Dedicated funds leave $2B Texas budget surplus
AUSTIN - A $10.7 billion budget surplus predicted this week by Comptroller Susan Combs set Capitol-tongues awagging with plans for tax rebates and self congratulations for cultivating such a robust economy.
But the surplus is actually about $2 billion.
The rest is already dedicated: $5.7 billion for the state's Rainy Day Fund, and $3 billion to pay for property tax cuts approved last year.
While $2 billion still sounds like a lot of money, out of that the state will have to pay for an estimated 160,000 new students expected to enroll in the public school system since the last budget was written. That could eat up about half of the remaining surplus.
Add to that inflation, growing costs and enrollment in federal entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid and hundreds of other priorities that will come up when lawmakers convene in January.
To get some perspective, let's let Goodhair tells us what the Republican majority was supposed to mean for Texans. From the 2003 State of the State Address. A blueprint of what has gone wrong over the last 8 years, it should be hang around the neck of every state Republican candidate this cycle. Why this is especially so, I will reveal at the end.
So, I thought, how about some perspective, some accountability on the Guv and the whole Republican legislative majority. What was proclaimed/promised, what was delivered?
Let's let Goodhair tell us...
Project Vote Smart - Governor Rick Perry - Governor Rick Perry's Radio Address - State of the State
"peaker: Governor Rick Perry (TX)
Title: Governor Rick Perry's Radio Address - State of the State
Date: 02/12/2003
My fellow Texans.
This past week, I was proud to stand before a joint session of the Texas Legislature with a confident message that the state of our state is strong.
As a state, we continue to see successes in the classroom, in economic development ,and our push to provide adequate health care for all Texans.
But it's not the state of our state that concerns me.
It's the state of our government.
The fiscal challenges we now face in Austin cannot be blamed on Texas families.
....................
So as state government looks to tackle the fiscal challenges of the future, we must begin by setting clear and limited priorities.
When ends don't meet, Texas families prioritize. Why shouldn't government?
We've already begun to take responsible measures. Because of the dedicated Texans leading our agencies, we are reducing current year spending by 7 percent.
My own office has achieved a 16 percent reduction in its operating budget.
In addition, during my State of the State address I identified more than $9 billion in potential savings to show we can balance our state budget without raising taxes.
Starting from zero, every dollar spent by government must be prioritized.
I know that Texas families don't want,don't need,and don't deserve new taxes.
Slowdowns in the economy usually are temporary. Tax hikes usually are not.
The Texas of a new century must be built on the legacy of centuries past.
Texans have always been bold, pioneering and unrestrained in vision - focused on the far horizon.
As we move forward, let us remember at all times the fundamental principle that guides our actions:
Government should not limit freedom. Freedom should limit government. "
From the vantage point of May 2008, let's look at the Goodhair's claims:
we continue to see successes in the classroom
We have a 33% dropout rate , for starters, and rank between 39 and 49 on numerous other comparative educational metrics.
[strong] economic development
Two stories here: the pandering to corporations has meant a strong corporate presence, but it has NOT translated into a higher standard of living for average Texans. We rank 44th in average hourly income.
push to provide adequate health care for all Texans
Well, if that means, all these years later, ranking first in the number of people without health care, then , I guess that push was successful. Oh, wait, being 50th means you have failed, again.
Then of course, the Guv had to rag on government itself. I mean that is the real source of any and all problems that Texans face. And so the Guv sticks to the script for Republican political rants.
But it's not the state of our state that concerns me.
It's the state of our government
Oddly enough, he acutally has a point here, but not the one he claims. Witness:
Files show abuse, violence at Texas mental hospitals
AUSTIN - More than 70 employees at Texas' 10 state mental hospitals have been fired and dozens others disciplined since 2005 over allegations of brutal beatings and other physical abuse, according to a newspaper report.
Disciplinary records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show the violence against patients included chokeholds, headlocks and threats. Hundreds of other employees have been fired for other violations, including sleeping on the job and overmedicating patients, the records show.
There are about 18,000 patients and about 7,400 employees working in the state psychiatric hospital system.
State officials say there will always be reports of abuse and neglect in an institutional setting. And they say they take any allegations of mistreatment seriously. But the records show that as in other state-run facilities, abuse and neglect are systemic, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Texas juvenile prisons, group homes for the disabled, and state schools for people with mental disabilities all came under fire last year for reports of widespread physical and sexual abuse. The state psychiatric hospitals, like other systems for vulnerable Texans, are chronically starved for cash, advocates of more state funding say, and services at the local level can't keep up.
"You get what you pay for," said state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who has bipolar disorder. "When you financially dumb something down, you make services cheap, something's got to give. Unfortunately, it usually ends up being a mentally ill or disabled Texan.
This is where those priorities the governor spoke of in 2003, come in. If he was truly focused in our the state of our state how could this happen? The litany of incompetent and inept and corrupt appointed state officials is long and damning. It appears to this observer that the priorities the Guv spoke of, had nothing to do with better state government, since we rank 18th in public corruption of the 35 largest states. And that only counts federal corruption statistics.
Now we reach the tax cut mantra, obligatory in all Republican cookie cutter speeches of the last two plus decades.
I know that Texas families don't want,don't need,and don't deserve new taxes.
I already put this dud claim to rest in an earlier posting.
Finally, we have the last of the standard lies claims.
As we move forward, let us remember at all times the fundamental principle that guides our actions:
Government should not limit freedom. Freedom should limit government.
How is that working for you Texas? The US had the highest prison population per capita of any industrialized nation, and we are second among the states behind California. If we are so concerned with protecting our freedoms from government abuse, how come we lead the nation in detected wrongful death penalty convictions? If the Guv thinks that freedom is important and that the citizens should be protected in their freedoms from its overreach and misconduct has this been allowed to happen? Death, as I seem to recall is the ULTIMATE denial of freedom. We have not , of course, even touched on the scandal of coercing guilty pleas on minor cases to make money for the state, and the corrupt system for selecting court appointed lawyers.
So it turns out that freedom from bad government means freedom form regulation for corporations, freedom for those who can afford to use the system ( the recent Perry Homes decision comes to mind), but not much help for the rest of us.
Goodhair's old state of the state address might seem quaint and irrelevant to some, but of course it is not. First , it does give us some points of accountability and clearly Guv and his Republican legislative majority have failed.
Moreover, the very same set of shop worn promises and fake outs were the themes of Craddick more recent rallying cry to the Republican faithful in anticipation of the upcoming elections.
But now you are really for these old lies. The facts deny each claim. They demonstrate that the claims are not only hollow, but that the politicians making them are the worst enemies of the very values they proclaim. In other words, they are hypocrites of the first order. |
