Going About This the Wrong Way

Dewhurst offers ways for state to raise money

The conversation about how to deal with the state's budget crunch is beginning to change.

After weeks of hearing doomsday predictions about potential state budget cuts, lawmakers are starting to look at the other side of the state's ledger and search for ways to bring in more money.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Monday laid out a half-dozen options for raising revenue without raising taxes, including taking money from the state's rainy day fund, selling part of Texas' future earnings from a lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies and using more money that is earned from investments in the state's Permanent School Fund.

He said those ideas could generate up to $6 billion that lawmakers could use to fill a $9.9 billion gap between projected income and the money needed to maintain current services during the next two years.

Texas is bloated as it is, weighed down by entitlement spending and social service albatrosses. While I'm glad Dewhurst isn't pushing for more or higher taxes, the state needs to seriously cut spending on these nonessential activities rather than dodging the real issue: Texas taxes and spends too much of Texans' money.

Dewhurst, Gov. Rick Perry and House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, asked all agencies to trim their budgets by 7 percent this year and to come up with ways to cut costs by 12.5 percent during the next two years.

Those proposals included dropping children from state-financed health insurance if their parents make more than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, eliminating home health care for the frail elderly and ending some rehabilitation programs in prisons.

This is a start, but not enough.

Posted by Drizzten at March 11, 2003 12:33 PM