a budget that cuts 8,000 state positions,

[white cloud]

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Texas, facing a budget deficit of as much as $27 billion over the next two fiscal years, will propose a budget that cuts 8,000 state positions, according to Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst.

Cutting the workforce will help the state avoid a tax increase, Dewhurst spokeswoman Lauren Thurston said today in a telephone interview. Dewhurst, Governor Rick Perry and Speaker Joe Straus, of the House of Representatives, all said this week that the next state budget wouldn't raise taxes. The cuts may not boost unemployment since most of the positions are vacant.

"This past election showed people do not want their government, ours or the federal government, to be spending more money than they take in," Dewhurst said today on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line." Dewhurst, Perry and Straus are Republicans. The fiscal biennium begins in September.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/13/bloomberg1376-LEZCB90YHQ0X01-5Q2AA6GCOG0S0ILJATLDUPB99L.DTL#ixzz1Aykd9o1W

[sonias]

1. What a way to stimulate the Texas economy - fire 8,000 people

:mad:

[johncoby2]

2. Hopefully that is 8000 teabaggers

[sonias]

3. That would be the only silver lining

If there are state employees that voted for the Texas R crew that won, then they essentially voted themselves out of a job. :(

[TEXASYANKEE]

4. If the state didn't spend more than they took in,

then how did the budget deficit happen? I'm so sick of these conservatives talking about "spending within our means" and all, yet there is a $27 BILLION deficit. How did that happen if the Repub State Congress spent within its means?

[sonias]

5. Enron economics

Trick number one is that they always shove the last quarter of expenses to the next fiscal year. Essentially cheating on what current expenses really are.

Then since they didn't want to deal with cutting and slashing programs last session (2009) they essentially used federal stimulus money from the Obama administration to plug a $14 billion dollar hole. You know how Perry loves to rail on the federal government and Obama on one hand, but his other hand is held out in a gimme some pose.

:eyes:

[sonias]

6. Texas budget proposals call for thousands of job cuts

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Texas budget proposals call for thousands of job cuts

(snip)
The base budgets, House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, will serve as the starting point for shaping spending for fiscal 2012-13 in the face of a multibillion-dollar shortfall. Although Pitts didn't reveal a number, an official for an association that represents state employees said he has been told that proposed job reductions in the House bill could exceed 9,000.

(snip)
About 150,000 people are employed in general state government, and at least 100,000 are employed by higher education. Big agencies such as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which runs the state prison system, are bracing for the loss of thousands of employees. About 10,000 state positions were eliminated in 2003 when lawmakers confronted another severe shortfall.

State Comptroller Susan Combs said Monday -- the day before the start of the 82nd Legislature -- that lawmakers will have $72.2 billion in available revenue for the coming biennium. State agencies say they will need $99 billion to maintain services at current levels, but the Republican leadership and many lawmakers are calling for targeted reductions and possible consolidations of some services to balance the budget without new or increased taxes.

I wish they would cut prison and jail system employees if they reduce prison inmates especially for non-violent offenders. My gut feeling though says they're going to take it out on teachers and public education.

:shrug:

[Lithos]

7. Here in Austin, as you may know, Carstarphen

Is trying to give it to them for free...

[sonias]

8. Zilker vs Barton Hills

I bet what's going to happen is that at least one of the schools really does get closed. They're going to end up combining them. Don't know which one will survive. It is really sad but it is the state of school funding - for which I still put the blame on the state of Texas for failing to fund our schools throughout the state better.

:(

[sonias]

9. Schools Would Not Close In 2011

KUT News 1/13/11
Schools Would Not Close In 2011 (And Other Misperceptions AISD Battles As It Seeks To Sell Closures)

(snip)
Another important misunderstanding, according to task force member Susan Moffat, is the financial underpinning for the district's desperate cash crunch.

"It's very important for people to understand that the architect of our misery is the state legislature," she said. "The school board, the superintendent, they're doing the best job they can, but we're looking at a $54 million hole in our budget because of how Texas finances its public education."

Moffat said the state underfunds education, and leaves property-rich school districts like Austin to subsidize property-poor districts. It was a design developed in response to a Texas Supreme Court ruling that said the state must provide an equitable level of education across Texas.

Austin ISD sent $127 million to the state this school year in Chapter 41 recapture payments, money distributed to other districts with a lower property tax base. But Moffat says the funding system doesn't recognize the unique challenges of an urban district like AISD, where 59 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and a sizeable proportion speak English as a second language.

..."the architect of our misery is the state legislature"... True, true, true!

:kick:

[Lithos]

18. There are several problems which are causing this

First, Perry's game with the Feds over not accepting the monies is causing the immediate crisis. However, other contributing factors include:

- The Property Tax scam from a few years ago - aka the "hot check" that Strayhorn talks about. This is shared between the Lege and Perry.
- The poorly written Robin Hood tax share process which is purely based on property tax values and fails to take into account the wide ranging operational cost differences which also exist between Urban and non-Urban districts. A dollar in Austin does not necessarily go as far as a dollar in Marshall.
- Poor fiscal management inside of AISD. Rather than fix some really bad practices, they are choosing to go directly to the kids here. One other sad truth is that within two years they will be forced to reopen the schools they want to close now because of demographic changes.

So, I see the blame shared as follows

1 1/2 issues to Perry (37.5%)
1 1/2 issues to the Lege (37.5%)
1 issues to AISD itself. (25%)

[kentauros]

10. Okay, I don't understand this part from the second paragraph:

"The cuts may not boost unemployment since most of the positions are vacant."

If most of the positions being cut are vacant, then how is it a cut at all? Unless the money being paid to those vacant positions was actually going somewhere. Otherwise, it should be nothing more than an accounting fix to eliminate a dead-end. Who was getting paid for a vacant position?

[sonias]

11. You're not supposed to understand it

They aren't honest on purpose. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...."

I'm sure there are some vacant positions they won't be filling but do you honestly think there are at least 4,001 of them to be considered a majority?

Plus I think you picked up on the main lie - how if these jobs are vacant now, do we have to cut 8,000 jobs to save money in the budget? We know a budget is just an estimate of revenue and expenses and not the actual factual profit/loss statement, which comes after the fact. The other thing we know is that the current bi-annual state of the state report came in at $4 billion in the red. In other words for the 2 year period ending 2010 the state had $4 billion dollars less than they expended. The state is $4 billion in the hole starting with the new budget. Which is why the budget hole went from the estimated $25 billion to the now $27 billion.

[sonias]

12. Strayhorn finds vindication, but no joy, in shortfall

Houston Chronicle 1/16/11
Strayhorn finds vindication, but no joy, in shortfall

AUSTIN — Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn did not win friends five years ago when she warned Gov. Rick Perry and state lawmakers they were writing the "largest hot check in Texas history" during a tax overhaul that resulted in lower property taxes and a revised business tax.

Strayhorn told them their plan would fall about $23 billion short over a five-year period.

Now, five years later, state leaders are staring at an estimated budget shortfall of nearly $27 billion over the next two years.

The nation's economic collapse three years ago contributed to some of the state's revenue troubles, but the biggest problem is that the new business tax did not generate enough money to pay for the school property tax cut, Strayhorn said Friday.

"I absolutely knew I was telling them straight up as best as I knew," the former comptroller said. "I knew it would be awhile before you would see the results."

Perry and crew are responsible for the whole budget hole starting 5 years ago when they wrote that huge "hot check". Straight from the repuke comptroller's mouth! The one who wrote the check for them!

:kick:

[kentauros]

13. Well, I know they're either lying,

or it's a Freudian slip, and they didn't mean to tell the truth. If the majority really were vacant, then there'd have to be money flowing through them somehow in order for their cut to amount to anything. And thus why I question if money is indeed flowing anyway, like into someone's pockets that isn't in that "vacant" position ;)

Getting rid of the TCEQ would be a good place to start for cuts, though...

[sonias]

14. "Getting rid of the TCEQ"

Bravo!!! Great place to cut unnecessary bureaucracy. Let the Feds do it all since Texas can't seem to do even a half ass good job.

:applause:

[kentauros]

15. Even my very conservative father would agree with that.

I haven't heard him utter an approving word about them, well, ever! I gave him a copy of a Houston Press that talked about their corruption, though I haven't asked what he thought of it.

Whatever became of that Sunset Commission evaluation of them?

[w8liftinglady]

16. My sister and her coworkers were sweating- Texas HHS

She is a biologist who works with infectious diseases(particularly rabies)
They are all afraid health care and disease control will be hit.

[sonias]

17. I would be worried too if I were her

If they aren't really visible an immediately important to the Lege they are vulnerable.

I would hope for the best but I would prepare for the worst if I were her.

:hug: