Reply #2: An article on the budget trickery part [View All]

[sonias]

AAS 9/28/11
Budget trickery worsens in shortfall year

Less than a year ago, we learned a revenue shortfall would leave Texas $27 billion short of the money it would need to continue then-current services and programs. About six months later, the Legislature left Austin with lawmakers able to claim that they had balanced the state budget without raising taxes.

In a report released this week, Comptroller Susan Combs illustrates the trickery that legislators and Gov. Rick Perry used to get there. That's because lawmakers assess fees under the guise that they will be used for a specific purpose — to help low-income residents pay electric bills, for instance — but then leave much of that money unspent to balance the state budget.

Combs' report shows the problem is getting worse. The state will leave $4.9 billion unspent in its dedicated accounts over the next two years, up from about $4.1 billion in the previous budget.

The unspent balances include $851 million that comes from fees on electric customers and is supposed to help low-income Texans defray their utility costs, $654 million meant to improve air quality and $388 million in an account for improving trauma facilities and emergency medical services. Technically, these dollars don't get spent on other programs. But by sitting there unspent, they allow the state to show on paper that it has enough money to pay for the amount it budgets for education, health care and other high-cost programs.

Passing the hot check further on down the road. :eyes:

And shafting the programs those funds were meant to address. :mad: