Bio:
I use to write here and stuff. Now I work at Progress Texas and stuff. My comments and posts here are my views alone and don't reflect any organization or person.
(We're excited to bring you this great guest post from former BOR Editor and current Progress TX ED Matt Glazer! - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
Originally posted at Progress Texas. Matt Glazer is the former Editor of Burnt Orange Report and current Executive Director of Progress Texas. This is an open letter drafted in response to Tea Party Conservative and fringe candidate, Ted Cruz, and his response to having Texans across the state tweet at hm a very simple phrase, "Hey @TedCruz - stop sending your campaign money to Rush Limbaugh!". Apparently, Mr. Cruz did not like citizens engaging him.
Dear Ted Cruz,
The Progress Texas community understands you are running as a fringe Tea Party Conservative candidate for U.S. Senate, and that you feel you need to double down and show support for Rush Limbaugh. Your advisors lead you astray when they told you bail Rush Limbaugh out and now they have you in a box.
Let's give some back story really quickly. When Rush Limbaugh started his attack on women, and Sandra Fluke specifically, we didn't think that was very Texan. And since Rick Perry made Rush Limbaugh an Honorary Texan and a spokesperson for the state, we made sure all of our members were aware. Thousands of you made your voice heard and told Perry to revoke Rush's Honorary Status. Of course, Rick Perry, when asked by the Texas Tribune, dodged the question on whether he would do anything about the issue but he did decide to start calling all of us names and drive a wedge between people trying to make their voice heard in the Governor's office.
Not long after the Governor's name calling, Progress Texas heard something surprising - a candidate for higher office advertising and financially supporting Rush Limbaugh's war on women. That candidate was Ted Cruz.
Almost two full weeks later, Mr. Cruz, you had to do what most Tea Party Republicans are doing in Texas, start calling people who want their voice heard in government names. That's not very Senatorial.
In a page long, personal post on your campaign website, you felt compelled to endorse Rush Limbaugh's hateful speech and called him a conservative champion:
Rush has been a hero to the conservative movement for decades. He's passionate and he's fearless.
[...]
They're attacking Rush because he speaks the truth and stands up to their liberal agenda. And I am proud to advertise on his show. In fact, in light of these attacks, we might even up the buy...
Well Mr. Cruz, all of us at Progress Texas want to thank you for telling us that you support, and therefore endorse, Rush Limbaugh. We want to thank you for saying he speaks for the conservative movement. We appreciate you making it clear where you stand on the issues. While conservatives running for national office, advertisers, and radio stations across the country abandon Mr. Limbaugh, we appreciate you letting us know that Texas conservatives stand with him.
"What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex."
"We are getting screwed, even though we don't meet her personally."
"I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between her knees..."
"Who bought your condoms in the sixth grade?"
"The woman goes up to Congressional Committee and says she's having sex so damn much she's going broke."
"Ms. Fluke, and the rest of you feminazis, if we're going to pay for your contraceptives...if we're going to have to pay for this...and thus pay to have sex, we want something for it...We want you to post the videos online so we can see so we can see what we are getting for our money."
"The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There I said it."
"What color is the skin of the people in Darfur? It's black. And who do the Democrats really need to keep voting for them? If they lose a significant percentage of this voting bloc, they're in trouble."
"Obama does not have authentic slave blood. But Michelle does..."
"It is clear that Senator Obama has disowned his white half, that he's decided he's got to go all in on the black side."
"Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican-American actress Halle Berry."
"He even talks honky around white people."
"So Obama had a menorah there and he lit 'em all. I'm sure he thought it was Kwanzaa while talking about loyalty to Israel."
"We're being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles. Bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president. We've got to accept this."
Mr. Cruz, we understand why you have to stand by Rush and attack Texans who disagree with you. You are the underdog and presumptive loser in a U.S. Senate race. Not to mention, I am sure the advertising rate is really cheap right now and it might be one of the few places you can afford to advertise. That being said, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. And you are running to represent every Texan, not just the far right Tea Party Conservatives. We are sad to see you support Rush's hate speech but we appreciate your frankness and response.
Hopefully you, Mr. Cruz, you will respect the voices of Texans who voice their concerns and frustrations with your financial support of a conservative champion who constantly and consistently attacks women, minorities, and those that want to get involved in their community and improve their government.
Sincerely,
Progress Texas
-----
P.S. Mr. Cruz, you have asked for Texans to make their voice heard on your Facebook page. I hope you don't mind we will be encouraging our members to talk with you on Facebook and Twitter too. Of course, I hope you won't ignore them or censor their voices. Just as a reminder, here is the direct call to action from your post:
Please post your thoughts about Rush Limbaugh's strong voice for liberty on our Facebook page.
And here is the Think Progress video, highlighting Rush's comments, that we discussed before:
Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Joe Straus will stand with Rep. Brandon Creighton this morning to publicly back Creighton's HCR 50, which is a resolution that resolves, in part, "That sovereignty be claimed under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States; and, be it further resolved, that this serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist from mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers, effective immediately; and, be it further resolved, that all compulsory federal legislation not necessary to ensure rights guaranteed the people under the Constitution of the United States that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed."
When analyzed on potential impacts on the Texas economy, this partisan push appears to create 0 jobs and doesn't do anything to fix the ailing Texas revenue streams and does nothing to balance against the Texas budget shortfall (remember, that is an historic $27 billion to $31 billion deficit).
Also, this does nothing to help preserve the 100,000 to 216,000 jobs being lost because of the proposed conservative party's budget.
Secession talk does play well with Republican Primary voters though. So does attacking Washington. Expect more of this and less talk about moving the Texas economy forward.
State Representative Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) issued the following statement in response to Perry:
This divisive states' rights rhetoric is out of place and unbecoming of a legislative body. As my colleagues cheer on this 10th amendment resolution, they should be mindful that these types of resolutions asserting state sovereignty stir up reminders of the Jim Crow era.
The sad reality is that Southern states used the states' rights arguments to justify slavery, school segregation, poll taxes and literacy tests. If this resolution had the force of law, milestones like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act could be voided in Texas.
Our state's leaders need to take responsibility for their words and steer away from the hateful discourse that's caused a heated political environment. As they discuss the role of the federal government, I hope they consider federal legislation and how it has improved the lives of Texans.
Gov. Rick Perry plans to be in the Dallas area on Tuesday to meet with national anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, whose no-new-taxes pledge has been signed by many Texas legislators and Perry himself. The two are likely to appear together in front of the media at some point. Norquist is coming to Texas to raise money for his group, Americans for Tax Reform.
This comes n the heels of Rick Perry's refusal to meet with Texans affected by the massive $31 billion budget shortfall-- ADAPT.
Last week, disabled Texans attempted to meet with Governor Perry in his office. When the staff refused their request to meet and took semi-violent actions, a sit in occurred.
A person involved said on background:
A few members of ADAPT showed up to meet with the Governor's staff. When ADAPT opened the door the Governor's staff rushed the door slamming one ADAPT member's hands in the door for several minutes. The Governor's office finally shut and locked the door, and turned all the lights out in the office.
40 ADAPT OF TEXAS members have now occupied the 2nd floor offices of the Governor chanting and demanding that RP support using all of the Rainy Day fund and make no cuts to home and community services.
He said people with disabilities who protested outside the GOP governor's offices Tuesday blocked employees and visitors to gubernatorial offices: "Their actions ... are not the way to get a meeting with the governor."
Bold statement saying ADAPT members and onlookers said the protest started because of the way Perry's office responded.
The Express News continued saying:
Instead, their actions got stanchions and ropes set up to protect the area surrounding Perry's offices from the public, along with a Department of Public Safety officer standing guard. They also got some attention for the issue - and a court date.
Eleven people - nine using wheelchairs - each were issued a summons and charged with criminal trespass, a Class B misdemeanor, for staying at the Capitol past its 10 p.m. closing time, said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange.
The protesters with disabilities want lawmakers to protect the home and community services that allow them to live outside of nursing homes. They want them to use all of the rainy-day fund, which is expected to have $9.4 billion that could be spent with a supermajority vote of lawmakers.
Bob Kafka, a statewide organizer with the disabilities rights group ADAPT of Texas, said such cuts don't make sense economically or for people's lives.
"One of the chants we used while outside the governor's office was: 'I'd rather go to jail than die in a nursing home,'" Kafka said. People with disabilities weren't the only ones protesting.
Miner, a man who needs to be in the public spotlight attacking Texans, echoed very similar positions to theDallas Morning News.
Last week, Perry refused to meet with people will have to feel the full brunt of the Republican Parties inability to manage our state budget and forceful resistance to collect outstanding fees or fix broken revenue models. Today, he will meet with the man who believes we should shrink government responsibility to be so small it can be "drowned in a bathtub".
We continue to see Perry and the Republican Parties misplaced priorities.
For more fun, read some Grover Norquist quotes here.
Even though there are 101 House Republicans in the 150-member Texas House, House Democrats just scored a major victory for open government today.
As I wrote below, House Republicans were about to create a rule that ended all public testimony on legislation. However, House Democrats, led by Rep. Yvonne Davis and Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer, managed to save the practice of the Texas House of Representatives and maintain that the public should give testmony on legislation, and not on issues.
The ruling from the Chair in the House rolled back the points of order and ruling from the Speaker that almost set up the dangerous precedent of ending public testimony. Thanks to the attention of Rep. Davis and Rep. Martinez-Fischer, a deal was struck to send House Bill 15 back to Committee -- so they could do it right this time -- and bring the bill back to the floor tomorrow.
Process can be easy to miss, and very messy. But today, two House Democrats in a body of super-majority Republicans scored an impressive and essential victory for democracy in Texas. For everyone who ever wondered what we could do this session, this is it.
Right out of the gate, House Republicans are using their super majority to completely rewrite thirty years of precedent in the Texas House and could, depending on an official legal ruling that everyone at the Texas Capitol has been waiting on for almost two hours, create an opportunity for the elimination of all public testimony on legislation.
Here's what's going on:
The House of Representatives is taking up their first bill of the session right now, House Bill 15. That particular piece of legislation requires women to receive a sonogram before having an abortion. While discussing the ridiculous nature of the bill, a point of order was called on the legislation. For those not familiar with the official procedures of the Texas House, a point of order is called if the legally required procedures for the passage of legislation are not followed correctly. A point of order has the effect of removing the bill from the Calendar.
The point of order was raised on House Bill 15 because the Committee Chair took testimony on the issue, but not on the actual bill. Those who testified on the bill testified on the topic, or "matter" of the bill, and once their testimony was over, the bills were laid out. This goes against years of House precedent, where a bill is laid out and then testimony is taken on the specific legislation. Additionally, the initial ruling on the Chair, which is currently being revisited, suggested that House Chairs would no longer have to follow the five-day posting requirement in order to hear testimony on a "matter" the Committee has jurisdiction over.
By rewriting the rules, House Republicans are side-stepping the established and essential witness process for bills. Removing the public testimony on all legislation would be a grave and dangerous precedent for House Republicans to establish, and would seriously undermine the open government process Democrats have fought for years to protect.
In summary, we could witness a dramatic return to the days of Speaker Craddick unless the ruling from the House Chair comes down differently, only instead of one Speaker Craddick, every Committee Chair would become a Craddick with the newly created power to refuse any and all public testimony on legislation.
If you are lagging in the polls, not conservative enough or generally on the National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman's bad side, you will not be supported in your re-election.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn, (R-Texas) offered no encouragement to Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) Tuesday -- in the wake of a poll showing Ensign badly trailing potential primary opponent Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).
Yes, Ensign, like so many other national Republicans, is fraught with scandal, but John Cornyn's job is to re-elect Republicans. He is instead choosing to open a door for Democrats to take on open seat with a Sharron Angle type right winger in Nevada. With leadership like this, expect the pendulum to swing back for Democrats in 2012
It's raining. It's pouring. It's a $27 billion plus deficit, and Rick Perry is flip flopping now that he is back from his California vacation.
In today's State of the State speech, he says unequivocally, we should not touch the Rainy Day fund.
Research and experience tell us that the only way to create those jobs is to knock down the senseless obstacles to economic growth. For more than a decade, those of us elected to serve in this building have been working diligently to remove those obstacles, and create a level playing field, following a few simple rules.
For example, setting aside resources for a rainy day has given us a resource that other states would love to have, and some in our state would love for us to spend dry. Emptying the savings account to pay for recurring expenses is a bad idea, whether it happens at home, the workplace or in our state budget.
That approach would not only postpone tough, necessary decisions, but also leave us ill-equipped to handle bigger emergencies in the future. Therefore, we must protect the Rainy Day Fund.
Of course, in 1987 when he wasn't running for national office, his position was a little different.
Rep. Rick Perry voted for HJR 2 by Schleuter, establishing the Economic Stabilization Fund, in 1987.
To be completely honest, he only voted for the House version, then was absent on the vote on the conference committee report.
So in 1987, he wanted a fund that would help stabilize the Texas economy in the darkest hour. 24 years later, he doesn't want to touch the fund even though we have the worst budget shortfall in the country.
That means, President Governor Rick Perry does want: new revenues, fixes to the margins tax, implementation of the rainy day fund or corporations to pay their bills. Guess that leaves new taxes fees and increased, unfunded mandates to cities and counties.
This is what it looks like when Rick Perry, a career politician, "leads" Texas into an 19th20th21st 18th century economy.
Update:
And here is this jewel from his budget:
I look forward to working with these lawmakers to pass a responsible, balanced budget that reduces spending, sets budget and policy priorities without raising taxes, and preserves the state's Rainy Day Fund.
If he doesn't want to use the $10 billion in the rainy day fund, where is he going to find it? Federal money?
Remember that cold front that came in last week? Remember the rolling blackouts and how much of the state closed (including state government)? Remember Rick Perry declaring a state of emergency to deal with the problems?
If you said no to the last one, it's because Rick Perry didn't declare a state of emergency in Texas. So far, the emergencies are eminent domain, voter ID and sonograms.
Everyone of our neighboring states declared a state of emergency -- even Mexico! And yet Rick Perry is in California ignoring the ice-crisis in Texas.
Maybe Perry should just do a quick google of "Texas snow accident" to see the countless accidents and black outs that are occurring across the state.
This is the governor who considered every radical social issue he could get his hands on an "emergency" legislative priority. This is the governor who, during the heat of an election, declared 40 Texas counties were disaster areas due to a tropical storm that caused considerably less damage than has been caused in these past 3-4 days. FEMA ended up rejecting Perry's appeal for 13 of the counties.
Perry did keep his vacation going in California (55 Delegates) while Texas suffered.
Sort of interesting he would be in California. California is the last state to have rolling blackouts rigged for financial gain (ENRON). Texas appears to be the most recent.
While Texans suffered rolling blackouts yesterday, some power generators were enjoying windfall profits. Starting around 5 a.m., prices in the wholesale market surged to the market cap, $3,000 per megawatt-hour, and stayed there, off and on, until around noon. Prices are typically below $100/megawatt-hour, acknowledged ERCOT CEO H.P. "Trip" Doggett today in a press conference.
There are still more questions than answers but this much is clear: At best, some power generators around the state raked in oodles of money thanks to the way ERCOT has structured the energy market. At worst, some may have manipulated the market to drive up prices.
Texas is currently experiencing a record cold-wave and ice storm which has killed at least 6 people and brought rolling power blackouts. Texas parents, public officials, business owners and managers are all struggling to keep homes and businesses warm. Meanwhile, Rick Perry is in California meeting with deep-pocket Republican donors and right-wing opinion leaders.
Perry was paying so little attention to the ice storm during his five day trip to California that his own press release misstated the reason for the rolling blackouts saying it was the result of high demand when, in fact, the problem was a reduction in the power supply. (Austin American-Statesman, 2/3/2011
Rick Perry was re-elected less than 3 months ago and he is already showing he just doesn't care. If he can't posture, he isn't going to govern.
When Texas needed him most, Perry went to California. When the job got tough, Perry got going. Do you think he would have done his job if a national news network had been in Texas focusing on the storm? Maybe then he would have declared a state of emergency or monitored the situation with ERCOT or helped cities and counties coordinate resources or done his job. Texas needs a leader not a political PR team.
We need to demand Rick Perry simply stop messing with Texas.
The following e-mail just came in from the Travis County Democratic Party. These are the important facts going into the first hearing regarding House District 48.
Dear Fellow Democrat,
Many of you have seen stories about the HD 48 election contest where Dan Neil has challenged my victory that was confirmed by a recount held in early December 2010. By filing a challenge, Neil has initiated a process whereby the Texas House of Representatives will decide the final outcome of this race. The House can decide to confirm me as the winner, declare Dan Neil the winner, or order a new election.
Rep. Will Hartnett has been appointed Master of Discovery and has guided the evidence gathering process to date. He will hold a hearing next Tuesday, February 1st at 8:00 a.m. The hearing will take place in Room 140 of the John H. Reagan building (105 West 15th St. in the Capitol Complex) and is open to the public. You can also view the proceedings online at www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio. After the hearing, Mr. Hartnett will issue a report with his recommendations regarding the legal arguments and evidence presented by each side.
Here is some of the interesting information we have learned so far…
Since the night of the recount, Neil has made many false and unsubstantiated claims in an effort to legitimize his lawsuit. He began by alleging that straight ticket votes by overseas military voters were mishandled by the Travis County election officials. This has proven to be blatantly untrue. The vote of every member of the military living overseas who sent in a ballot has been counted in this race.
Now, he is telling his supporters that “222 individuals who are residents of Travis County and eligible to vote in House District 48 submitted a Federal Postcard Application to the Travis County Clerk’s Office…The Travis County Clerk disenfranchised all 222 of these residents….” This is also incorrect. Each of these persons is a civilian living overseas indefinitely. Under rules and policies adopted by the Texas Secretary of State, these persons are not Texas residents and are allowed to vote only in federal races, not state and local races. Travis County merely followed instructions from the Texas Secretary of State.
You may be interested to know that, according to the Department of Defense, there are 500,000 military living overseas, 100,000 federal employees living overseas, and 4-6 million private citizens living overseas. The persons at issue are not military, they are civilians who have chosen to live abroad.
The crazy thing about Neil’s argument is that, in actuality, it hurts his case. The evidence shows that this group of civilian voters is overwhelmingly Democratic, by a 3 to 1 ratio. If the law allowed them to vote in this race, my margin of victory would grow considerably.
Neil threw out another bogus number when he claimed that “230 individuals were accepted for voting a full ballot…[but]none of the 230 individuals completed the required Statement of Residence prior to being accepted as voters. Therefore, the 230 votes should not be counted.” The Neil campaign has admitted that it was using a voter list “supplied to our team by a friend of the campaign – not by an official County entity.” Neil is wrong under the law, and has used inaccurate, unofficial information to greatly inflate his claim.
Probably the most wild accusation was when he stated that “We have also found about 1900 felons who may have been ineligible to vote.” Travis County officials reviewed records and confirmed that no felons voted in HD 48 election. Neil dropped this claim after using it in the press when he filed his lawsuit.
The list of inconsistencies goes on and on, indicating that Mr. Neil has no qualms about making whatever statement he believes plays to his advantage in his effort to take away my victory. In football, when you lose by a single point, you still lose. In an election, when you lose by 12 votes, the result may be hard to accept, but you lost.
The Republican Party has boasted of the unprecedented super majority it received in November. Now they are trying to govern with over 2/3 in the House and nearly 2/3 in the Senate.
The old adage is you spend money on your priorities. If that is the case, then the Republican Party doesn't give a damn about students, struggling families, teachers, the elderly, people struggling with medical bills, state employees and so many more.
The proposed budget is merely a starting point for hearings and debate leading to the official state budget, but we already know that the cuts-only approach taken in the proposed bill would hurt Texas families, cost us jobs, and undermine our economy recovery.
"Texas needs a balanced approach that includes using the Rainy Day Fund and adding new revenue. The proposed budget uses little more than the General Revenue the Comptroller projected is available in her Biennial Revenue Estimate, leaving us at least $27 billion short of what we need to write a budget that funds what the state is doing now. With a revenue shortfall this large, as the proposed budget shows, the Legislature cannot balance the budget through cuts alone without doing terrible damage. Among many other terrible things, the proposed budget would cost almost 10,000 state jobs, would cut already inadequate provider rates for Medicaid and CHIP by 10 percent, and would underfund the Foundation School Program for public education by almost $10 billion-a cut of almost 25 percent."
McCown is right, this is a base budget. A starting point of discussion and debate. The one troubling thing we aren't talking about as the slash and burn numbers begin to roll out is, how did this happen?
Texas unemployment numbers are virtually static at 8.1%, our population has grown so much in 10 years we are getting an increase in congressional seats and Texas has the equivalent population as New York did in 1930. If all this is true, why then do we have the largest deficit in the country in both size and per capita amount?
Mismanagement of the state budget and tax code perhaps?
Fort Worth Senator Wendy Davis discussed the problem clearly and highlighted what we need to focus our collective energy on.
The Legislative Budget Board's $156.4 billion budget proposal released to House members last night will cut $31.1 billion from current spending, even before accounting for population growth. The budget, drafted for House leadership, will slash education funding by $9.8 billion, while the student population is projected to grow by 80,000 students each year. Several primary and secondary education programs are recommended for elimination, including: pre-k early start grants; Texas reading, math and science initiatives; criminal history background reviews; and science labs. Higher education is slated to lose $1.7 billion in funding including significant cuts to the Texas Equalization Grants and Texas Grants programs statefunded financial aid. Other budget recommendations include reducing prison populations through early release of prisoners, cutting Medicaid reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and nursing home by 10 percent, and eliminating family practice and rural public health physician rotations.
"With such a dramatic budget shortfall, cuts must be made," Davis said. "But education funding should be our highest priority. We need to ensure that Texans are adequately educated so that we do not lose competitive ground at a critical time in our nation's economic recovery."
[...]
"While other states are competing for dollars to race to the top in education funding, Texas, under this budget recommendation, will be sprinting to the bottom," Davis said.
Davis said that any proposed budget that does not address the structural deficit in education funding, created in 2005 when lawmakers turned to an underperforming business franchise tax, will push the current biennial shortfall in public education funding of about $7 billion into future budgets indefinitely.
San Antonio State Representative Mike Villarreal echoes Sen. Davis and points to other troubling numbers we need to consider.
Public education will be cut by 23% under the Republican budget proposal. Funding for the Foundation School Program (FSP), the state's basic system for funding public education, would be 23% -- or $9.8 billion -- below the amount required by current state law. The All Funds budget for the School for the Blind would fall by 59%, or $55 million. The base budget would also eliminate state grant programs for pre-kindergarten, high school completion, and science labs.
"The Republican proposal means that many school districts will be forced to cut services for children, close schools, eliminate teachers, teach science without science labs, raise property taxes and make other costly decisions," said Rep. Villarreal. "I don't want this for my own children or anyone else's. Our children deserve more."
The base budget also slashes higher education. Funding for universities would decline by 9.5%, or $594 million, forcing many colleges to raise tuition. The shortfall is much larger if you take into consideration growth in student population and increases in costs. The number of students receiving TEXAS Grants, the state's main financial aid program, would fall from a total of 156,225 in 2010 and 2011 to 78,080 in 2012 and 2013. From 2011 to 2013, the number of students would decline from 86,830 to 27,135, a 69% cut. "The Republican proposal would make college more expensive, placing higher education and a good job out of reach for thousands of young Texans."
Houston area Representative, Armando Walle, also focused his concerns on education spending cuts.
"Republican lawmakers have shown their priorities with the proposed budget -- and have indicated that the needs of school children, the elderly and working families are not included in those priorities.
Our students, from pre-K to college, are suffering horrible cuts. The proposed Republican budget completely removes all state funding for pre-K or early childhood education, eliminating programs for over 100,000 children. The primary account for financing Texas public schools suffers a $9.8 billion reduction, which will surely result in teacher layoffs, overcrowded classrooms and school closures for our students. ESL students will also suffer with the complete elimination of the Limited English Proficiency Student Success Initiative.
The TEXAS Grant program and all other higher education grant programs, which have been instrumental in providing deserving students with assistance in pursuing a higher education, are cut dramatically. Economist Ray Perryman predicts that this loss will cost Texas over 1 million permanent jobs over the next two decades.
In addition to harming our children, Texas's elderly are forced to bear an overwhelming portion of the cuts. Republican budget writers have proposed a $1.57 billion reduction in nursing facility payments. The 10% rate cut to Medicaid providers adds insult to injury and will make it very difficult for many nursing homes to continue operating.
The deep budget cuts were designed to strike fear in the heart of Texans. Gov. Perry has denied that Texas is in a budget crisis and claims that the revenue numbers may change. However, it is abundantly clear that the proposed budget responds to a crisis created by Republicans and creates a crisis for all Texans."
Austin American Statesman reporter, Jason Embry, speculates the base budget is a shell game of sorts. He openly muses, "Anybody else get the feeling that part of the reason for this budget is to make lawmakers look like heroes when funding for agencies drops by, say, 7 percent instead of 14 percent once the rainy day funds are tapped and/or the comptroller ups the revenue estimate?"
As Kate Alexander points out the budget cuts are deep across the board. Of course this is the worst case scenario. Or is it?
The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute has released a "Blueprint for a Balanced Budget". With nearly $20 billion in cuts and postponed payments, it pushed this years budget shortfall onto the next biennium. Beyond the obvious problem of failing to deal with, and increasing, our structural budget problems, it also doesn't balance the budget.
The Comptroller has repeatedly stated we have a $27 billion budget shortfall. $20 billion in cuts, simply won't fix the problem.
The Republican written, passed and executed margins tax is bringing in significantly less money than expected or projected and all the dedicated funds have been raided to balance previous budgets.
Simply, the Republican Party broke Texas and now they can't come up with a solution to fix her. Instead, we will all have to watch massive cuts on essential services and watch them impose fees (since they won't say the word tax) and shift the burden to cities and counties. The lower level government will have to do something, so they will in turn raise taxes and suppress both residential and commercial growth.
All in all, it's a mess and the only solution proposed so far is to cut our way out of the problem... not fix it.
