The widening recession could put a damper on Gov. Rick Perry’s plans to spend more than $134 million to beef up security along the Texas-Mexico border, legislators said.

Although a proposed state budget passed by the Texas Senate last week exceeds that request by nearly $3 million, lawmakers may have to scale it back based on revenue estimates due this month.

"Many of us are fearful that we’re going to see a negative revenue estimate," said state Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville. "Those that have been so sure we’ve escaped the national recession need to wake up and smell the coffee."

The governor previously asked the Legislature to fund more equipment purchases, overtime for state and local officers, and gang prevention programs that would combat drug smuggling organizations and transnational gangs over the next two years.

But that call came before Texas Comptroller Susan Combs announced in January that budget writers would have nearly $10 billion less to work with this year than they did two years ago.

She blamed the decline on sinking sales tax revenues, higher unemployment and instability in the state’s housing and auto sales markets.

Senate budget writers were only able to fund most existing state programs and the governor’s border security request this legislative session because of an influx of funds from the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, said state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is responsible for drafting the spending proposal.

The $16 billion in stimulus funds Texas received helped fill gaps that could have led to cuts in state services, he said. Overall, the money helped push the Senate’s proposed budget to 7 percent more than the spending plan passed in 2007.

"We were very fortunate," Hinojosa said. "But it’s a one-time infusion of money. We’re concerned because we may have to extend some services."

Border spending plan

The proposed $182 billion budget passed Thursday contains $32.4 million to pay overtime at the Texas Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies, $7.05 million for an additional 56 state troopers along the border and $6.5 million to create a border-wide crime mapping and surveillance system that could influence decisions on how best to allocate personnel and resources.

Additionally, the proposal contains $3.4 million for the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife — which has noted an increase in recent smuggling activity along state beaches and recreational land — and $500,000 to expand gang intelligence investigations within the state’s prison system.

An additional $23.6 million in economic stimulus funds will be devoted to law enforcement along the border.

Now, the Texas House is expected to take up its budget-writing process, days before the comptroller’s office is set to release updated revenue estimates. Oliveira, who serves on the state Legislative Budget Board, expects that report to be direr than the one issued earlier.

Border security, like every other appropriations request, will have to undergo heavy scrutiny before a final budget is passed, he said.

Spending money right

The possibility of cutbacks comes amid a slew of recent reports that have questioned how state agencies used the $110 million border spending package passed in 2007.

Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas reported that 11 of the 40 law enforcement agencies to receive funds under the initiative used the money to subsidize day-to-day police work, rather than focusing their efforts on organized crime and drug-related activity.

Those findings were followed a day later by a study from the state auditor’s office, which detailed how money allocated for equipment purchases on the border had been spent in other parts of the state.

"We need to be not only measured in how we’re spending, but also make sure we’re spending it well," Oliveira said. "We have to take care of the front line first."