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From Jay Root, writing for the Associated Press: "Democrat White criticizes Perry on budget cuts" Democrat Bill White criticized Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday for pressing state agencies to cut their spending by 5 percent, calling the approach "Soviet-style" budget management. With Texas facing a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion, White also refused to rule out future tax increases to close the gap. "Until you look under the hood and see what you can do, and what the state of the economy is and what the trade off is, you shouldn't be making that decision (on taxes)," White said at a conference hosted by the Texas Tribune online news site.
The second paragraph -- White refusing to rule out future tax increases -- was (predictably) pounced on by Team Perry, whose rampant cynicism about state government created the budget shortfall in the first place. Rather than accept responsibility, Perry's team attacked "liberal Bill" for raising taxes and blah blah blah even a freshman poli sci student knows the rest. Rick Perry's fiscally irresponsible budget practices are the reason our state is facing an $11 billion budget shortfall. As Jason Embry of the Austin American-Statesman wrote in a column, "Budget mess got going with 2006 property tax cuts"
The economic downturn isn't helping the shortfall, but it's not driving it, either. The driving factor is a decision by Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature in 2006 to reduce property taxes by $14 billion every two years and raise only about $9 billion to replace that money. In other words, the Legislature committed $5 billion every two years to holding down property taxes instead of spending that money on education, public safety or other priorities.
Embry's column -- and a similar one written by Bob Garrett of the Dallas Morning News titled, "Agency budget cuts small in face of Texas' gaping shortfall" -- points directly and clearly to both the problem and the cause of the problem. Unfortunately, direct accountability in journalism is rare, and not the rule. The following is an (incomplete) list of stories put out by the Texas press corps regarding yesterday's meeting of the House Appropriations Committee and the news that the state is facing, at minimum, an $11 billion budget shortfall. None of the stories below mention the very basic fact that the policies set forth by Rick Perry and Texas Republicans led directly to the budget shortfall: I'm encouraged by today's story by Jay Root, as well as a blog post put up this afternoon by Jason Embry, that give Bill White the opportunity to point out the facts: Rick Perry caused the budget deficit we are in. However, as soon as White is quoted, the press -- for balance -- goes to Rick Perry (or his spokesperson, Mark Miner) for a quote. And then Bill White's factual statement (that Perry caused the $11 billion budget shortfall) is lined up against Rick Perry's spin (Bill White is a liberal OMG aren't you scared!), and the two are given equal weight. If that's what has to happen for campaign coverage, fine. But it will forever confuse me that reporters, when writing about a story as critical to Texas as the budget, simply refuse to write about WHY we have that budget shortfall. A column by Jason Embry, Bob Garrett, and others from time-to-time is fine, but the day-to-day journalism must do more to explain to Texans about why the state is suffering the way it is. Because when they don't, the story reads like a failure of government, as opposed to a failure by the people in charge of government. The distinction may be small -- and I'm sure many reporters will challenge such a distinction -- but it's true. Especially here in Texas, where every single official is appointed by Rick Perry. As we go forward, reporters should -- in my humble opinion -- do a better job at pointing out who caused the various shortfalls at our state agencies and state government. |
