Sylvester Turner passed his first budget as mayor of the City of Houston. While it is being applauded as a balanced budget, it ignores many glaring concerns about the city’s finances.
Texas Budget
Texas Senate Leads on Fiscal Responsibility
Zero Based budgeting is a large step toward greater fiscal responsibility.
Limited Budget Growth
Within the next day or two, members of the Texas Senate and House will finalize a state budget. Remarkably, it is one that meets the minimum threshold of “not spending everything.” Last year, conservative groups joined together as the “Conservative Texas Budget...
Mayor Parker’s Final Budget
Last week, Mayor Annise Parker revealed what she called her “lean and mean” conservative $5.1 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2016. Although the city has increasingly faced financial issues throughout Parker’s term, her latest budget, once again, offers no...
Senate Budget Conferees Appointed
On Thursday afternoon, the Senate released the names of its five members who will serve on the conference committee for the state budget, HB 1. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has appointed Sens. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (D-McAllen), Charles...
House Budget Conference Committee Members Appointed
On Wednesday afternoon, the House released the names of its five members who will serve on the conference committee for the state budget bill HB 1. Speaker of the House Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) appointed Reps. John Otto (R-Dayton), Sylvester Turner (D-Houston),...
Reforms, Budget Pass Senate
On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate passed its budget for the 2016-17 biennium. At $211.4 billion, the Senate budget is slightly larger (by a margin of roughly $1.5 billion) than its House counterpart. However, the increase is not due to more spending, but may be...
A Tale of Two Chambers
State politicians often assert that they’re going to Austin so they can “get stuff done,” but such a charge demands review. At this point, we’re well past the halfway point in this regular session for members of the 84th Legislature. They’ve been “working” for 3...
House Sluggish on Tax Relief
On Tuesday morning, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the budget plan provided in House Bill 1. HB 1, as passed by the committee, will spend $209.8 billion over the 2016-17 biennium, an increase of $7.4 billion from the $202.4 billion base budget...
The Limiting Metric
Analysts at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) have compared Texas spending limit methods over recent biennia and found that application of the population-plus-inflation metric to each budget since 2006 results in a trend of relatively constant spending limits....