Border lawmakers voted differently on the $152.2 billion state budget adopted by the Senate Thursday, though all agreed they would have liked to have seen more money put into key social programs.

The committee substitute to HB 1 was approved by 26 votes to five. It includes more than a six percent increase in spending over the 2005 state budget but approximately $2.1 billion less than the draft budget adopted by the House last month.

“Some of us wanted to spend more. Some of us wanted to spend a lot more. Others wanted to spend a lot less,” said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, vice chair of the Finance Committee.

“I believe the senators from the border all wanted to spend significantly a lot more but the fact of the matter is that we are outnumbered. The Senate comprises 11 Democrats and 20 Republicans, and some of the Republicans are very, very, conservative. All of the Democrats wanted to focus even more on health and human services and education.”

Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, was the sole border lawmaker to vote against the budget. Sens. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, voted for it.

“It’s not a perfect budget, but it’s a very good budget, and it’s making up for a lot of cuts we’ve made in past sessions,” Hinojosa said. “For us in the Valley, we got most of what we requested.”

Shapleigh said the budget reflected the moral values of the state and argued that with an “historic” surplus of $14.3 billion, the Senate should have done more to fund health and human services and higher education, among other things.

He was also angry that $3 billion was left on the table for property tax cuts in the biennium after next, 2010-11. That money could have paid outright the $700 million settlement for the Frew v. Hawkins Medicaid class action lawsuit, Shapleigh said. Instead the money for the settlement was being paid for through across-the-board budget cuts in most agencies.

“$700 million for Frew was taken from school children, university students and mothers wanting CHIP. But none was taken from the money banked in this bill for millionaires,” Shapleigh said.

The budget includes $48 million for the long awaited four-year medical school in El Paso. With the money, Texas Tech University will be able to hire faculty, obtain certification, and open in 2003.

The budget also includes $3 million for expanding programs at the Laredo campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and $2 million for the Student Success Program and a PhD program in business at A&M International University in Laredo.

The budget provides $44 million for a new Texas Department of Public Safety regional headquarters in McAllen and $500,000 for the same agency to build a drug incinerator in Hidalgo County.

Zaffirini said she was “disappointed in some ways” about specific programs.

“If I were Governor of Texas, I would have appropriated $893 million to eliminate waiting lists for health and human services and that certainly would help the border region,” she told the Guardian.

Zaffirini was able to secure $107 million to reduce waiting lists and said she would hard to get an additional $75 million left on the budget’s “wish list” when the bill goes to a conference committee to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions.

“We have the elderly, we have children, we have low-income pregnant women, we have people who are deaf and blind and have multiple disabilities. We have people in nursing homes. We have people who want to move out of state schools. Many of these people are on waiting lists,” Zaffirini said.

The Senate version of the bill also $313 million to pay for the debt service for $1.9 billion in tuition revenue bonds authorized by Zaffirini's HB 153, which was approved in a special session last May.

The debt service money includes $37.6 million for A&M International and $6 million for UT-Pan American's new Starr County Upper Level Center.

“People did not want to include the debt service and people said that we were dreaming. Well, we secured it and that is absolutely major for all the universities. It’s fantastic for the border,” Zaffirini said.

The Senate version also includes $100 million in new money for the Instructional Facilities Allotment, which helps the poorest school districts pay the debt service on new buildings. 

“This is critically important because the low-income districts that will benefit from IFA are mainly along the border region,” Zaffirini said. “I wanted $150 million in new projects. I will keep striving.”

Lucio said he was thrilled the budget included an additional $250 million in general obligation bonds to allow colonias access to water and wastewater services. “We are a step closer to bringing essential water and wastewater services to the most economically distressed areas in Texas,” said Lucio, chairman of the International Relations and Trade Committee.

Gov. Rick Perry had touted a plan to move money away from “special items” in the higher education budget in favor of more performance-based financial aid. Border lawmakers feared that would hurt the South Texas Border Initiative, which provides additional funding for border universities to help them achieve parity with other Texas institutions. The Senate version of the budget largely kept the “special items” intact.

“The budget is balanced; it is conservative and fair," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. “It dramatically increases legislative oversight throughout state government. It is the best budget I have been involved in.”

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the Senate version of the budget funds the state's essential services, while limiting growth in all-funds spending to a modest 3.4 percent per year.

“Like the budgets we've adopted over the past four years, this budget is conservative and will ensure that government doesn't stand in the way of Texas' continued economic growth,” Dewhurst said.

The five voting against the Senate’s version of the budget were Shapleigh, and Sens. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, Chris Harris, R-Arlington, and Mike Jackson, R-Pasadena, and Dan Patrick, R-Houston.