(A great piece from Austin's Senator. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
For 140 days, Texas' budget writers leaned on the glue and duct tape of gimmickry and denial, trying to patch up the state's rickety budget and school finance system.
Those in control of the Legislature waited until the last minute to finish their project. And as some of our state's seventh-grade teachers could have warned them, they didn't get it done in time. So now they're back in a special legislative session, trying to keep schools across Texas from shutting down next fall.
But let's be clear: The proposals now before the Legislature don't adequately fund our schools. Any theoretical good was undone by a stubborn refusal to put the priorities of Texas first - or keep the state's promise to fund Texas schools and our children's future.
The legislation attempts to hide a failure that dates back to 2006, when those in control cynically promised Texans a tax cut but refused to do the harder work of cutting spending or replacing the lost revenue. It opened a multibillion-dollar hole in the state's finances - one that we'd all have fallen into two years ago without billions of dollars in federal stimulus money.
But that bailout is long gone, and the state's about $4 billion short of what schools need to cope with more students and escalating costs. It's the first time in known state history that Texas hasn't paid for enrollment growth.
Faced with that $4 billion debt to our schools, those in control have come up with a novel scheme. They refuse to reform the broken funding system. They fail to relieve the pain of cuts, some of which are necessary, by using reserve funds that are set aside for just this sort of situation. They allow tax loopholes for special interests. And they compromise the education for a generation of Texas schoolchildren.
The bills before the special legislative session make the broken system permanent by ignoring promises made to local districts. They unilaterally redefine the state's obligation for funding schools and just call it the new normal. They attempt to cover up the state's unwillingness to meet its responsibility, throwing a rug over the cracked foundation of our state's budget.
So who's on the hook for the $4 billion broken promise? You are. Your kids may be packed into bigger classes, their teachers may be laid off, or your property taxes may go up. Unlike the Legislature, districts can't just push their obligations onto others. They have to be accountable.
Most Texas districts would lose money under that plan. Austin ISD alone (not counting another recent round of federal aid), would lose more than $90 million over the next two years.
The debate is simply over how to spread the pain among our children - choosing which students and schools will suffer more than others, and deciding which communities have to lay off teachers and which ones "only" have to eliminate important educational programs.
But the problems run much deeper than the special session or certain bills. They're products of a budget system that's been tainted for years by debt, diversions and deception. The legislation simply creates another deceptive, 10-figure deficit - even as the Legislature continues to divert around $4.5 billion from its promised purposes to make the books balance, and it blatantly misrepresents things like the state's Medicaid obligations.
Sadly, it's possible the only good thing about the special session is that, unlike the frenzied final week of the regular session, Texans can take a couple of days to see what's in the bills. They can talk with school and business leaders about what the bills would mean in the short term and the long run. They can write letters, testify before committees and make it clear that legislators must not break their promises to our schools, our children and our state's future.
I was forwarded the following from Glenn Smith, a great thinker and off-and-on contributor to our site.
If you thought the legislative attacks on family planning and Planned Parenthood were all about abortion, think again.
In a moment of unscripted political bravado, Republican State Representative Wayne Christian made clear to the Texas Tribune that the Right’s true agenda is not about what happens in health care clinics after all, but rather about what goes on in bedrooms between consenting adults.
When they declare “war on birth control” they are intruding into the private, personal decisions of every man, woman and family in Texas.
How extreme are they? Consider that they’ve already repealed the law that requires insurance companies to cover the pill just as they do Viagra, they’ve encouraged pharmacists to undermine doctors’ orders and deny emergency contraception, and now they are pushing an outright plan to defund family planning — even though none of the funds can be used for abortion.
It’s time to draw the line and get politics out of our bedrooms once and for all.
Ed. note: This is a running count. Check the end of the diary for updates on the total. Latest is 12,372.
"There is no bunk in these numbers."
Today, the Texas Progressive Alliance -- a large group of Democratic and progressive bloggers in Texas -- released a preliminary tally of school district job cuts and resignations in just 60 school districts in Texas. TPA emphasized that this is a working document, and there are likely many, many more jobs that have been eliminated since January than those represented below.
If you know of other ISD layoffs, job cuts, etc. that are not represented at the list at the bottom of the post, please leave a comment and let us know!
The following is from the TPA release:
AUSTIN—More than 12,000 Texas public school teachers, librarians, administrators, and support staff have left their school job in the roughly three months since the Texas Legislature released proposed budget figures for the 2012-2013 biennium, according to data released Tuesday by the Texas Progressive Alliance.
"There is no bunk in these numbers," said Vince Leibowitz, chair of the Alliance, a group of progressive online activists including more than 50 netroots activists, bloggers, and online writers from across Texas. "These numbers are the cold, hard, truth and show precisely how significant an impact the proposed budget is already having on school districts across the state," Leibowitz said.
More alarming, he noted, is that the more than 12,000 layoffs, firings, and voluntary or forced retirements represent only a fraction of the devastating toll the proposed budget is taking on public education. "These reductions come from a grand total of 60 of the state's 1,234 school districts, less than five percent of all school districts statewide," he noted. "Imagine how high this number will be when data is collected for all of these school districts," he continued.
The Alliance collected the data from publicly available sources including newspapers, television stations, and other media outlets that cover Texas school boards. The data was compiled by members of the Alliance and includes districts from all parts of the state.
The data was released on the heels of an announcement by the Texas Legislative Budget Board that the proposed budget being considered by the Legislature will be the first since at least 1984 that does not adequately fund public school formula funding and makes no allowance for enrollment growth.
"Yesterday, Senator Ogden was quoted as saying that Texas school districts could 'live with,' five percent cuts," said Charles Kuffner, Vice Chair of the Alliance. "Evidently, Senator Ogden and Republicans in the Legislature, Governor Perry, and our state leadership think losing 12,000 public school employees, increasing class sizes, and reducing the quality of instruction are worth living with. We do not," Kuffner stated.
The Alliance will continue to track school district layoffs through the start of the 2011-2012 school year and today will ask readers of their blog to help them track this critically important number in ISDs across the state.
The TPA noted that, "as best as possible, the Texas Progressive Alliance attempted to avoid counting projected job loss figures. The numbers below should reflect jobs that have already been cut and positions that have promised not to be fulfilled. In some cases, news reports reported several totals of jobs reduced or positions not filled; in those cases, the Texas Progressive Alliance used the lowest and most certain of the figures."
Here are the numbers and ISDs facing cuts, with sources:
On the road between Marfa and Fort Davis, one can drive miles without seeing a living thing - there is nothing left alive between the deep blue sky and ash-covered dirt - only some charred fence posts along the road remain.
In Fort Davis, the scars of the fire's path make many acts of heroism obvious. At house after house, one can see where the fire came right up to homes, then split before coming together on the other side to continue its wind-fueled death march. What happened is obvious on its face: residents - defying orders to evacuate - stood shoulder-to-shoulder with volunteer firefighters, and they never gave up on beating back the flames to save their homes. Armed with little more than garden hoses, shovels, and courage, most succeeded. --an except from Harold Cook's excellent on-the-ground post on the Texas wildfires from his blog, Letters from Texas.
The Forest Service reported Sunday that the Possum Kingdom fire was 50 percent contained after burning 166 homes and two churches. The 2-week-old Trans-Pecos wildfire in West Texas was about 75 percent contained Sunday after destroying 23 homes and two commercial structures around Fort Davis a week ago, and an East Texas Piney Woods wildfire 90 miles northeast of Houston was 85 percent contained after burning 7,100 acres.
Reuters reports that, overall, 1.8 million acres of Texas land has already burned:
The amount of acreage burned in Texas in 2011 is almost at the record level set in 2006, when nearly 2 million acres were burned by wildfires. So far this year, more than 1.8 million acres have burned."We're only in April, with some of the worst wildfire months still to come," he said. "We will certainly break that record."
Given the fact that Texas will certainly break the record for the most acres of land that has ever burned, in state history, it is obscene that Texas Republicans -- who control every level of state government, as they have for every year since 2003 -- are planning to do this, according to KVUE news here in Austin, TX:
State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.
The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.
“We've seen budget cuts, but this is the worst time that we've ever seen,” said Executive Director Chris Barron. “As far as the budget crisis and the fuel cost stuff for example continues to go up and it doesn't help us out any whatsoever, so with the rising fuel and the budget cuts from the state it's taken a great effect. I think the citizens and the public is going to see that.”
Most of the State of Texas is protected by volunteer departments. There are 879 volunteer departments compared to 114 paid departments and 187 departments that are a combination of both paid and volunteer firefighters.
Here is KVUE's video report:
To summarize:
1.8 million acres of Texas land has burned, guaranteeing Texas will have the worst year for wildfires in recorded history
So far this year local fire departments have saved over 10,000 structures from being burned
There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas, compared to 114 paid departments and 187 that are a combination of both
Texas Republicans have voted to cut funding for volunteer firefighters by over 75%.
By the way -- Governor Perry's solution for all of this was simple: pray.
The current legislative session has been described as possibly the "worst in recent memory" for Latino Texans. What are likely coalitions that might be able to mitigate the budget cut proposals under consideration?
To figure this out, I visualized Texas county data matching Latino population density and per capita budget cuts. Demographic data on total population and Hispanic density is based on 2010 Census data made available at the Texas Tribune data portal. Projected budgets cuts are based on Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) estimates; the $10 billion cut scenario was utilized for the Medicaid visualization. My complete source file can be found here.
Let's start with public education. The blue line represents the state average per capita K12 cut: $127. The 2010 Census data indicated that Texas is 38% Hispanic, so counties above that are above average in terms of Latino density. Finally, the larger the size of the bubble, the larger the plotted county's total population. Examining the chart yields that a likely best strategy for pro-education advocates is to build a coalition of Harris and Dallas-area county legislators along with targeted low population counties with high per capita cuts that are represented by conservative legislators.
On the Medicaid front, there is a stronger correlation between Latino density and size of per capita cuts. The average state cut is $406 under the $10 billion cut scenario. This is represented by the red line. Two Rio Grande Valley counties - Hidalgo and Cameron - are particularly hard hit under any of the CPPP scenarios. Legislators from the RGV might be able to form a pro-Medicaid coalition with the eclectic mix of small- to mid-size counties that also will be experiencing very high per capita cuts.
Overall, the current budget promises to wreak havoc on all of Texas, as well as disproportionately burden many Latino communities across the state. It is the culmination of years of reckless, ideologically-driven budgeting. Hopefully, the extreme nature of proposed cuts will create a space for new, surprising coalitions to propose a more balanced approached to repairing the budget mess. Such an approach would include use of the Rainy Day Fund and practical, fair revenue increases.
There has not been a bigger or more important cover-up this election cycle, and perhaps for decades in Texas, than Rick Perry's refusal to come to grips and be honest about the $25 billion budget shortfall facing the state of Texas. Our state's budget crisis is going to devastate the future of our economy for years, if not longer, unless Texans do something about it immediately.
Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not thousands of state workers and public university employees.
Texas' GOPleaders, their eyes on the Nov. 2 election, have played down the problem's size, even as the hole in the next two-year cycle has grown in recent weeks to as much as $24 billion to $25 billion. That's about 25 percent of current spending.
The gap is now proportionately larger than the deficit California recently closed with cuts and fee increases, its fourth dose of budget misery since September 2008.
In recent months, Perry has been wildly erratic about the amount of the budget shortfall, at times saying it is nothing to worry about and only $10 billion large, and other times suggesting it is a major financial crisis that could be $21 billion large. When Bill White and Texas lawmakers requested the Comptroller to provide updated revenue estimates, Perry insisted on covering-up the budget projections and called the simple request for taxpayer transparency “bizarre.”
Perry has been quick to blame Washington and the national economic environment for the state’s budget shortfall. The Austin American-Statesman, however, has pointed out repeatedly that such a claim is highly disingenuous, 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. Then the state's new business tax brought in drastically less than projected, and that $5 billion gap turned into a nearly $9 billion gap.
Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not thousands of state workers and public university employees.
Texas' GOPleaders, their eyes on the Nov. 2 election, have played down the problem's size, even as the hole in the next two-year cycle has grown in recent weeks to as much as $24 billion to $25 billion. That's about 25 percent of current spending.
The gap is now proportionately larger than the deficit California recently closed with cuts and fee increases, its fourth dose of budget misery since September 2008.
The next legislative session is going to be an absolute disaster.
I am respectfully asking that you, as the state's Chief Financial Officer, provide badly needed information about the state's finances, for both the current biennium that Texans are coping with and the next one that legislators are preparing for. At the very least, I suggest that you update the revenue estimate for the 2010-11 biennium, as the Texas Constitution clearly contemplates -- and, I believe, requires you to do during times of such fiscal instability and uncertainty. I also urge you to provide additional information, particularly about the budget difficulties legislators are likely to face in balancing the 2012-13 Texas budget -- if only because it would be such a poor business practice not to.
Rick Perry interjected on Comb's behalf, claiming such simple requests are "bizarre":
Senator Watson has responded to Perry's characterization of his request for more transparency as "bizarre":
What I find bizarre is the reluctance to provide basic information and accountable government. On something as fundamental as the budget, the only thing information might damage is someone’s ability to deny the reality we’re facing.
Most businesses and most families wouldn't consider a current revenue estimate and up-to-date budget information, in the face of a budget crisis, to be bizarre.
What's interesting -- something I found last night -- is that the budget Perry signed at the end of last session contains a specific provision to ensure the Comptroller is prepared, with numbers, so that lawmakers can discuss for the state's budgeting process. From the Appropriations bill signed into law last session, Article IX, Part 6:
Sec. 6.15. Accounting for State Expenditures.
(a) Notwithstanding the various patterns of appropriation established in this Act, the Comptroller shall account for the expenditure of funds appropriated by this Act in a manner that allows for the reporting of expenditures attributable to each strategy in each agency's respective Strategic Planning and Budget Structure as approved by the Governor and the Legislative Budget Board. The information shall be recorded and maintained systematically in the state accounting system in a manner that provides for the integration of the state's budget data and the state's accounting data and to facilitate the state's budget development process.
This week the Congress passed a $34 billion dollar extension of benefits to Americans who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks, and these benefits where passed along party lines with the Republicans in the Senate blocking the benefits for weeks. Congressional Republicans argued that the benefits should not be passed unless a corresponding amount of budget cuts could be made, however, another argument that Republicans have offered is that unemployment benefits themselves are a disincentive to find work. At a time when long term unemployment is high than at any time since the Great Depression, and there are five workers applying for every one job these arguments seem ludicrous. The unemployment benefits will help 2 million struggling Americans, and the extension of benefits will last through November.
The idea that unemployment benefits will unacceptably add to the deficit is a relatively weak argument, considering that the fall in consumer demand if unemployment benefits are not extending in the long run will add more to the deficit in lack of tax revenue. Also, it seems a bit disingenuous for Republicans to lecture anyone on deficits or government spending. According to analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, significant causes of our current deficits where due to the 2001 and 2003 Bush Administration tax cuts (which by the way Republicans are still arguing doing not need to be paid for with corresponding cuts in the budget). The other idea that unemployment benefits are a disincentive for people to find employment is another weak argument when you consider that there are not enough jobs for American workers. What these arguments are about is plain and simply politics.
