Texas Senate budget includes billions for tax cuts
The Texas Senate unveiled a first draft budget proposal on Tuesday that includes $4 billion in tax relief for the 2016-17 budget cycle, including $3 billion for property tax cuts and $1 billion for cuts to the business franchise tax.
That is different from the House’s biennial budget proposal, released Jan. 15, which does not yet include tax relief. The two budgets, which will eventually have to be reconciled, include some other key differences. The House’s budget, for example, provides funding for the Public Integrity Unit, currently housed in the Travis County District Attorney’s office, while the Senate’s does not. The Senate budget also defunds the Texas Racing Commission, while the House’s does not.
The budgets include several key similarities, however, including additional funding for more graduate medical education slots and also operations along the Texas-Mexico border. They also both fund enrollment growth for schools and end the diversion of some $1.2 billion in transportation funding, creating more money for roads. (The Senate budget also includes a “one-time dedication” of $1.2 billion from the motor vehicle sales tax to the state highway fund).
State Sen. Jane Nelson, a Republican from Flower Mound who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, noted during a Tuesday new conference that the budget — contained in Senate Bill 2 — spends more than the House budget on transportation.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-senate-budget-includes-billions-for-tax-cuts/njxsH/?ref=cbTopWidget
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