Texas' State Budget Crisis Looms Larger: Rainy Day Fund $1 Billion Less Than Expected

[white cloud]

While Dewhurst is out spinning lies to cover his and every other Texas Republican's political hide when Rick Perry is rallying against Washington at the same time he's accepting $14 billion to fill a budget hole that he created -- his Senate Finance Chair, Steve Ogden, is actually telling the truth.




http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/9679/texas-state-budget-crisis-looms-larger-rainy-day-fund-1-billion-less-than-expected

[sonias]

1. We're more broke than we expected

AAS 11/30/09
Almost $1 billion less in state’s rainy day fund
(snip)
Every dollar in the rainy day fund matters because that money is seen as key to plugging some of the budget hole that is expected to greet legislators when they return to Austin in 2011.

Legislators kept their hands off that fund when writing the current two-year budget in anticipation of much leaner times down the road.

Federal stimulus money totaling $12 billion helped to make that restraint possible, but those dollars will most likely not be available come 2011.

So you see it's not a 1 billion dollar hole it's actually a 12 billion dollar hole. The R controlled Legislature just punted the problem into the 2011 cycle by using the Obama stimulus money. But none of them want to credit the Obama administration for saving their asses this past session. That would be socialism!


Sonia