Texas has enough money to pay the bills

The Legislature will have $101.4 billion available for general-purpose spending, $208.2 billion when federal funding and other special-purpose revenue is added, Comptroller Susan Combs said Monday. Those figures are up sharply from the $81.3 billion in General Fund spending and $173.5 billion in all funds in the current two-year budget.

"So what?" might be an apt paraphrase for the responses of Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. For them, the issue is not how much the state has available to spend, but how much it can leave unspent.

"We still need to focus on separating our wants from our needs and continue to follow the conservative fiscal principles that have led to Texas' ongoing success and will keep Texas strong." Perry said.

Dewhurst promised that the Legislature "will once again balance our budget without raising taxes, keep state spending low and get government out of the lives of hardworking taxpayers."

The two have said the session that begins today will be the Legislature's "most conservative." It remains to be seen what that means, but clearly it includes squeezing every dollar. Perry and Dewhurst want to limit budget growth to a percentage no more than the combined percentage increase in population plus inflation.

OK, but the numbers mean Texas can better afford its needs. In the Biennial Revenue Estimate the comptroller is required to deliver before each legislative session, Combs said strong growth in tax receipts will produce net general revenue of $92.6 billion over the next two years, and the state will have $8.8 billion left over from the current biennium. Add another $11.8 billion available in the state's rainy day fund.

There are leftover bills to pay. The current budget allocated almost $5 billion less than what lawmakers knew would be needed for Medicaid payments. And they cut $5.4 billion from education funding.

Squeezing dollars is fine, and it flies well with the political constituencies Perry and Dewhurst are cultivating. But failure to attend to basic needs like proper education funding, when the money is available, would be a tragic mistake.

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