Texas budget chief: Shortfall at least $11 billion

[sonias]

Postcards from the Lege 3/8/10
Texas budget chief: Shortfall at least $11 billion
Texas’ economy seems to have turned a corner, but the improvement won’t be enough to avoid a significant shortfall next year, top budget officials said Monday.

John Heleman, the comptroller’s chief revenue estimator, said Texas is beginning to add jobs, and he expects sales tax collections to pick up later this year.

(snip)
The state’s sales tax revenue collection is an important indicator of Texas’s fiscal health because that money fills more than half of the state’s general revenue fund.

Even so, the state’s budget shortfall is expected to be $11 billion at a minimum and could reach as high as $15 billion, John O’Brien, the executive director of the Legislative Budget Board, told the House Appropriations Committee.

Well when is Perry going to talk about the big budget hole? Among the problems "higher than expected employee health care costs". So little Ricky, what ya gonna do? The people of Texas are waiting.

If I were in White's campaign, I would pounce on this budget number today! Hit Perry fast and keep pounding him.

:kick:

[sonias]

1. Social services short $1.6 billion, chief says

Trailblazers Blog DMN 3/8/10
Social services short $1.6 billion, chief says
It's well known that last year, lawmakers low-balled caseload growth and health care inflation in Medicaid. Suehs said he got money to cover a 3.4 percent growth in the rolls in the current fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31. Instead, enrollment will increase by 11 percent, he said. Many more poor Texans who didn't turn to Medicaid in the past, even though they were eligible, are now enrolling, he said.

"Based on caseloads, we're showing a $1.5 billion shortfall," Suehs said, actually understating it by some $65 million. Of that, almost $1.3 billion was Medicaid-related shortfalls.

The good news? Without federal stimulus money, which boosted the feds' Medicaid matching rate through this calendar year, Suehs' shortfall would be nearly twice as big.

Goodhair caught a break when Obama's administration bailed him out. That $14M federal stimulus package helped but the shortfall. What will little ricky do now? Oh I suppose the first thing to do is blame to poor. Just wait for it....

[hobbit709]

2. You know what Ricky's answer will be.

No taxes and screw the needy.

[sonias]

3. I'm with you

It's the http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=180x63031">same frame DeLay is already doing about the unemployed. They're not working because they don't want to find a job. Oh like living on unemployment is such a cushy place you would never want to leave it. :sarcasm:

If you provide free health care to people, why they won't take care of themselves. And they will just keep going to the doctor for free visits! :crazy:

[sonias]

4. White strikes while the anger is hot

PoltiFact Check 3/8/10
"There's almost 1 million Texans who are unemployed and that's an all-time record number in our state."
Bill White on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 in a speech

White says almost 1 million people are unemployed in Texas — a state record
Former Houston Mayor Bill White, who won the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday, wasted no time attacking Gov. Rick Perry's legacy.

(snip)
"Rick Perry and his consultants and his insiders will take credit for all the good times in Texas," White said. "But they won't take responsibility for the fact that today, there's almost 1 million Texans who are unemployed and that's an all-time record number in our state."

The gauntlet is thrown. Do the jobless numbers back White up?

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, more than one million people lost their jobs in January, but that includes seasonal employees who were laid off after the holidays. The seasonally-adjusted data shows that 996,863 were unemployed — about 3,000 shy of 1 million. That number has been increasing steadily since early 2008.
(snip)
White is correct that the number of unemployed Texans — almost 1 million — is an all-time high. We rate his statement as True.

No lie - Perry is one of the worst Governors of Texas - ever! Plus he lies!



Good job Bill White!

[sonias]

5. White Starts the Argument

Texas Tribune 3/9/10
2010: White Starts the Argument

Democrat Bill White said he won't rely on "Soviet-style budgeting" and "hot air politics" if he's elected governor, and said the state should make education its first priority and would be better off with a governor who's got business experience when it comes to economic development.

In a wide-ranging interview at the Tribune's "TribLive" event this morning, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee said the state has work to do to stay ahead of "dark clouds" on the horizon in education and economic development and other areas. He criticized Republican Gov. Rick Perry as a divisive chief executive who wastes more time campaigning and "railing about things he can't control" than he does working on state problems like education and controlling dropout rates and making college more affordable. "Leadership is not dividing people into teams… leadership is finding common ground," White said.

The candidate said education would be the state's top priority if he's elected, and said Perry is understating the number of students who drop out of high school every year. "We should treat someone dropping out of school as an emergency, like we treat a broken leg," White said.

He said the state needs a long-term plan to promote excellence in education, expanding Texas Grants, making school more affordable and making the schools themselves more productive and efficient. "Don't tell me there aren't some people who haven't retired on the job," he said. The state can't afford to "export" its best students to out-of-state schools like the University of Georgia, Oklahoma, and LSU, he said. "We ought to be importing people who are better educated," he said. The state should combine limits on increases in tuition with commitments to provide adequate state funding to offset costs, he said.

"This is a great state, but there's dark clouds on the horizon if we don't train and educate our people," he said.

:kick:

[onestepforward]

6. White is really big on education.

I remember seeing him on the news a few years ago with a group of people going door-to-door of students who dropped out of school and trying to encourage them to return.

[sonias]

7. And he's absolutely right

Without education the general populace doesn't stand a chance. You can't get a good paying job and without a job and no health insurance practically without a job either. Education is the key to our well being.

Of course the republicans want to keep education only available to the elites and keep everyone else at the bottom - cheap labor. It's the stupidest economic plan ever.

And a college education is already on the verge of being un-affordable for the middle class. The Rs like that just the way it is too. :grr:


:hi: onestepforward

[onestepforward]

9. An educated populace

also helps to attract high quality and good paying jobs to an area.

:hi:

[WolverineDG]

8. And a lot of the surplus went the great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup nt

[sonias]

10. It was for the children, dg

Too bad they didn't give a rat's ass about those poor kids being separated from their mothers for no good reason. I bet some of those kids still have nightmares and trauma about that incident.

Meanwhile the Rs try to force sonograms on women making a decision to terminate a pregnancy. Not that they give a rat's ass about the child should it be born. In the words of Senator Bunning "tough shit" kid.

[WolverineDG]

11. they do

but hey, the boys got to roll onto the Ranch with all their toys & tanks & rifle through women's underwear drawers, so it must have been worth it. :eyes:

White has GOT to win....we need someone SANE at the wheel.

dg

[mbperrin]

12. What about the $7 billion or so in the Rainy Day Fund?

It's not raining? Or these bastards just LIKE to make things tough on the citizens of Texas?

[sonias]

13. They're going to have to use it no doubt

But they will still bring their chopping block axe as well.

[sonias]

14. Perry pot calling the kettle White

DMN Trailblazer's blog 3/11/10
Perry pot calling the kettle White

Rick Perry's campaign is gleefully passing around remarks about the projected shortfall in Houston. Mayor Annise Parker, who recently replaced Bill White, said the city budget woes mean cutbacks and possible furloughs.

"For years now, we have spent more money than we have taken in. You can't spend more than you earn. It is a very unbusinesslike approach to running things," Parker said in explaining the city's $110 million shortfall. The Perry folks sent out an email blast to make sure it was well seen.

But the truth is that the state under Perry faces the exact same problem -- an $11 billion budget hole. But this huge problem was seen years ago when the state cut school property taxes (under court order) and then raised business taxes to make up the difference. Problem is, it didn't. Lawmakers and the governor knew at the time that the new business tax wouldn't raise the same money as the lost property tax revenue. They also knew that Legislatures long into the future would have to deal with an ever-widening budget hole caused by the tax swap. Yup, I see some roosting chickens.

:kick: