Texas Public Policy Foundation on Local Government Debt and Transparency

This afternoon, we attended the Texas Public Policy Foundation's forum on Local Government Transparency and Debt; the following are from our notes.

James Quintero, director of TPPF's Center for Local Governance, spoke first:

• Texas currently has $192 BILLION in principle and 96 BILLION in interest in local government debt outstanding.

• Living beyond our means only works for a limited period of time.

• 83% of total public debt in Texas is local.

• Local Government debt has risen approximately 40% faster than inflation plus population growth in the last decade.

• Sources of Debt:
• School Districts -- $63.6 BILLION
• Cities -- $62.9 BILLION
• Special Purpose Districts (eg. Hospital Districts or MUD's) -- $48.6 BILLION
• Counties --$13.3 BILLION
• Community Colleges -- $4.3 Billion

• Texas currently has the 14th highest property taxes in the United States; to get a handle on that, we have to get a handle on local government debt.

• Local government debt is a long-term threat to the Texas Model.

• Positive state policy decisions don't filter down to the local level.

• How to fix it:
• Public Awareness
• Ballot Box Transparency
• Online Transparency
• Local Government Debt Limits

Bennet Sandlin, Executive Director of the Texas Municipal League, spoke next:

• Led off by passing the buck to the state government.

• Local governments get the bulk of their money from property taxes; State gets it from sales....

• A big chunk of property taxes go to schools.

• Taxpayers get a "good bang for their buck" from municipal governments
• Keep in mind, school and special purpose districts AREN'T INCLUDED in these numbers; while this is a money-laundering shell game, Sandlin still makes a decent point regarding the expenditures of municipal governments narrowly defined.

• Special Purpose districts are the biggest driver of debt growth.  They grew by 244% from 2007 to 2011.  Unfortunately, in 2011 the clowns in the Republican leadership of the Texas Legislature exempted special purpose taxing districts from tracking.

• Sandlin argued that everything that happens in local governments (except schools) should be handled by cities, not special purpose districts; we tend to agree.

Pam Waggoner, President Leander ISD:

Leander ISD has one of the highest debt loads in the state, which Waggoner's only noted in passing.  Her presentation moved extremely quickly and involved a lot of complicated numbers that made our eyes glaze over.  Personally, we think this was her strategy.

Representative Dan Flynn (R - Canton)

• Local government debt is as big a threat to our economy as debt at the Federal level

• His bill was killed in Calendars.

• The permanent school fund has guaranteed more debt that cash on hand.

• 20 school districts in Texas owe over $2 BILLION

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Kudos to TPPF for taking on this growing economic threat!!!

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Update: TPPF has pictures from the event here; TXTrendyChick was the photographer.

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Truth about Local Government Debt in Texas

Over at City Journal, Steve Malanga has a fantastic primer on local government debt in Texas:

While Texas’s state government debt is relatively modest—just $40 billion, or $1,577 per resident—local government debt is more than four times higher: $192 billion. That’s $7,505 per capita, according to Combs’s report—the second-highest sum in the nation, behind only New York’s municipalities and far ahead of third-place California’s. Over the last decade, moreover, local debt has increased 144 percent, much faster than the rate of population increase plus inflation.

Some of this debt stems from voters’ willingness to spend their prosperity on municipal-finance baubles, bangles, and beads. In Texas, that means huge expenditures by local school districts on athletic facilities. When I attended a legislative conference in Texas last summer, the talk was all about the $60 million high school stadium just opening in Allen, a Dallas suburb of 83,000 residents. The 18,000-seat facility, which boasts a massive, high-definition TV screen, was built with funds from a $119 million bond offering in a state where high school football is a consuming passion.

....

Not surprisingly, debt owed by public school districts constitutes the biggest chunk of the state’s soaring local obligations. Over the last decade, it has increased 155 percent, even as the state’s student population has grown just 21 percent. And the fastest-growing part of Texas school budgets is debt service, which has gone up by 126 percent in ten years, to $5.5 billion. Payments on debt now constitute 10 percent of school spending, up from 7 percent a decade ago.

Debt is also growing rapidly among the state’s 81 retirement systems for local-government workers. Not only are these systems poorly funded; it isn’t even clear how much some owe, since they haven’t disclosed the financial information necessary to verify their financial position, even to state oversight officials. After an extensive survey of municipal pension systems, Combs determined that none of the local plans was fully funded and that only 19 percent had 80 percent of the funds on hand to meet future obligations.

....

Facing this growing debt load, some state officials are urging reform. Combs worries that residents don’t understand how much debt is piling up. She advocates greater transparency and has proposed that ballot initiatives seeking voter approval for new debt include comprehensive information about the obligations that government already owes. She has also pushed for laws limiting government uses of the types of debt that don’t require voter approval. [Emphasis Ours]

 In a separate piece, Malanga details common shenanigans:

As in Cook County, so many different levels of government in Texas can issue debt that taxpayers, bewildered by the complexity of it all, let overlapping districts keep on borrowing. As an example, Combs describes how the residents of a single Houston block must repay debt incurred by the county, the city, the city’s school district, and Houston Community College, among other entities. “I went to dozens of town hall meetings around the state, and when I asked, not a single member of the public knew just how much people in their towns were on the hook for,” she says.

Texas, like New York, amassed all this debt by pushing the limits of the law. Though taxpayers must approve most government borrowing, Texas provides an exception for localities that need to issue debt quickly: a “certificate of obligation,” borrowing that doesn’t require approval unless 5 percent or more of local voters petition to have a say on it (a rare occurrence, since most don’t even know that they have that power). Since 2005, Texas localities have issued nearly $13 billion worth of these certificates, often for dubious ends. In 2010, for instance, Fort Worth borrowed nearly $35 million through certificates of obligation to build a facility for horse shows.

Texas school districts have made use of another controversial financing technique: capital appreciation bonds. Used to finance construction, these bonds defer interest payments, often for decades. The extension saves the borrower from spending on repayment right now, but it burdens a future generation with significantly higher costs. Some capital appreciation bonds wind up costing a municipality ten times what it originally borrowed. From 2007 through 2011 alone, research by the Texas legislature shows, the state’s municipalities and school districts issued 700 of these bonds, raising $2.3 billion—but with a price tag of $23 billion in future interest payments. To build new schools, one fast-growing school district, Leander, has accumulated $773 million in outstanding debt through capital appreciation bonds. [Emphasis Ours]

 Both pieces are worth reading, here and here.

(h/t American Spectator)

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Texas Water Boondoggle would legalize Book Cooking

Another must read piece from Agendawise on the water boondoggle:

[T]he constitutional amendment is designed to keep $2 billion of water funding from counting against the spending cap.

During the 83rd Legislature legislators would not treat as a real priority, by addressing it out of general revenue, the so-called “water crisis”.

Instead, legislators created a replenishing $2 billion water bank that busts the spending cap. They weren’t willing to either spend the money or pass a legalized cooking of the books themselves. Like a hot potato, they passed it on to us.

....

This is more boondoggle than crisis.

This amendment is set up so that the money will only be spent if the cooking the books is legalized. They don’t want to be seen busting the spending cap. That’s how much of a real “crisis” this water crisis is.

....

What’s driving this?

The Texas ruling class wants badly to raise taxes. Under Straus’s watch, every time tax hikes become a conversation, gambling expansion is put up as an alternative, even though the idea that gambling is a net revenue enhancer is going the way of the dodo bird.

Since Texans so strongly demand fiscal responsibility, two things are needed by the ruling class to sanitize talk about a new tax: create a crisis and deplete the Rainy Day Fund so that taxes are the only crisis-fixer.

 Read the whole thing here.

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Travis County Taxpayers Union announces August 13th Moneybomb!!!

The ongoing saga of the Austin ISD lawsuit continues:

If we can take this case to the third Court of Appeal, we can win. The law is on our side. If we win we will, at a minimum, save taxpayers $500 million; this lawsuit, however, could restrict financial shenanigans that local governments can pull across the state of Texas.

Unfortunately, lawyers cost money; we need to raise $6000 to keep our guy out of the poorhouse as the appeal works through the system.

Normally, in politics, you need large sums of money to make things happen. Not this time. This $6000 investment on the front end could save taxpayers in Austin Hundreds of Millions of Dollars and (in a best case scenario) could save BILLIONS across the state.

 Pledge your support here.

Join the Facebook event here.

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History Lesson: The Texas Water Boondoggle of 1968

The more things change, the more they stay the same:

Politicians and engineers have long come up with grandiose plans for moving water from one place to another....[including]...Texas' biggest water boondoggle to date – the 1968 Water Plan.

They were ambitious:

The 1968 plan involved developing an astounding supply of water- enough to submerge Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia to a depth of one foot (with some left over).  The key features of the plan included a canal that would have tapped the Mississippi River below New Orleans, bringing 12 to 13 million acre - feet (one acre - foot is 325,851gallons of water) hundreds of miles to Texas.

Get this:

Once in Texas, the Mississippi River would enter two cement - lined aqueducts called the Coastal Canal and the Trans-Texas Canal. These canals were to snake 1,200 miles across the northern and southern portions of Texas.

 Making matters better:

The second canal, the Trans-Texas, would have transported the Mississippi River water to northeast Texas, then uphill to Lubbock, with one spur veering off to New Mexico and another to the Trans-Pecos and the El Paso. The water would be pumped uphill more than 4,000 feet from the Mississippi River to Lubbock to meet the irrigation needs of the Texas High Plains....To pump the water to its final destination, the project would have required 7 million kilo-watts of electricity – more than a third of the generating capacity in Texas at the time.

 Also, a giant land grab:

In addition to the canals, 62 new reservoirs, mostly in East Texas, would have been constructed to capture another 4 million acre-feet of water for eventual shipment to Lubbock and the Rio Grande Valley.

 What was the price tag?!?

In 1968 the cost to Texas for the plan was projected by the TWDB to be $3.5 billion, with an additional $5.5 billion to come from the federal government. Some estimated that the project would ultimately have cost close to $14 billion in 1968 dollars.

 And, finally, how did things turn out?!?

For the plan to proceed, an amendment to the Texas Constitution was needed for the state to finance its share of

the project. In the end, the plan was defeated at the ballot box – by only 6,000 votes.  Thus it became the plan that never was, and thankfully so.

 Read the whole thing here; may history repeat itself this November!!!

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Texas Politics Over the Next Few Months

There are several events in Texas that are either ongoing or coming up quickly; keep them in mind:

• Current Special Session (Until August 28) - The Texas Legislature is currently in session with Transportation funding the only item on the agenda.  Multiple well-informed sources have told us they doubt Governor Perry will add anything to the call, but since we're talking about Rick Perry one never knows.  Since legislators obviously haven't learned their lesson, the objective on Transportation funding remains to deny House Republican leadership the 100 votes they need to pass this boondoggle.

• State Board of Education Meeting (Sept. 17 - 20) - On the one hand, CSCOPE shenanigans continue.  On the other, this will be the only meeting during the ongoing science review.  On both hands, the Texas "Freedom" Network (aka. the mob) will be there; Cahnman's Musings actually found out about this event from their website....

• Voter Ratification of SJR 1 (Nov. 5; Early Voting - Oct. 21 - 31) - The water boondoggle passed during the general session still needs voter approval; just say no.

 This is a partial list, and other events will pop up, but keep these three on your radar screen at all times.

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Tommy Williams' Sham Transportation "Hearing"

With transportation funding legislation having now failed three times this year (during the general session and two special sessions), one might think the 83rd Texas Legislature would solicit greater citizen input during their FOURTH attempt.

Nope.

According to the Texas Tribune:

After Dewhurst referred the bills to the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate recessed so the committee could briefly meet at the desk of Senate Finance Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands. In less than 3 minutes, the committee held a hearing on both bills. Nichols briefly explained both measures and Williams, surrounded by a small, standing group of Senators, legislative staffers and reporters, asked if there was any "public testimony." There was not. The committee then voted both bills to the Senate floor 10-1, with state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, voting no. [Emphasis ours]

 In other words, even after this transportation nonsense has failed three times, Republicans in the Texas Legislature are still trying to force it through without outside input; kudos to Senator Patrick for voting against this insult to the public.

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Agenda 21 and Rising Cost of Living

This morning, we read this piece from Stanley Kurtz:

A year ago, I published Spreading the Wealth: How Obama Is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities. There I described the president’s second-term plan to press a transformative “regionalist” agenda on the country. Early but unmistakable signs indicate that Obama’s regionalist push is well underway.

....

The new HUD rule is really about changing the way Americans live. It is part of a broader suite of initiatives designed to block suburban development, press Americans into hyper-dense cities, and force us out of our cars. Government-mandated ethnic and racial diversification plays a role in this scheme, yet the broader goal is forced “economic integration.” The ultimate vision is to make all neighborhoods more or less alike, turning traditional cities into ultra-dense Manhattans, while making suburbs look more like cities do now. In this centrally-planned utopia, steadily increasing numbers will live cheek-by-jowl in “stack and pack” high-rises close to public transportation, while automobiles fall into relative disuse.

....

[discussing one such example in the San Francisco Bay Area]

In effect, by preventing the development of new suburbs, and reducing traditional single-family home development in existing suburbs, Plan Bay Area will squeeze 30 years worth of in-migrating population into a few small urban enclaves, and force most new businesses into the same tight quarters. The result will be a steep increase in the Bay Area’s already out-of-control housing prices. This will hit the poor and middle class the hardest. [emphasis ours]

 This got us thinking about some of our recent efforts locally and at the state level.  One common denominator all this crap shares is that the policies we're fighting increase cost of living.  That's true whether the proposed policies emanate from your local city council, Washington, or the United Nations.

And that's how you fight it.  Americans are too apathetic to learn about some obscure policy coming out of the U.N.  But if you tell them "project 'x' is going to cost you $300 per year, project 'y' is going to cost you $500, and project 'z' is going to cost you $200" then they'll care about that tangible $1000.

Cost of living is a tangible mechanism to fight land-use central planning, whether the central planners are your local city council, the United Nations, or anyone in between.

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Joe Straus planning a 2015 tax increase?!?

So says David Dewhurst:

.@DavidHDewhurst says Straus has told senators he wants a transpo crisis in 2015 to increase pressure for taxes #mysa #hounews #txlege
— Peggy Fikac (@pfikac) July 29, 2013

In today's San Antonio Express-News, Peggy Fikac details Straus' approach:

“Legislators know that Texas needs a much more comprehensive approach to funding our growing state's growing transportation needs, and another 30-day special session will not change that,” Straus said. “Until members are free to consider real options, beyond simply shuffling taxes from one purpose to another, we will not find a responsible solution to this issue.”

 Of course, with this being Joe Straus, one should always be cautious with any talk of "real options."

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BREAKING NEWS: Transportation Funding Likely Dead for Second Special Session

Cahnman's Musings briefly swung by the Texas Capitol an hour ago.  We had seen on Facebook that the House was scheduled to vote on HJR 2 around five.  We arrived immediately following the conclusion of the vote.

A conservative Representative informed us of the result.  Because SJR 2 would enable a Constitutional Amendment it needed 100 votes to pass.  It only got 84.

We asked this Representative if he thought transportation funding could still rear it's ugly head before the session ends tomorrow at midnite.

"Not unless they can come up with sixteen votes" was his reply "and that ain't gonna happen."

In the extremely likely event of a third special session, conservatives must shift the focus to spending.  The reason this transportation deal hasn't passed yet is because voters don't trust the Republicans on spending.  Republicans need to earn back the credibility they frittered away during the general session if they want voters to trust them with more of their money.

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Update: Despite openly carrying water for the big spenders (pun intended), KXAN has more....

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More Transportation Shenanigans from Texas House Republicans

A couple of must read pieces from Empower Texans on transportation shenanigans currently playing out in the Texas House; from Transportation U-Turn:

As the Wall Street Journal and the Texas Public Policy Foundation have independently verified, the legislature went on a wild spending spree in 2013 – spending approximately 25% more than in the 2011 session. And they just can’t stop.

The current special session features a call to provide better funding for transportation. Legislators are instead just creating new diversions for spending without any real protections. (Sensible policies, like ending the 25 percent gas-tax diversion to public education, or dedicating the vehicle sales tax to roads, are being ignored.)

Meanwhile, lawmakers want to start diverting half of the money flowing into the Economic Stabilization Fund (the so-called “rainy day” account) over to TxDOT. In the first special session, conservatives successfully inserted a constitutional “floor” ensuring the ESF couldn’t be drained and left for dead.

Yet for all practical purposes, the new compromise in the current special would do away with the idea of a protective floor. Rather than constitutionally protect the Economic Stabilization Fund by a establishing a defined floor, spendoholic legislators want to give the Legislative Budget Board – comprised of the House Speaker, the Lieutenant Governor and their appointees – the authority to set it.

Not a sound idea, unless the goal is to never have a meaningful floor.

 From 'Optional' ESF Protection:

You may recall the legislative members of the LBB are also charged with picking the “spending limit” for budgetary purposes. Of course, the LBB has always exceeded the “population-plus-inflation” figure, using a fictional “projected personal income growth” as their unlimited limit  – essentially allowing them to set a moving target depending on their spending appetites for the upcoming session.

 Whatever happens in the next few days, we're going to have to beat this crap at the polls in November....

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Greg Abbott Obtains MAJOR Medicaid Fraud settlement from Planned Parenthood

Score one for the Good Guys:

Texas Attorney General’s Office Obtains $1.4 Million Settlement against Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for Medicaid Fraud

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast fraudulently billed Texas Medicaid program for products, services either not provided or not necessary

HOUSTON – The Texas Attorney General’s Office today concluded the State’s Medicaid fraud investigation into Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Inc. Under today’s agreement, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast must pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program.

Read the whole release here.

One of our worries about Greg Abbott's gubernatorial campaign has been whether the day to day operations of the AG's office would suffer as a result; obviously, at least for now, the answer is no.

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Judge Tim Sulak and the El Paso Stadium Boondoggle

Cahnman's Musings frequently listens to talk radio via 690 KTSM in El Paso.  Because we listen to this station, we've kept an eye on the ongoing boondoggle of El Paso's new minor league baseball stadium.  It was strong armed through the political process through the usual suspect of local government contractors and special interests.  When citizens objected, they took the city to court and (through some weird foible in state law), it ended up in the Austin courtoom of Judge Tim Sulak.  In that ruling, Judge Sulak did what Judge Sulak does best:

District Judge Tim Sulak on Wednesday sided with the city of El Paso, ruling that the process to demolish city hall and move forward with the ballpark project was legal. 

"It is my judgment, based on the evidence, the authorities and the arguments that the authority to issue and the actions taken to secure or obtain, the public securities are legal and valid," Sulak said at Wednesday's declaratory judgment hearing.

....

Wednesday's ruling also allows the city of El Paso to sell bonds to fund the project.

....

The decision can be appealed, but the Judge set a surety bond of $1 million.That means if they appeal within 30 days, the opposition of the city needs to put that money up.

In other words, Judge Tim Sulak has a pattern of making it prohibitively expensive for concerned citizens to challenge big-government special interests.

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Judge Tim Sulak Demands $15 Million Taxpayer Ransom

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
Eighth Amendment, United States Constitution

Cahnman's Musings spent the morning at the 353rd District Court of Travis County, Judge Tim Sulak presiding.  We were there to observe the Travis County Taxpayers Union's (TCTU) lawsuit against Austin Independent School district (AISD) we've discussed previously.  To quote Wendy Davis, we witnessed a raw abuse of power.

Judge Sulak ruled in favor of the district.  That wasn't surprising.  The outrageous part was the shackles Judge Sulak put on a potential appeal.

Judge Sulak ruled TCTU must post a $15 million bond ($15,000,000) to protect the district before an appeal could proceed.  Obviously, TCTU doesn't have that kind of money.  In other words, a Democrat judge made it prohibitively expensive for a citizens group to petition their government for redress of grievances.

On one level, this isn't surprising.  Judge Sulak and AISD are part of the Travis County's progressive mafia (Sidenote: This is the same progressive mafia that is protecting Rosemary Lehmberg).  On the other hand, demanding a fifteen million dollar ransom to allow a citizens lawsuit against a governmental entity to continue is (to our knowledge) unprecedented.

In announcing his ruling, Judge Sulak admitted that, even if he disagreed with it, TCTU made a reasonable case against the district.  Judge Sulak's ruling was designed to protect AISD from having the case heard in front of judges who aren't in the pocket of big education.  This isn't over....

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Readers can contact Judge Sulak via his campaign Facebook page.

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Update: More from Fox 7 Austin:

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Shoplifting Up after Austin Plastic Bag Ban

A predictable, yet hilarious, example of the law of unintended consequences:

Highlights:

The Austin bag ban was implemented March 1st. FOX 7 asked Austin Police to compare citywide shoplifting incidents for the months of March, April and May and then compare them to the same time last year. March is the only month where there was no increase. In April there were 44 more incidents and 57 in May

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Moody's DOWNGRADES SH 130 by FOUR Notches!!!

Well, the good news is that if it fails completely, at least there's an asset a new owner can purchase:


Highlights: 

The company that operates the southern leg of the SH 130 toll road may not have enough money to make loan payments next year. That's the assessment from a major financial group which lowered the company's credit rating.
The 41 mile stretch between south Austin and Seguin opened last fall. Analysts with Moody's Investors Service say that traffic is only half of what was originally projected.
Officials with the sh130 concession company raised more than a billion dollars to build the toll way, with about $400 million coming from a federal loan. A spokesperson for the group says they are working to increase traffic, by lower toll rates for big rigs and working with local economic development groups to attract businesses to the corridor.

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ACTION ALERT: Stop Texas' 26% Spending Increase

The disastrous 83rd Legislature comes down to this, from the Tea Party Advisory Caucus:

Fellow Patriots:

THIS IS AS URGENT AS IT GETS.

PLEASE SPREAD JOANN'S MESSAGE FAR AND WIDE AS SOON AS YOU CAN.

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Spending Up 26%! Texas Legislature Takes Wild Left Turn & Spends like there’s No Tomorrow

Alert from: JoAnn Fleming, Chairman, TX Legislature's TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee; Executive Director, Grassroots America

The news is bad – very bad. A majority in the Texas House and Senate (yes, a majority of Republicans) have gone on a wild spending spree! We have one last chance to stop it. Please help us kill HB 1025 and SB 1 to force a special session. We believe we can get a more conservative budget when all the focus is on spending.

It is time for YOU to come to the aid of Texas! Call, e-mail, text, FaceBook, and Tweet your state representative as soon as possible! Melt the phone lines starting at 8 AM Friday and call all day! Call your representative’s district offices and Capitol office. Tell him/her you do not support the budget and you support a special session to get it right. Ask them to vote down HB 1025 & SB 1.  Be firm and employ the Golden Rule.  Yelling and cursing doesn't make them hear you, in fact, it can have the opposite effect.

To find your state representative click here.

For good measure, call your state senator & declare you don’t support the budget, click here.

Call Governor Perry’s office & ask him to veto the budget if it passes!(512) 463-2000

Special thanks to Texas Public Policy Foundation for its help in putting together the numbers that follow...

The bad news - if HB 1025 (supplemental spending bill) and SB 1 (budget) pass, this happens:

·        The $1.8 billion in tax relief called for by the Governor is slashed because a majority of the legislature went on a spending spree. The Legislature includes about half of the Governor’s request (about $900 million) and wants to count $631 million in a one-time electrical ratepayer fee rebate for about 80% of Texans as a tax cut—which it isn’t.

·        The budget will exceed the state’s constitutional spending limit. They will bust the spending cap! The big spenders seek to circumvent the spending limit through SJR 1, the constitutional amendment to be approved by voters in November. They are changing the definition of “busting the cap” so they can say they didn’t…sounds just like Washington, DC!

·        Though they had more than $13 billion in new general revenue (GR) on hand for the 2014-15 budget, House & Senate budget appropriators did not include money in the budget for “pay as you go” highway funding or provide taxpayers with a meaningful tax cut. Instead, they spent it all and want to raid the Rainy Day Fund too!

·        The Legislature has decided to raid the state’s Economic Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund) for almost $4 billion. The ESF was intended to protect against the pressure for a tax increase during an economic downturn. Instead, this budget uses the Rainy Day Fund to explode spending during a time of plenty, cutting the fund balance in half—from $8 billion to $4 billion. This leaves Texas vulnerable if the national economy continues to falter or we have a natural or manmade disaster.

·        The Legislature will appropriate approximately $106 billion in General Revenue and Rainy Day funds. This is an increase of $22 billion, or 26%, over last session! (This is a session to session, not a budget to budget, comparison.)

·        The total of all funds (including federal funds) in the new budget looks to be about $214 billion, an increase of about $38 billion, or 21%, over what was appropriated in 2011. (This is a session to session, not a budget to budget, comparison.)

·        This level of spending is proof most legislators are tone deaf (94% of 2012 Republican primary voters signaled they wanted spending cut). They willingly ignore the unstable national and global economies. This is a threat to a strong Texas and should be treated as an assault on liberty.

·        This spending repeats the mistake of the 79^th TX Legislature (2005). After the 78^th Legislature (2003) held the line on spending, the 79^thLegislature went on a spending spree that led to the 2011 $15 billion budget shortfall. It could happen again. Are the big spenders setting the stage for gambling and/or and income tax next session?

·        This spending rejects principles of fiscal conservatism in exchange for a big-gov’t approach like those of the other big-five states: CA, NY, IL, FL.

·       This budget is a threat to the economic prosperity of Texas citizens, families, and communities. It is a threat to Texas – the best hope for enduring freedom in these United States. 

 The Legislature appears determined to spend the State of Texas into becoming the next California, and the Governor is sucking his thumb.  The situation is dire.  Call and Tweet your legislators AND the Governor.

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Contact Info:

Governor Rick Perry:
Phone: (512) 463-2000
Twitter: @GovernorPerry

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst:
Phone: (512) 463-0001
Twitter: @DavidHDewhurst

House Speaker Joe Straus
Phone: (512) 463-1000
Twitter: @SpeakerStraus

Find your own legislator here.

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Update: Continuing the pattern of this bizarre session, Lt. Governor Dewhurst NAILS it!!!

Update II: Empower Texans has more here; money quote: 

There is $13 billion of additional general revenue sitting in the state treasury than two years prior. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy the Legislature’s appetite for more spending. They say they need $4 billion more from a fund constitutionally created to backfill budget shortfalls.

There are many aspects of the current version of the budget that should be of serious concern to voters (like throwing $4 billion extra into public education to appease Democrats, the lack of substantial tax relief, a pension increase for legislators… etc.). Arguably the biggest though is the reckless disregard for the original purpose of the Rainy Day Fund.

Legislators should hit the reset button and pass a better budget in a special session. Getting it right is far more important than just getting it done.

 Update III: Chuck DeVore Tweets this diagram:

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Texas House Committee's $22,000 dinner

In case you're wondering why the 83rd Texas Legislature has accomplished so little, this must-read from the Texas Tribune will answer your questions; money quote:

A remarkably expensive meeting of a key legislative committee took place this week: a $22,000-plus affair at an upscale downtown Austin steakhouse for the 15-member House Calendars Committee.

That panel, which sets the daily lineup of bills for consideration in the House and thus holds life-or-death power over legislation, held its end-of-session dinner at Austin’s III Forks restaurant this past Sunday.

It cost $22,241.03 and required the use of 34 American Express cards, 11 MasterCards, and 20 Visa cards. The committee chairman, state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, said there were about 140 people there, and most of them stayed for dinner.

....

It was an expensive celebration, but the legislators and staffers who attended didn’t pay for it. The supporters and lobbyists who have been trying to influence legislative outcomes since the session began in January covered the tab. And it’s completely legal, as Hunter pointed out, so long as the lobbyists paying the bills report their expenses where everybody can go see them. Ethics rules limit lobbyists from spending more than $500 on entertainment on a particular legislator, but that limit doesn’t apply to food and drink.

....

 “I’ve had committee dinners since I’ve been here for seven terms,” Hunter said, speaking in characteristically clipped phrases. “Lobby pays. They follow rules. Everybody knows up front. And we even post it, so we are all in compliance.”

You can view the receipt for the dinner here.

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OFFICIAL ENDORSEMENT: Konni Burton for Texas Senate!!!

Cahnman's Musings wasn't planning to jump into Election 2014 before sine die.  Legislative outcomes during final week of the General session and the upcoming Special session(s) remain our top state level priority.  But it's Friday and this one's a no-brainer.

Konni Burton has worked behind the scenes the past few election cycles.  She helped lead the revolution that swept the Tarrant County GOP during 2012.  She also supported Ted Cruz in 2011, back when doing so was (to put it mildly!) controversial.

Konni Burton has been an advocate of school choice and an opponent of educrats for a long time.  In post CSCOPE Texas, with the school finance lawsuit expected to come to a head in 2014, an irreconcilable clash of visions is brewing.  Cahnman's Musings encourages Konni Burton to focus on the moral case FOR school choice while simultaneously mocking educrats and their financial enablers.

That being said, another aspect of Konni Burton's platform holds special appeal:

Work to reduce the state’s dependence on federal dollars.

 This is VERY important, and it highlights a concern that drives everything Cahnman's Musings does at the state level.  40% of Texas' Budget comes from Washington.  This is dangerous.  Washington is not a reliable business partner.  Cahnman's Musings is pleased to see Konni Burton make this issue a priority.

While the case FOR Konni Burton is strong enough on it's own, Cahnman's Musings must also comment about her opponent, incumbent State Senator Wendy Davis (D - Educrats).  In 2011, Wendy Davis held taxpayers hostage to flush more money down the rat-hole of public education.  In addition, the relationship between Wendy Davis' law practice and her votes in the Texas Senate are questionable at best.  Wendy Davis uses a self-righteous mask to cover crony corporatist double dealing.  It's just as easy to oppose Wendy Davis as it is to support Konni Burton.

An irreconcilable clash of visions over education is brewing in Texas.  In one corner are parents, children, and taxpayers who want options and a reasonable rate of return on their investment.  In the other are a group of self-serving bureaucrats protecting their boondoggle.  Konni Burton is the former; Wendy Davis is the latter.  For this reason, Cahnman's Musings unapologetically and unconditionally endorses Konni Burton for Texas Senate!!!

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Conservatives win; educarats lose; Austin Children bat .500 (AISD Audit needed)

It looks like taxpayers went 2 for 4 in Austin's bond election.

We'll take it.

When the incumbent outspends you 45:1 and you battle them to a draw, you don't argue.

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