think that lawmakers should sit on a large sum of unspent tax dollars, spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. His budget forecasts that there will be about $1 billion left in the rainy day fund when the next budget cycle ends in August 2007.
The use of the fund could be a major sticking point in Perry's 2006 run for re-election. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is considering running against him in the GOP primary, has cast herself as a guardian of that fund.
Perry does not say in his budget how much overall new money should be put into education as part of the debate over how to change the state's school finance system. Walt said Perry first wants the Legislature to debate education changes intended to reduce dropout rates, increase college readiness and improve low-performing schools.
During his State of the State speech today, Perry is expected to call for merit-based pay increases for teachers and ways to make the school system more accountable, aides familiar with his speech said. He also is expected to advocate for a cap on property appraisals and reiterate his earlier call for a broadly applied, low-rate business tax to replace the corporate franchise tax, which most businesses avoid paying.
In his budget, Perry will ask lawmakers to spend $66 million more than the Legislative Budget Board proposed on college aid. That will not be enough to pay for everyone who qualifies for a TEXAS Grant, which provides money for tuition and fees to needy students who took strong courses in high school, or a B-On-Time loan, which also provides college money but requires students to pay it back unless they graduate on time and with a B average. Perry will propose combining the two programs so that, in most cases, students receive the grants during their first two years of college and the loans during the second two years.
Perry's budget also calls for the creation of a $30 million incentive fund for making films in Texas. Perry aides said inquiries to the Texas Film Commission have fallen 25 percent in the past two years as other states have given incentives to filmmakers.
"This is something that was here and is now being lured away to other states," said Mike Morrissey, Perry's director of budget, planning and policy.
The base proposal released by the legislative board earlier this month cut more than 100 agency budgets. Perry will propose that lawmakers bump up spending to current levels for a handful of programs, including CHIP, child care for low-income parents who are working and a program aimed at improving poor-performing high schools.
State Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, said sparing an agency from cuts but not providing more money than the current budget should not be confused with a spending increase.
"They are creating an illusion that we're moving the state forward, and we're not," Dunnam said.
The governor's spending proposals also will include some increases that he has already endorsed, such as $253 million in state spending for protective services.
Even with the growth in revenue, the Perry and legislative budgets assume that lawmakers will keep many of the cost-saving measures that they put in place in 2003, when they faced a $10 billion budget shortfall. Those measures include reduced payments to school employees for health insurance, a 90-day waiting period for new state employees to receive benefits and a requirement that families re-enroll for CHIP every six months instead of once a year.
Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for low- and moderate-income families, said the state needs billions more in state revenue to provide the same level of services as it did before lawmakers cut state spending in 2003. The state can raise that money only if it finds a new revenue source, such as a tax increase, he said.
While Perry will not provide a line-by-line budget that prescribes spending for every state program, he will submit a plan that is more detailed than what he offered in 2003. That year, in light of the budget shortfall, he submitted a budget full of dollars and said the government should justify every dollar it spends.
$66 million more than recommended by the Legislative Budget Board for student financial aid.
$1.5 million more in state revenue for the Children's Health Insurance Program than the legislative board proposed.
$300 million for an emerging technology fund.
$30 million in incentives for filmmakers to shoot in Texas.
Perry is trying to spend his way to re-election...scared that Hutchinson is going to take him on in the primary.
Texas 79th legislature spending like drunken sailors ping...
I wish they would fix Worker's Comp.
Perry will NOT be getting my vote..no matter WHO runs against him! I would vote for anyone over him..even..ughhh...a democrat!
I heard that Carole Rylander may not run, so Perry has to keep Kay B. Hutchinson off his tail, and there is no better way than to spend more on ridiculous give away itmes like this. RINO Perry.
Perry is what? A Conservative REPUBLICAN?? Really? Could have fooled me! Not a good way to get votes mr Perry.
Just get rid of medicaid mr Perry and while you are at it get rid of CHIPS it isnt working, and get rid of the illegals so there would be no need for CHIPS and medicaid.
or by raising taxes and fees.
Raise taxes, no votes. Thats how that works.
Here's something fun--find the board of directors of the Austin Film Society and do a fundrace.org and newsmeat.com on them...maybe even head over to publicintegrity.org.
Texas taxpayers are donating to Michael Moore and Hillary Clinton...
This really is not "news."
Workers Comp in Texas is a racist organization that highly discriminates against whites. My father died at a job site in 1997. It was August first and on the beach. They had been working 11 hour days for 10 days in a row and he had a heart attack. He was 68 years old. The Hearings Officer and opposing counsel were black women who I caught in an Ex Parte meeting along with the Rep. from the Insurance Co. before the final hearing. During the hearing they would smile at each other and laugh when our witnesses and doctor were testifying. We lost of course and my protestations to the state board were usless. I was warned that this would happen by friends who were more familiar with the process than me. They were right.
Now I am REALLY PISSED!! Do you have any links you could share with me about this?
I'll never forget Ronald Reagan's quip when he compared Democrats spending habits to drunken sailors. "You know, that's really not fair to the sailors - at least the sailors are spending their own money!"
austinfilmsociety.org... they want 1.5M from the US Dept of Commerce for a new studio to play in, to make little movies about how terrible America is. They produce some awful drek, and it's all highly leftist.
Thanks so much for the links! Austin is a hotbed of socialists and Perry is catching the disease!
I don't know exactly what article you wanted, but Gov. Perry proposed $30 million in the new TX budget.
With a fiscally liberal big government agenda like this one let's hope she does
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