Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Hi Guys:

Here’s a great piece by SAEN. All of these cuts will most massively affect—you guessed it—El Paso.

Massive cuts were predicted by your humble Senator when he called the Craddick//Perry tax scheme a “Giant Texas Tax Shift”. Swapping property taxes that fund schools, for risky business income taxes that have never been collected, resulted in exactly what we predicted—additional property tax burdens to El Paso homeowners mostly at schools struggling so hard to keep class size down---all because state leaders flunked the test of solving school finance in Austin.

Texas lawmakers are expecting to find a hole in the state budget — anywhere from $11 billion to $17 billion, maybe even more — when they return to Austin a year from now. That’s the worst forecast since 2003, when they responded to a $10 billion shortfall with cuts in major programs and hikes in various fees. “[They] had a very tough time, and they managed it," says Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs, the state's chief financial officer. [In 2011] I am expecting the Legislature, with 181 smart men and women, to come up with something.”

Here in Texas, tax cuts are king. Over the last few sessions, reforms to school finance focused on reducing property taxes—not better funding for public schools. In the end, school property tax rates were cut by 33 percent, the revenue base shifted to more regressive consumption taxes, and all new revenue was dedicated to more tax cuts—not schools. Now, built into the upcoming budget is a structural deficit of $5.8 billion by 2010-11.

"It's simply political fiction that stimulus dollars were necessary to balance our budget." - Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, Austin American - Statesman, October 21, 2009."

"In order to balance the budget this biennium, which is $182 billion, we used $14 billion in federal stimulus money to balance it." - Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Senator Steve Ogden (R - Bryan), Fort Worth Business Press, October 19, 2009."

"It's simply political fiction that stimulus dollars were necessary to balance our budget." - Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, October 21, 2009.

"In order to balance the budget this biennium, which is $182 billion, we used $14 billion in federal stimulus money to balance it." - Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Senator Steve Ogden, October 19, 2009.