Straus: "No New Taxes" State Budget
On May 11 at the House Appropriations committee meeting, Speaker of the House Joe Straus told committee members that they should balance the 2011-2012 biennial budget with no new taxes.
Straus argued that federal income taxes will be too high in the coming years due to declining revenue and growing population; therefore, it would be in the best interest of the people of Texas to keep state taxes low. He said that "every cost savings idea must be on the table" and said that the 5% budget cuts that Gov. Perry mandated this biennium are just the beginning.
An official from the Legislative Budget Board predicted that Texas will be short between $15 and $18 billion for the next budget cycle. This is up from an estimate earlier in the year that Texas would be short $11 billion. The Texas Constitution mandates that the state budget be balanced; therefore, the $18 billion hole must either be filled by cutting state services or increasing revenue.
During the meeting, Rep. Helen Giddings spoke about the budget cuts from 2003 that drastically cut social services, such as CHIP and Children's Mediciad. She predicted that the cuts will only be deeper this session. "If we had a cold in 2003, we're easing up on pneumonia now," she said.
Chairman Pitts told committee members that in addition to budget cuts, they will also have to find "revenue-enhancing measures" that aren't taxes. When Rep. Villarreal asked what those measures might be, the Chairman and several other committee member insinuated that the state could raise a lot of money if gambling were legalized.
Energy Efficient Rebates Snapped up Within Hours
On April 7th, Texans reserved more than $23 million in rebates for energy efficient appliances, exhausting the State's Recovery Act funding for the program in a matter of hours. The program provides rebates for consumers who purchase an ENERGY STAR appliance during a two-week period later in April, and it provides for increased rebates when the old appliances are recycled.
The State Energy Conservation Office administered the program, which they called the Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate program, and the agency reported that almost 39,000 rebates were reserved on the first day they were available, with 32,283 being resereved online and 6,581 more over the phone.
Texans have other opportunities to access energy efficiency incentives and programs. For example, a statewide sales tax holiday for certain ENERGY STAR appliances will take place over Memorial Day weekend.
Recovery Act Prominent During Tax Time
As Americans rush to fill out and send in their taxes before April 15th, they are finding relief from the Recovery Act. The average tax refund so far this year is $3,036, up ten percent from last year.
The Recovery Act's most well-known tax provision provided up to $800 in tax relief for all workers making up to $250,000, but other benefits included credit for first-time homebuyers, students, and the unemployed. A full list compiled by RecoveryForTexas.org can be seen here.
The White House has produced an online tool that allows taxpayers to determine which Recovery Act benefits they are eligible to access. Households with low to moderate incomes can receive free tax assistance through the VITA program; to find a VITA site near you, click here.
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Legislative Hearing in Dallas to Focus on Weatherization
The House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization will hold a joint hearing with the House Urban Affairs Committee in Dallas on Tuesday, March 30, to dicuss the Weatherization Assistance Program, which was infused with $327 million in Recovery Act funds. Legislators will tour a weatherized home in the morning and then invited and public testimony on the administration and effectiveness of the program.
The meeting will be held at Dallas City Hall at noon.
A One-Year Anniversary Report on ARRA and Jobs
On the one-year anniversary of the Recovery Act, the Center for Public Policy Priorities provides an overview of the impact of the legislation on employment in Texas and makes recommendations as Congress considers proposals to protect existing jobs and create more jobs.
The full report, which details Recovery Act effects on job creation and calls for more fiscal relief for states, can be downloaded in .pdf form.
Stimulus Fills Holes Along the Border, While Groups Urge More Action on Budget
Governor Rick Perry, Lt Gov. David Dewhurst, and House Speaker Joe Straus recently ordered state agencies to make a 5 percent cut in their budgets, as the state is staring at a potentially huge budget gap when the Legislature returns next session. For the Department of Public Safety, that will mean almost $15 million in cuts, with more than $10 million of that chunk coming out of border security operations. Luckily, Recovery Act funds allocated to prevent such cuts in law enforcement operations will save jobs and keep supporting the work of local sheriffs working along the border.
Meanwhile, the budget gap is looming large on the minds of state and local government officials, and some groups are calling on the federal government to continue the Recovery Act aid that is keeping many states afloat. The Center for Public Policy Priorities, a think tank based in Austin, has sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking them to provide more of the Medicaid and education funding that closed 98 percent of Texas' budget gap last session. That gap could be as much as $17 billion when the Legislature returns in January of 2011.
New Reports Detail Recovery Act Programs and Job Creation
The education, homeless assistance, and career development sectors all got a significant boost from Recovery Act funds in the last quarter of 2009, according to reports released on Recovery.gov. More than 28,000 jobs were created or saved between October and the end of the year due to contracts and grants stemming from the Recovery Act, with a majority of those jobs created by grants for education entities, including Head Start and Early Head Start programs and special education. The reports cover only grants, contracts, and loans during the last quarter of 2009, so they do not include economic activity created by the tax breaks, entitlements, and unemployment insurance contained in the Recovery Act.
Keep reading for more on the jobs, the data, and the programs.
Texas created more jobs than all but three states during the last quarter of Recovery Act spending, an improvement from its tenth-place finish in the first round of reporting. The single largest Recovery Act job creator in Texas last quarter was the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, a pot of more than $3 billion that was allocated to improve educational outcomes and equality while ensuring that no services were cut because of state and local budget gaps. More than 12,000 teachers, administrators, and others had their jobs saved or created during the reporting period. Other funding streams dedicated to education were responsible for thousands more jobs; for example, 250 jobs were spread across 50 Head Start and Early Head Start programs across the state.
When the first reports came out last October, we highlighted Department of Labor (DOL) programs that had created almost 5,800 jobs to that point, many of which were green jobs. Similar data is found in these latest reports, with DOL work programs, Work-Study placements, and Americorps expansions combining to connects thousands more people with good jobs. The AmeriCorps projects are funding hundreds of people as they engage in community service in locations across the state, doing work with homeless populations, helping kids prepare for college, and enhancing literacy.
The data was compiled in a new way this time around, as recipients were instructed to add up all of the hours spent on Recovery Act projects rather than counting each job individually. The new method was meant to make the process simpler and less subjective. Accuracy is still a concern, as it was in the initial round of reports. For instance, while 3,191 enitities filed reports for this period, only 1,255 reported creating at least one job. The remaining 1,936 entities collected more than $847 million for a range of projects, yet they reported either zero job creation or fractions of a job. While many of those projects have yet to get under way and many more involved little more than purchasing new equipment or supplies, a number of them have simply been misreported. For example, one road construction project underway in Bryan received more than $670,000 and lists a number of positions—including superintendents, truck drivers, and carpenters—that are being filled due to Recovery Act funds, but its job creation column still says zero. Instances such as this are bound to create underreporting and overreporting, but the data overall is a fairly accurate count of spending and job creation throughout the state.
Texas Impact continues to connect people with Recovery Act benefits while advocating for transparency and accountability as funds are spent.
