Effort would transfer savings to Teacher Retirement System.
By State Rep. Jonathan Stickland
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Tomorrow the Texas House will be taking up the General Appropriations Act to fund our State Budget for the 20142015 biennium Senate Bill 1. This is a big deal as the budget is the only bill we are constitutionally required to pass each session. As the bill stands today we would appropriate
$193.8 billion over the next two years; a 2.1 increase from current spending levels.
I have stated publicly that if certain amendments to the budget are not adopted I will not vote for the bill. These amendments are closely linked to recent legislation passed which you can learn more about by reading the stories below.
First there are several amendments which would cut the budget across-the-board in order to fund the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas. If water projects are truly a priority we should reduce spending on other projects and fund them within our budget.
I believe raiding the Rainy Day Fund is bad for Texas not only because long-term water projects are not an appropriate use of funds which are saved for emergency situations but because moving water projects outside of the normal budget
process means that we can spend an extra $2 billion on projects which are less important and less deserving.
Second a group of conservative colleagues and I
have proposed 37 amendments to the bill that would zero-out a number of unnecessary government programs and transfer the savings to the Teacher Retirement System.
The healthcare component of the pension system for teachers is severely underfunded. We owe it to our teachers to keep our promise to them and have a fiscally sound retirement system that meets our obligations.
I personally have filed amendments to zero-out the following programs and transfer their appropriated funds to pay down our obligations to the Teacher Retirement System:
- The Texas Clean School Bus Program
- The Texas Natural Gas Vehicle Grant Program
- The Clean Transportation Triangle Program
- The Alternative Fueling Facilities Program
- The Pollution Prevention Recycling Program
- The Texas Research Incentive Program
- The Border Facility Loan Repayment Program
- And reduce the Texas Parks & Wildlife Land Acquisition account to 2012 levels.
Please pray for us as we fight for fiscal responsibility in Texas government!
Update on Last Weeks House Actions:
Last week we voted out
House Bill 5 a bill making major popular reforms to public education. Over the past few weeks my office has received dozens of calls and letters supporting the bill and after exploring its details. I understand why.
Last week
we also passed House Bill 4 which will create the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas. SWIFT is a revolving fund which will help guarantee that water projects across our state receive ample funding at low interest rates.
- According to the author of the bill the fund will help Texas meet its ... (read more)
State Representative Jonathan Stickland of Bedford Texas represents State House District 92. He supports limited government transparency limiting regulation and representing the voters not the lobbies.
