The headline: “Tornado narrowly misses downtown Dallas after day of floods”. The Dallas Morning News story went on to report that “a tornado sliced through the center of Dallas on Wednesday, galloping southwest to northeast, its passage marked by a rolling plume of dust and the explosive flash of exploding electrical transformers.”
“It left a trail of battered industrial buildings, broken, gushing water pipes and toppled signs as it rambled from Cockrell Hill to Oak Cliff , West Dallas and the Love Field area before lifting into the sky again,” the reporter wrote.
Now to the Legislature and the State’s Rainy Day Fund: Ever since Republicans took control of the Texas House, Democrats and their fellow party members staffing newspaper editorial boards, have labeled budget cuts, even simple reductions in the amount of growth in spending, as draconian. They’ve said the GOP is balancing the state budget on the backs of the poor.
All last Session big government Democrats bemoaned the fact that Conservative Republicans worked to not spend all of the money in the Rainy Day Fund. To the spenders, any shortage of revenue needed to fund their social welfare projects is a crisis, a rainy day if you will. Even with the upcoming budget shortfall and economic calamity we find ourselves in, Legislators should keep a significant balance in the Fund.
The Rainy Day Fund should be treated more as an emergency, last option, account. It should be there so that Texas can handle catastrophes out of our control such as multiple hurricane hits, or a tornado hitting downtown Dallas. When times are tough is when you need your backup emergency fund more than ever, and times are tough.
Texas should never be put at the mercy of the uncaring and incompetent Federal Government when such can be avoided. Yes, use some of the Rainy Day Fund for the budget but, keep a sizeable balance to handle real stormy days.
Robert Pratt is host of the top-rated Pratt on Texas radio program which can be heard at www.PrattonTexas.com
