Rick Perry Makes Texas #1 In Mooching Federal Stimulus Funds

by: Katherine Haenschen

Mon Jan 24, 2011 at 03:13 PM CST

That's right -- Rick Perry not only took Federal stimulus money, but also used it to plug 97% of the 2010 budget shortfall.

But wait, didn't we all just spend 6 months of our lives listening to Rick Perry go all Yell Leader on the soundness of the fiscal state of Texas?

Thanks to a report released by the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, we now know that Perry was the most dependent on his own personal Federal bailout to rescue our state. From CNN:

Turns out Texas was the state that depended the most on those very stimulus funds to plug nearly 97% of its shortfall for fiscal 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Texas, which crafts a budget every two years, was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years. It plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money, allowing it to leave its $9.1 billion rainy day fund untouched.

Perry, of course, campaigned heavily against Federal funds. As you may recall, back in February 2009 on the very same day he asked President Barack Obama for the money, Pery started an online petition against "Government Bailouts" against the "irresponsible spending that threatens our future."

Quick on the draw as always, the math-and-facts-adverse Perry administration immediately denied using stimulus funds to plug the hole in the budget.

A governor's spokeswoman played down the money's role in shoring up Texas's finances. "Texas would have balanced its budget regardless of the presence of stimulus dollars," said Lucy Nashed, Perry's deputy press secretary. "This money came from the pockets of Texas taxpayers, and we are committed to getting our fair share of these dollars, which would have otherwise been disbursed to other states."

No! That's exactly what did not happen, Lucy! Just because the Legislature is in session, that doesn't make every moment until sine die opposite day! Perry balanced our state's budget by begging for Federal money to make ends meet. Otherwise we would have been short $6.4 billion dollars.(Math! It doesn't lie! It's not a Republican candidate for the Legislature!) Perry himself continues to completely deny that he needed Federal stimulus funds to plug 97% of the budgetary shortfall in FY2010. As quoted last week:  

"We don't have shortfalls in Texas," Perry told reporters last week. "You prioritize what's important in this state. We will fund those."

Evidently our priorities are taking Federal tax dollars to balance the budget, rather than asking Texans to pay for what we need. Of course this year, there is no stimulus money to ride to the rescue, so our priorities are instead going to have to shift over to harming children and the elderly with brutal budget cuts.

Interestingly, this story's starting to get serious traction. And not just in the so-called "liberal media." I picked up on this story from Business Insider, which has been following the Texas budget crisis for some time. As Joe Weisenthal (himself a Longhorn alum) asked-and-answered earlier this year:  

So why haven't we heard more about Texas, one of the most important economies in America? Well, it's because it doesn't fit the script. It's a pro-business, lean-spending, no-union state. You can't fit it into a nice storyline, so it's ignored.

Looks like it may not continue to fly under the radar much longer... Especially with the severe budget cuts about to be handed down by the Republican legislature.

But you know what they say -- everything's bigger in Texas! Especially the relative size of the hole in the budget plugged by the Federal money requested by the Governor who campaigned against it. (Is that too wordy for a tee shirt?)  

Rep. Jim Dunnam Slams Dewhurst in Statesman Op-Ed

by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas

Tue Oct 27, 2009 at 10:08 AM CDT

Last week, I took Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst to task for his ridiculous assertions that he, Rick Perry, and Joe Strauss didn't need the stimulus dollars to balance the budget. (David Dewhurst Spinning Lies that Texas Didn't Need Stimulus Dollars to Balance the Budget)

Today, State Representative Jim Dunnam, who is Chair of the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, penned a Statesman in the op-ed knocking Dewhurst and Perry for their blatant hypocrisy. From his op-ed, titled, "Texas a fiscal wonderland? Now that's pure fantasy"

The problem with much of the current Republican Party leadership is not that they disagree with Democrats. The real problem is that they disagree with reality.

By shamelessly pretending that in is out and up is down, they have spun themselves into Wonderland.

Whether you like the stimulus or not, this misinformation is getting out of hand.

You should really read the entire op-ed -- Chairman Dunnam does a great job detailing all of Perry's hypocrisy.

Go. Read it now. This post is over. Fine -- here's the link one more time.

David Dewhurst Spinning Lies that Texas Didn't Need Stimulus Dollars to Balance the Budget

by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas

Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 09:32 AM CDT

Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst wrote an op-ed in today's Austin American-Statesman where he attempts to spin a lie that Texas didn't need stimulus dollars to balance the budget.

From his op-ed:

Given recent comments about our state's budget, I feel it is time to separate fact from political fiction. The fact is, in stark contrast to the U. S. Congress, the Texas Constitution requires the Legislature to balance the state budget every two years, and that would have happened with or without any federal stimulus dollars.

In 2007, I led the effort to save $7 billion to balance the revenue shortfall we anticipated this year.

So it's simply political fiction that stimulus dollars were necessary to balance our budget.

OK then Dewhurst -- how would you have balanced the budget without using the $14 billion in federal stimulus dollars?

To balance the budget, he's either got to cut spending or raid the Rainy Day Fund -- but the Rainy Day Fund wouldn't have filled a $14 billion budget hole. So what would Dewhurst have cut?

Kicked more kids off of CHIP?

Further gutted public education spending?

Dewhurst has no answer to this at all.

Meanwhile -- while Dewhurst is out spinning lies to cover his and every other Texas Republican's political hide when Rick Perry is rallying against Washington at the same time he's accepting $14 billion to fill a budget hole that he created -- his Senate Finance Chair, Steve Ogden, is actually telling the truth.

From the Fort Worth Business Press:

"In order to balance the budget this biennium, which is $182 billion, we used $14 billion in federal stimulus money to balance it," said Sen. Steve Ogdenm R-Bryan. "We're not expecting a similar amount of similar money to be available in the next two years because the federal government just doesn't have it. So, assuming that's true, you go into the next session with a $14 billion hole."

According to the State Comptroller's office, Texas requested and was allocated almost $20 billion in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment ACt, and has so far been awarded about $13 billion. About $3.6 billion has been received, and nearly all of the received funds have been spent.

If David Dewhurst really wants to claim that Texas didn't need the stimulus funds, then he should produce a budget that shows what he would have cut. But he'll never do that, because this isn't about leadership or fiscal responsibility or being honest about how Texas Republicans play a shall game with Texas' taxpayer dollars.

It's about political power, and political wars -- and Dewhurst, Perry, Strauss, and every other Texas Republican is going to rally against Big Bad Washington while silently singing President Obama and the Democratic Congress' praises that they bailed Texas out of a massive $14 billion budget hole.

Don't believe Dewhurst' spin -- and don't believe it when you hear it repeated for the next year in the press, in local elections, in campaign forums, or on the campaign trail. The Republican-led legislature was only able to balance the budget because of federal stimulus dollars.

Remember -- I didn't say it. The Republican Senate Finance Chair did.