Big surplus dwindles to $2.5 billion for spending; Dewhurst says most of $14.3 billion will pay for property tax cuts
January 24, 2007
Forget the $14.3 billion surplus you've heard about. Lt. Gov. Dewhurst said most of the $14.3 billion in new revenue forecast by Comptroller Susan Combs should go to property tax cuts and other obligations--leaving $2.5 billion for other state needs.
Written by Robert T. Garrett, Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – Forget the $14.3 billion surplus you've heard about, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Tuesday.
The state will have only $2.5 billion to spread across many needs – prisons, parks, border security and higher education – when lawmakers write a two-year budget this session, Mr. Dewhurst said after legislative leaders filed a first draft of the spending plan.
The lieutenant governor said the rest of the $14.3 billion in new revenue forecast by Comptroller Susan Combs should go to property tax cuts and other obligations.
He cited fast-growing school and Medicaid enrollments and said the state also must replenish its fiscal pantry, which he and other lawmakers raided to stave off a $10 billion shortfall four years ago.
"We're all going to have to be very, very careful on how we spend that money," Mr. Dewhurst said.
House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, agreed: "We don't want to spend it all. We want money left over."
The two leaders spoke as the Legislative Budget Board, a group of key lawmakers who track the budget, introduced a $147.6 billion, two-year budget.
Mr. Dewhurst stressed the importance of ensuring that homeowners get promised cuts in school property taxes.
A new state business tax and higher cigarette taxes will fall $6 billion to $7 billion short of paying for the property tax cuts in each two-year budget cycle through 2011, Mr. Dewhurst said. Nearly half of the surplus will be needed to make up the difference, he said.
While some are pressuring key senators to use the surplus to further reduce property taxes or slash the business tax, Mr. Dewhurst said priority should be paying for the tax relief promised last spring.
"When people say, 'Give the surplus back,' that's exactly what we're doing," he said. "We're giving the surplus back in the form of a reduction in local school property taxes."
The surplus also must pay for $4.9 billion in other obligations, he said. They include teacher pay raises, additional funding to improve high schools, population growth, school textbooks, an overhaul of Child Protective Services and catching up on the one-month delay in payments to school districts and health care providers that lawmakers ordered to avoid a deficit in 2003.
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.