CG: Texans get their first look at what type of cuts can be expected to balance the state budget. Not a very pretty picture.
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A sobering reality settled over the Texas Capitol late Tuesday as the state's budget challenge emerged in black and white.
The multivolume Legislative Budget Board publication provides the first real picture of what it will take for Texas to dig itself out of a deep budget hole without raising taxes or using the $9.4 billion rainy day fund.
It is apparent that very little escaped the knife in this first draft of the budget, including previously untouched public school funding and money for higher education and Medicaid reimbursements.
The release of the documents had been pushed into the night to avoid overshadowing the day's inauguration of Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. The information was delivered in hard-copy form to legislators, many of whom were out enjoying the inaugural festivities, and will be posted on the budget board's website this morning.
Today, House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, will take questions from members on the House floor, and more details will emerge as legislative staffers, advocates, lobbyists and others dig into the details.
Pitts set out to balance the budget with the $72 billion in taxes and fees that will be available for the 2012-13, two-year budget. That amount is $15 billion less than the current budget and $27 billion less than what agencies say they need to continue the current level of services.
Public education
Direct state aid to school districts, which has been untouched in previous rounds of cuts, was trimmed by $953 million in the proposed budget.
But school districts will also forgo $9.8 billion owed to them under current school finance laws, such as money to cover growth in student enrollment.
Grants for teacher incentive pay, pre-kindergarten and classroom technology were also eliminated.
Higher education
Student financial aid, including the main Texas Grants program, and funding for public universities would take substantial hits.
Financial aid was slashed by half, closing off assistance for new students.
Governor's office
Perry's largest economic development fund remains largely unchanged, but the governor's programs that promote film production in Texas and foster research and development of new technologies were hammered in this first draft of the budget. The Emerging Technology Fund was cut 85 percent.
Criminal justice
In public safety and corrections programs, the budget report recommends shutting down a unit in Sugar Land, three Texas Youth Commission lockups and 2,000 private prison beds, a move that could close at least two additional lockups. About 1,562 prison jobs were also chopped.
Probation programs would see funding cut by 20 percent, parole supervision would be cut by almost 9 percent, and the agency's construction and maintenance funding could be cut by 83 percent, along with 90 jobs. The Victims Services Division would be eliminated.
Health care, other cuts
Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors, nursing homes and other health care providers were whacked by 10 percent.
The proposal also includes closing at least one of Texas' state supported living centers, facilities that serve Texans with mental disabilities.
Overall, about 9,600 state positions would be eliminated from the payroll.
The state will also drop its contribution to the pension systems for teachers and state workers to 6 percent, the minimum allowed by the state constitution.
Some small entities, such as the State Law Library, were eliminated. Others, including the Historical Commission, are still standing but had much of their funding cut.
Earlier Tuesday, a group of conservative legislators laid out suggestions for reducing spending by $18 billion withouttouching transportation, public safety or criminal justice.
Representatives of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute said education bore the brunt of the cuts - $12 billion - because federal health care laws prevent states from reducing eligibility for people covered through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Neither Pitts nor his counterpart in the Senate, Steve Ogden, was involved in developing the conservatives' budget blueprint.
But the recommendation could provide a good indication of the will of the two chambers given the conservative bent of the Texas Legislature.
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-...s-1194464.html
