Conservative Legislators release comprehensive budget proposal
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas With the State of Texas facing a significant revenue shortfall conservative state legislators today released a comprehensive set of proposals to help balance the budget without raising taxes. The report released by the State Budget Task Force of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) calls for the budget to be balanced through reforms reductions and other cost-saving measures.
The final report of the TCCRI State Budget Task Force titled
Blueprint for a Balanced Budget is the product of nearly eighteen months of work by legislators budget experts and TCCRI staff.
The Task Force co-chaired by State Senator Tommy Williams and State Representative Warren Chisum reviewed state spending priorities
considered structural changes in state appropriations and management and identified areas for cost savings.
State Representative Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) TCCRI President & Co-Chairman of the Budget Task Force stated:
After months of careful review and hard work we can confidently claim that even if the shortfall is as high as some estimate the budget can be balanced without increasing the tax burden on Texas families and businesses. Our budget report provides legislators with a principled blueprint to overcome the defining challenge of the 82nd Texas Legislature: balancing the budget without raising taxes."
The final report of the TCCRI State Budget Task Force outlines a range of possible budget reforms and program reductions with a focus on agencies core missions and essential state services.
The primary goal of the report is to illustrate that the state budget can and must be balanced without raising taxes. Among the key items in the report are:
- A broad range of possible General Revenue reductions totaling nearly $18 billion as well as additional policy reforms which total an estimated $3.5 billion
- A range of recommendations to reform and reduce bureaucracy
- A call to reshape government including all agencies and public schools to better meet a defined set of core constitutional missions.
Representative Chisum cited one of the key proposals outlined by the TCCRI report: Our Task Force identified alarmingly high costs linked to the growth of the public sector workforce at all levels of government especially when
compared to other large states. Reducing and reforming our public sector workforce is our first priority in addressing the revenue shortfall."
While the Task Force rejects reductions in classroom spending the report does recommend a reduction in support and administrative staff at Texas public schools by bringing schools up to the productivity levels of the top two hundred districts in the state.
The report also makes a range of short- and long-term policy recommendations to prevent against future revenue shortfalls such as a stricter constitutional spending limit.
State Senator Tommy Williams TCCRI Board Member and co-chairman of the Budget Task Force stated:
The revenue shortfall facing Texas poses significant challenges but it is not an insurmountable problem. Budget cuts are immediately necessary to address our revenue shortfall. But they are also an inherently worthy exercise to protect taxpayers reform state government and safeguard future prosperity for our state."
Senator Williams concluded: Focused spending helps to ensure that state government is
succeeding at a limited number of constitutional core missions without taking on extraneous tasks and goals that can be better accomplished by the private sector or individuals and families.
Budget reforms and reductions will help us keep our fiscal house in order to the benefit of taxpayers and the states economy" Williams said.
