When most of us read that the Texas Senate's budget for the next two years is $182 billion, we probably think, "Omigosh, state spending is out of control. $182 billion is not chump change."

Agreed, but there's more to that number than the digits: The majority of the money comes from something other than the state's general revenues. You know, sales taxes, business taxes and the like. (No income tax here, remember.)

State general revenues supply only $81 billion of the next two-year budget. The rest comes from the feds or dedicated state revenues. Washington will pony up about $65 billion; devoted state taxes, mostly gas taxes, provide the other $30 billion or so.

This year, Washington has really beefed up its share. The Senate budget proposal has the feds kicking in about $13 billion more than they did for Texas' previous two-year budget, the one that will wrap up in September.

That includes stimulus money. Lots of it. The Senate budget contains a long list of items the feds will finance through President Obama's stimulus package. In several cases, that money will take the place of state money.

Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, likens the situation to the feds taking over as the state's employer. We think of it more like a husband taking his wife out for an anniversary dinner and his in-laws stepping in to pay the check.

That's not bad, if you can swing it. But federal money isn't going to bail us out forever. Sooner or later, Texas must own its problems, which the Senate budget doesn't do adequately. Get this: The amount of state money the Senate invests in this budget is essentially the same – or a little less – than the current two-year budget.

The fact is, the state has enough money in its $6.7 billion Rainy Day Fund to meet more of Texas' legitimate needs – in this budget. The accompanying list shows areas where that should happen, from providing Texas campuses the funds to start growing into national research universities to ensuring Texans can finance the next stage of its 50-year water plan.

True, legislators must leave a sizable chunk of the Rainy Day Fund for the budget they must craft in 2011. For complex reasons, the state must spend several billion dollars in that budget on schools or let local property taxes rise dramatically to make up the difference.

Still, Texas faces problems that require attention now. Given what's happening in the economy, you certainly could say it's raining and raining hard.

For that reason, we encourage the House, which next must pass its budget, to do Texans a favor: Put revenues from the Rainy Day Fund into key projects, the kind that will grow Texas in the future. Shortchanging them now will do the state no good down the road.