Missed Opportunities Of The 80th Legislature: Tax Cuts Put Above Human Needs

[Ed. Note: This is the first in a multi-part series we'll be posting at Capitol Annex this week, "Missed Opportunities Of The 80th Legislature." Today's installment in this post-mortem deals with the adoption of the state budget, House Bill 1, which was adopted last night by both chambers of the Legislature]

Many times during the 80th Legislature, we’ve talked about the “human needs” facing the great state of Texas: record numbers of uninsured children, the mess at the Texas Youth Commission, problems at facilities for the mentally and physically impaired,  a pay raise for teachers, real education reform, skyrocketing tuition rates at public colleges and universities, the health care crisis, high electric rates, and legions more.

The Texas Legislature and its Republican leadership, however, forced all of those human needs to take a seat on the back of the bus as they forced through over-the-top, bogus tax cuts designed for “property tax relief.” This led to many of the biggest missed opportunities of the 80th Legislature.

We began the session with a “surplus.” Although the only reason for that surplus was because of drastic health and human service cuts made by the Legislature in 2003 and 2005, this surplus nonetheless afforded the Legislature the opportunity to right many wrongs of the past. It enabled the Legislature to give a leg up to the children of working-class parents who cannot afford health insurance, give teachers a much-needed pay raise, and more.

In classic form, however, the Texas Legislature, led by its dictatorial Republican Majority and House Speaker Tom Craddick, squandered this opportunity.

Early in the Session, House Bill 2 set aside $14.2 billion to fund over-the-top property tax “cuts.” Never mind that the Republican majority made these cuts more steep than necessary to appeal to their rabid, anti-tax, right wing base when, in reality, they could have spread this out over another session.

Six-point-one billion dollars of this money came from General Revenue, not from the Property Tax Relief Fund which was specifically created for the purpose of buying down the property tax rate.

Property tax cuts was the number-one priority of Governor Perry, Speaker Craddick, Lt. Governor Dewhurst, and the entire Republican majority of the Texas Legislature. Each and every one of these men and women made a conscious decision and concerted effort to put property tax cuts which help the wealthiest of home owners above any and all other needs which faced our state this session.

House Bill 1, the General Appropriations Act, might as well have been considered the scraps left from Cesar’s table in spite of the fact it is the vehicle by which the vast majority of the state’s fiscal needs are addressed.
The very premise of this year’s appropriations process began with a fundamental flaw: Governor Perry’s dictate that all state agencies decrease their budgets by 10 percent.

As a result, each and every state agency was thus at a disadvantage. It meant a long fight to get merely to previous funding levels, much less getting an increase.

Too, the Republican-dominated conference committee on the budget abdicated its awesome responsibilities. In 2003, the conference committee on the
budget met publicly for a total of 57 hours and 44 minutes to hash out differences between House and Senate budgets. The conference committee of the 80th Legislature spent less than 9 hours in conference committee, leaving most of the budget to be written behind closed doors, hindering the public and other representatives from engaging in the budget process.

Inclusive of tax cuts, the state will spend $166.7 billion this session.

While this is a $53 billion increase in funding since the 77th Legislature, fewer children receive CHIP coverage, schools aren’t receiving adequate funding, college tuition is skyrocketing, the poor cannot pay their electric bills, and on and on, in spite of the largest tax hike in Texas history.

The $14.2 billion property tax buy down would have been better spent. Furthermore, the concept of  deciding when and where to cut taxes before laying out general appropriations is a shining example of bad public policy.
In a time where $104 million could be spent nearly anywhere in the budget and have a tangible impact, the conference committee tossed that amount to Texas Governor Rick Perry’s slush fund, the Texas Enterprise fund, and threw another $16.5 million to the Emerging Technology Fund (which, it should be noted, subsidizes a grand total of about nine companies). There are dozens of other uses where this money would have made an impact.

In addition, a whopping $5,653,783 has been appropriated for each year of the budget for abstinence-only education. This is an initiative that is the product of Republicans and religious right. And, it doesn’t work.

In the budget, missed opportunities abound in the area of higher education. Plus, 7,000 fewer students will receive assistance from the TEXAS Grants Program.

Further, the conferees cut the teacher pay raise passed by the House down to  a measly $425 per year.  It is so bogus it is an insult.

In terms of criminal justice, the Conference Committee also dumped all qualifiers for building new prisons meaning that all that is necessary to build a new prison is an okay from the Legislative Budget Board.

Further, much needed funding for the Texas Youth Commission, the single-most troubled agency in the state, was removed by the conferees, going against the initial goals of the Texas Legislative Oversight Committee which hoped to
increase the amount of funding for treatment based facilities and programs at both TDCJ and TYC.

In terms of state parks, another major need, rather than raising the cap on the Sporting Goods Tax, which was favored by 127 members of the House, a rider was tacked on to require TP&WD to conduct an interim study on improving the management of the park system.  Instead of appropriating money, the budget dictates a study. Super stupid.

Bookmark It