After Years of Cost Cuts, Texas Tries to Find More

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

AUSTIN, Tex. — It is hard to overstate the budget-cutting furor that has gripped lawmakers in this capital, where the Republicans who control the Legislature and all statewide offices believe voters sent them an ironclad mandate last year to shrink the size of government.

But the Texas government was already a relatively lean operation after years of conservative fiscal policies. So when the Texas House passed its budget bill last weekend, the depth of the cutbacks necessary for the Republican majority to stick to its promise of no new taxes became clearer. It was not a pretty picture.

The bill would slash $23 billion from the current level of state and federal spending over the next two-year budget cycle — a 12.3 percent reduction that does not take into account rising costs to meet the needs of Texas’s growing population.

In a party-line vote, the House slaughtered dozens of sacred cows. The budget bill makes huge cuts to public education, nursing homes and health care for the poor. It slashes financing for highways, prisons and state parks. It eliminates full-day preschool, cuts teacher incentive pay and reduces scholarships for college students by two-thirds.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/09texas.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[Trajan]

1. Texas - The experminent in conservative social and economic philosophy ....

Already drawing dividends in providing weak job growth with the lowest wages in the nation ....

The faster Texas crawls into that ugly right wing hole, the faster the rest of the nation will learn the lesson and look elsewhere for inspiration ...

GO Texas !

[Igel]

7. Apples and bacilli.

The comparisons tend to be over big things, not details. Apples and oranges are easier to compare.

Texas has a few really big problems. One is unfunded mandates. There are all kinds of things that must be done by counties and school districts. If they don't do them they're fined and punished. The legislature, on the other hand, can ignore the laws dictating that it hand over money to fund things that aren't required.

But it's worse. A lot of what are local taxes in many places have limits placed on them at the state level. In other words, areas that *could* and almost certainly *would* raise taxes locally *can't.* And, if they did, there are robin-hood laws to make them less attractive. The central government wanted control, gave itself control, and now has control--but has decided to abdicate its responsibility to even do what it said it would do.

It works the same at the federal level. There are things that the legislature should do, require themselves to do, but don't do. But the states must do them and must fund them. Again, the federal government gave itself control but has often decided to abnegate its responsibility to do what it said it would do. Even the funded mandates are silly. I watched a presentation in which software costing tens of thousands of dollars was bought for English-language learners with federal funds, use it or lose it. It was pretty bad, and made worse by the fact that the computer labs are limited in number and will receive no expansion or upgrade next year. The only people who praised it were those terrified that they'd be laid off later in the week. It was announced in the meeting that 40 teachers were being laid off, but everybody in the room would keep their jobs. As they exited they *all* threw away the materials they'd been given about this useless software. If they could have used the money as they saw fit they'd have laid off 39 teachers and scrapped the software.

Let's not even discuss burdens imposed by courts. Remove a lot of those geared to make the lives of 2-3% of the student body better and you'd see the lives of the remaining portion of the student body drastically increase.

At least with extensive decentralization comes extensive distribution of authority. Yeah, it creates a lot of unevenness, inequality. But sometimes inequality is better than uniform failing.

People screw things up. Those in power never assume that it's them or theirs that do the up-screwing, and therefore want all power consolidated in their hands. This kind of distrust of others, circling the wagons, imposition of control and authority is very nicely authoritarian. Not very small-d democratic.

[Trajan]

8. Funny ... Things seemed to be OK when the Dems were in power ...

The issue here is : "What happens when conservatives take control of government and implement their policies - Do things get better or worse for citizens ?"

They have been in power for over a decade now, and they have already cut to the bone BEFORE the Great Recession smacked down everybody else .... Now there is little left to cut except bone ...

You see few problems in Texas ? ... fine: Everybody has an opinion .... But the numbers I have seen tell me a less ideal story ....

I am a worker, and I have been since the late 70's ... I belonged to a union, and I worked my way up the 'worker' ladder, and earned benefits and wages that were substantial .. Those wages helped fuel an economic boom that conservatives swore could never exist unless draconian conservative policies were followed .... They are quite wrong .... It was worker wages that helped spark the activity that allowed THEM to get rich ...

So now, in Texas, where conservatives rule, and where their policies HAVE had the opportunity to bear fruit ; They resulted in a decrease in REAL income to workers ... Well ? .... Is Texas a workers paradise yet ?

You can talk all you want about funded versus unfunded mandates (sounds like the 'State's Rights' talk we all recognize) ... But the bottom line is this:

Texas is a laboratory of conservative philosophy, where right wing ideas about economy, taxation and workplace rules have created the very environment in which they now exist - An environment that has degraded substantially for many formerly middle class citizens ...

Shrugs - What do you expect ? .... I think it's sad for those good people in Texas who are decent and only wish a better future for their families, but as long as conservative policies, like those promoted by Phil Gramm, George Bush, Tom Delay, and their Texan ilk, continue to exist as the law of the land, the roost is going to be a tough place for workers, like me, and their families to exist ....

I live in a blue state and have a good job ... I feel quite lucky in that regard ... but I made the effort to make that happen, and it happened ... Lucky me ... I know it could be far worse ... (and it has been at times in my life) .... Nevertheless - Texas is in the grip of a self-induced spasm of consequences formed, primarily, due to conservative policies .... Texan voters allowed this to happen.

Until enough Texan voters recognize their peril and vote AGAINST the numbskulls in the Texas GOP, they will continue to dawdle in that deficient economic environment ... The rich Texans are doing quite well ...

[WatsonT]

14. Indeed, if Texas were more progressive

like say California, there would be no budget crises, like in California.

/this economy is hitting red/blue states. You can't point out the failings of one without acknowledging the failings of others.

[Trajan]

15. California was in stalemate for nearly a decade

With the Governator running the show ... It was hardly a progressive paradise ... To imply that it was is utter nonsense ...

BTW - on a side note : If you don't prefer Progressivism. one might wonder why you spend time on a forum that caters specifically to liberals and progressives ...

The New Deal - Great Society ideas are ideals that we embrace, on the whole .... Yet I get the impression you are not quite as fond as we might be for Liberalism and Progressivism ...

You might as well come clean now ...

[WatsonT]

16. My bad

you're right, California is as far right as they come.

Bunch of inbred redneck gun loving teabaggers out in the golden state.

Thank you for correcting me.

I was also unaware that in California the Governor has absolute authority and acts completely independently of any other elected body. I'm glad most states don't function in this manner.

[No Elephants]

18. Outside of LA, San Fran and a very few others, California is Republican.

[WatsonT]

19. Elections and domestic policies would say otherwise

are we really arguing that California is a conservative state?

Seriously? Step back and think about that for a moment.

[Trajan]

24. We certainly arent going to say they are a progressive state ...

NOT in the 2000's ..... Arnold saw to the destruction of any pretense of Liberality in CA ...

I lived there for 35 years ..... I know what went on ...

I would also point out that George Deukmajian, Pete Wilson, and good old Ronnie Reagan were governors for most of the last 3 decades ....

Again - Let's not pretend CA was operated as a progressive paradise ... It was not ... Your insistence that it was flies in the face of the facts.

You are repeating a RW sound bite, and it isn't going to fly ....

[WatsonT]

34. Compare their rates of taxation/spending

to other states.

They aren't libertarian that's for darn sure.

And I'm not arguing for one or the other.

Actually I rather like federalism, allowing the voters of each state to determine what level of government/taxation they want.

And there are people on the left and right who'd go way to far for my tastes in that regard.

I am merely pointing out the fallacy of blaming budget crises on any particular ideology when states all over the political spectrum are suffering.

Texas isn't liberal, California isn't conservative. And yet they're both in the hole pretty bad.

[Trajan]

35. I am guessing you have lingered here for some time

Without agreeing ... much ...

Nuff said ...

[WatsonT]

36. Well that's a logical retort

[Trajan]

38. I think the meaning is understood ...

and stands un-refuted ....

[WatsonT]

39. You're mistaken

so far it's been my statements that are clear and un-refuted.

[Trajan]

41. Yeah .... and your momma loves you too ...

You claimed the California was a progressive paradise ....

As I alluded to up thread - Since 1943 - The State of California has been ruled by GOP governors for 39.16 years, and 21 years by Democratic governors ....

Do you not understand the numbers ? .... In the last 60 years, California has been controlled for 40 years of rule by REPUBLICANS and 20 years by DEMOCRATS ....

What you preach is a strawman of the state of California .... the same pretense that is promoted by right wing fruitcakes everywhere ...

YOU and them ... saying the same damned thing ... the same lie ....

You have refuted nothing ....

But hey .... Your momma DOES love you .....

(At least I think she does .... )


Now - This is a forum for LIBERALS and PROGRESSIVES .... You apparently need to be reminded of this ....

[WatsonT]

43. 31%

Id themselves as republicans.

Where I'm from that's a minority.

And the budget crises didn't exist 60 years ago, we're talking recent history. Keep up.

You seem to think the governor is the only political power in the entire state. That is false.

And anyone who says a CA republican is the same as say a NE republican is insane.


You're just flat our wrong. All I'm doing is pointing out facts: on spending and taxation CA is to the left. No one with an understanding of the situation can refute that.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

46. Prop 13 and the legislative supermajority requirement for budgets render mostly moot

the progressive inclinations of the state.

Trajan is correct in his assessment.

[WatsonT]

47. Sigh, this is getting silly

people are really trying to argue that California is a far rightwing state? And their refusal to tax people is what caused them to be in this mess.

Is it opposite-day?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

48. Listen carefully and try to comprehend.

The Californian people are generally progressive.

Handcuffs imposed by budgetary processes and initiatives make enacting those progressive tendencies difficult.

I repeat: Handcuffs imposed by budgetary processes and initiatives make enacting those progressive tendencies difficult.

Therefore, while CA is generally progressive, it's fiscal policies tend to be more conservative.

I repeat: Therefore, while CA is generally progressive, it's fiscal policies tend to be more conservative.

The budgetary crisis in CA is due to the intransigences of it's budgetary process rather than it's political preferences.

[WatsonT]

49. I didn't want to have to do this but here goes

it's time for pictures:







Notice any sort of trend there, RE tax rates?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

50. And I didn't want to have do this:

:rofl:


The Tax Foundation is a conservative organization masquerading as non-partisan. That notwithstanding, even your suspect charts prove my point rather than yours.

Sales and Gas taxes are regressive (read: conservative) and CA's rates are higher than most because the restrictive nature of the aforementioned budgetary handcuffs (you remember me mentioning that, right?) make them one of the few revenue sources available to the legislature.

Secondly, :rofl: according to your "logic" and charts, AL, AR, AZ, IN, FL, NV, NC and TN are progressive paradises.


:rofl:

[WatsonT]

51. Tax rates are a matter of public record

A source can be biased and present them accurately. In fact it'd be pretty easy to disprove.

And all those states you reference might be higher than average in one or another area, but they aren't near the top in all three. I think you suffer from reading comprehension issues.

And raising taxes is typically not seen as a conservative issue. If you can reference current republicans who have run on raising taxes . . . ?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

53. Name a current Republican who overcame a budgetary "crisis" without raising taxes.

Your hero, Reagan, raised them 10+ times.

[KamaAina]

52. Funny how they don't throw up a map for property taxes

thanks to dear old Prop 13, ours are artificially low. And that revenue has to be madde up somewhere.

[saorsa]

32. My state may be blue but we are hogtied in red RW ribbons

the minority Republicans have been able to control CA' s progressive aims for years. The first snips below are from an article by Peter Schrag, from a discussion before our last election in November, I believe, about whether the Tea Party would like to focus on CA. I think the gist of Mr. Scrag's response is: right now they don't need to.....

But because the state constitution requires super-majority votes to pass budgets or raise taxes, the Republican minority holds effective veto power over crucial parts of state policy that’s greater than its numbers would otherwise allow.

Year after year in the past decade, the resulting budget gridlock in Sacramento has been resolved by borrowing billions and fudging enough to push an ever-larger deficit to future years -- and thus, as the metaphor goes, “kick the can down the road.” Republicans in the U.S. Senate leverage their minority power in a similar way with the filibuster.
In that respect, too, California has been ahead of Washington. Which is to say that, as in so many other things, California isn’t out of the Tea Party process; it has pioneered it. The organizer of the national Tea Party Express campaigns, Sal Russo, is a veteran California political operative based in Sacramento.

For voters in California, with its 12.4 unemployment rate, the main concern is almost certainly jobs, as it is in much of the country, rising university tuition, sharp cuts in school spending and the gridlocked Legislature’s chronic inability to pass a budget, with is now nearly three months overdue.

It’s an institutionalized Tea Party process that’s been on the books for nearly a century. And because initiatives inevitably limit legislative discretion, they make government itself increasingly hard to manage, frustrating voters even more.

This year again, a considerable part of what would be regarded as the Tea Party agenda is on the ballot: sharp limits on fees and other state actions and suspension of a model air pollution control law.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/09/21/where-are-the-angry-california-voters/californias-been-there-done-that



and there is this article from Mr. Schrag in the Sacramento Bee from 3.29.11:

Still, there are eerie similarities between Brown '11 and Obama '09: the unreasoning faith in the conciliatory, collaborative approach; the expectation that the appeal to reason, compromise and bipartisanship would be reciprocated; the unabashed exercise of disproportionate power by a rigid political minority against a newly elected chief executive; the unembarrassed willingness to use supermajority requirements – by way of the filibuster in the U.S. Senate; the two-thirds constitutional tax-vote provision in California – to block the majority.

In the past week or two, the most fashionable explanation for Brown's problems is that, for all his experience, he simply wasn't prepared for the latter-day nastiness in Capitol politics.

So far Brown and the Democrats have slashed billions in vital programs, many of them serving the neediest among us, and so far they've gotten nothing.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/03/29/3510304/has-brown-let-himself-become-obama.html#ixzz1J4NiBNwB

Because CA is so big, and therefore it must not be allowed to progress too far, the Right Wing has been quietly at work here for years now, while many of our mellow sleepy fellow citizens let it ride year after year. I guess it will take poor kids and seniors or disabled begging in the streets before we finally repeal the rule requiring a 2/3 majority to raise taxes on corporations or the rich.....

[shanti]

54. fortunately

most californians live in those areas, and there are plenty of dems elsewhere! this is not a repuke state at all.

[jmowreader]

28. If California was more progressive,

there wouldn't be a budget crisis.

California got hit with three major catastrophes: Proposition 13, Enron and Ronald Reagan in the governor's mansion for eight years. Use the Wabac Machine to keep those three things from happening and California would be a far better place today.

[Dark]

29. Cali's problem is that it has insanely low property taxes and has since reagan.

The state wants to govern like socialists but tax like ibertarians. Also, until recently, the legs needed two thirds to pass a budget, and still needs two thirds to enact taxes or fees.

As such, the state missed out on the boom of the past decade. Also the courts block most cuts

[MrTriumph]

20. Sadly, no. Texas Dem.s gave us utility deregulation. Now our rates are very high.

x

[Trajan]

23. Texas Dems gave you a conservative economic policy

Let's not call utility deregulation a liberal policy ... Liberals were dead set against repeal of PUHCA ...

Dems in Texas would might be similar to Republicans in other states ...

[louis-t]

2. You're watching 'Texas Returns to the Stone Age'.

Here on the History Channel.

[Angry Dragon]

3. It is a Fifty State Race

50 contestants are trying to outdo each other to see who can be first in the race to the bottom
and the bottom keeps on shifting lower...............

[tsuki]

4. How are they going to pay for one of the highest incarceration

rates in the world by slashing financing for prisons. I am surprised that the chronically fearful Teabaggers would allow that cut.

[Sailing]

6. Many prisons here are...

already privatized. Paying inmates 12 cents a day to make the stuff you don't realize you are buying.

[theoldman]

5. But, but, but, Mr Good Hair said that Texas did not have an economic problem.

For years I heard him say that Texas was solvent due to his great leadership.

[somone]

9. And the fucker is getting $10,000 a month in rent and maintenance for his fancy rented home

[Javaman]

44. Jackass helmet head perry got a pass because the depth of the deficit wasn't

known until "after" the election.

Funny how that works, huh?

[Corruption Winz]

10. Everything's bigger in Texas... including the size of the jackasses in charge. n/t.

[n2doc]

11. They are facing the consequences of 16+ years of repub rule

Sorry about the kids, they couldn't vote. Sorry about the poor, we disenfranchised them. Sorry about the stupid, we duped them. Actually not too sorry about that last group....

[quakerboy]

12. so if they cut Texas education enough

does that mean they will have to stop buying text books, and therefore lose their massive control of what texts are produced?

[Javaman]

45. They will just make them pictures only...

after they put through this massive cut in education, in a few years, no student will know how to read.

[Bluesbreaker]

13. Recipe for happiness

Seeing Abilene in my rear-view mirror. Good luck to the progressives who stuck around to battle the forces of evil.

[TygrBright]

17. oo! oooo!! I know one, I know one!!!!

How about they eliminate the lege and cut the Goob's job to ten hours a week?

helpfully,
Bright

[Jakes Progress]

21. Get ready for it. It's the model for the neocon government

that the republicans and the neo-dems are leading the rest of the nation towards.

I've lived here all my life. The state used to be full of good-hearted, kind people. Now they are mean and scared and greedy.

I want to blame all the yankees that moved here but, hey my ancestors started out in Philly in 1740 so I can't complain. I remember a story that a fellow teacher told me a couple of years ago. She was traveling in New England and was struck by how kind and helpful the people were, because the meme in the south is that they are all cold and nasty. She told a waitress one morning how she was struck by how nice the people were because the yankees that she knew back home were sort of unpleasant. Without skipping a beat, while pouring the coffee, the waitress came back with "That's because we sent all out assholes down there. Where do you send yours?" Just as fast, my friend replied: "The White House."

[Lorien]

26. I'm from Ohio and now live in Flori-duh. It's not just a North/ South thing

the whole Country is playing a game of "who can become the greediest, meanest, and most ignorant prick around". Even some of my liberal friends have started spouting GOP talking points in the past few years. I don't want to even guess at how low society will go; I'm afraid that we're still far from the bottom. :-(

[Jakes Progress]

30. I guess that is what is meant when they say the country is in limbo.

Back in the sixties, the game of limbo had a motto "How low can you go".

[caseymoz]

22. Let's sit back and watch the booming Texas economy.

Let's see what happens to the aged, to the disabled, to the homeless, to the pupils, to the unemployed, to highways, to the prisons and the state parks, etc.

Yes, with a smaller government, the Texas economy should be poised to boom now.

So, let's see it happen and how long Texas can stand being that filthy rich. They've been buying fantasies about small or no government for 40 years, now let's see how the reality sits with them.

[Taverner]

25. Do any of these fuckwads understand it costs money to operate a government?

I mean, it really does! Doing security at airports, building highways, finding fugitives, starting wars where we're not welcome - that shit costs money!!!!!

[Lorien]

27. And that it takes money to make money. nt

[Taverner]

40. Exactly. That's the mantra of any sales organization worth their salt.

[truthisfreedom]

31. Can't go taxin' them rich oil billionaires to pay for frivolities like edyakayshun.

Texas don't need no stinkin' lernin'.

[hadrons]

33. Texas' budget is a basket-case ....

The majority of people down there just flat-out believe in these wack-job policies ... California's budget is in awful shape, but its at least somewhat understandable: they want progressive policies, but they don't want to pay for it (I know they need 2/3 from the state leg. to pass a tax increase, but the voters always vote down tax/fee increases to fund their propositions.) I can understand the "free rider" impulse, but most people of California are just being cheap, but there not diluted like in Texas.

[BumRushDaShow]

37. Fail. n/t

[hatrack]

42. Maybe they can cut back on fire protection & emergency services . . . .

Wouldn't surprise me if they did.