States should understand burdens of unfunded mandates

[white cloud]

Posted: Sunday, March 20, 2011 9:23 pm

None
Midland Reporter-Telegram | 0 comments

Efforts are underway to prevent the Big Spring State Park from shutting down in the wake of budget cuts at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Solutions are hard to come by when the Texas Legislature has decided that everyone gets cuts and everyone suffers the consequence.

The park is on the Legislative Budget Board's list of seven parks that are to be transferred to local governments and municipalities. It's not certain yet just how much money the TP&WD will lose, but budget estimates range from $140 million to $162 million. Under either scenario it doesn't look good for the Big Spring State Park.

http://www.mywesttexas.com/news/opinion/article_4c85848e-e26f-5598-a23b-bf8b0d0c3fa9.html

[sonias]

1. Slash and burn Perry

We do, however, find this issue a bit ironic as Texas goes on the slash and eliminate binge. When President Obama was dishing out stimulus funds during the recession, he left behind a lot of mandated state funding for states that took the stimulus packages.

This was exactly the kind of government funding that Gov. Rick Perry railed against on his re-election campaign. It was a message that Texas voters picked up on, driving Perry back to the governor's mansion for an unprecedented fourth term.

But now the state is doing much the same thing to Texas cities, forcing local governments to pick up the programs or projects once funded by the state. In a way, these are very much unfunded mandates coming out of Austin.

Perry has become quite the master of deception. :mad: And the voters of Texas got what they "paid" for. :shrug:

[AgainsttheCrown]

2. I'm trying to refocus my political lens

So I'm paying more attention to state and local issues than I have in the past, because I realize that we must make a difference locally for anything to matter nationally. (in the long run)

But as I recall there wasn't much reporting on exactly how Perry made it look like we had a surplus prior to the election.

This http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/feb/12/rick-perry/perry-says-texas-has-surplus/">Politifact article rates it as barely true. (If he fudged numbers to cover a shortfall...then that's a lie! And these people won a Pulitzer!?)

What I'm saying is that it's more the media's fault than the voters. Of course voters still are to blame. But if you work full time, then you have to make a great effort to stay informed, because the media either colludes with those in power or is derelict in their duty.

With what's at stake, staying informed should be an easy choice. But our media does not make it an easy task.