Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Texas Should Have The Right To Manage It's Own Money
In an article on the Austin American Statesman, Terra Smith writes about a major problem Representative Lloyd Dogget had with the way Texas was spending it's budget, and how he thought it should've been spent. Apparently, Texas had approved an increase in overall education spending by $3.25 trillion. While most people would just be happy that education spending was increasing at all, Dogget was not satisfied, because rather than seeing Texas spend more money out of an ever increasing deficit, he wanted the new funds for education to come out of the "rainy day" fund that Texas has saved for just what the title suggests. Dogget has actually prevented Texas from getting $831 million from the federal government after Congress passed a bill in 2010 specifically for the funding of education. The author goes on to talk about how Dogetts approach was wrong because Texas did nothing out of line and how the matter will be resolved in 1 of 3 ways: "Congress may repeal the restriction; Texas legislators might pass a budget that satisfies Doggett's requirement; or Texas will not receive the $831 million it deserves." In my opinion, the article is kind of confusing because it seems to switch between Texas congress and United States Congress without clarification between transitions. It is an important matter though. I would much rather the federal government go "in the hole'' a little in order for the states to not have to touch into a "rainy day" fund if they have one. Those funds are needed for days like when Katrina struck or natural disasters like this past winter posed to the North East Coast. That way the federal government will raise taxes, just like usual, and everyone will have to pay their fair share, not Texans having to replace $3.25 trillion into the "rainy day" fund that we just spent and need to save again.
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I agree with this piece because I feel that each state is it's own state for a reason. Right? So why would we not be able to manage our own money, that's extremely dumb. We keep having these disasters and we indeed need money for those, but regardless Texas should be able to put away money if they want to you know, because no one knows what tomorrow holds and I think it's better to be safe then sorry.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting, intriguing and thought provoking analysis by of the
ReplyDeleteDoggett Amendment by Kendall Burkett. However, Mr. Burkett seems not
to have a complete understanding of the amendment. For starters, if
Texas had $3.25 trillion just for education, we would not be
witnessing the months of heated wrangling on how to close the $27
billion budget shortfall in the 2012-2013 budget. Perhaps the author
was referring to $3.25 billion for education spending, which a
thousand fold less than 3.25 trillion. In any case this amount has no
relevance to the Doggett Amendment, which was passed last summer as
part of a larger piece of federal legislation. The Democrats’ 2010
provision effectively withheld $830 million in federal education money
from Texas until state leaders agreed not to use it to replace state
money that would have been spent anyway, as Doggett argued the Texas
legislature did with 2009 federal stimulus dollars. It’s supposed to
be ADDITIONAL money for Texas public education, not in place of
existing state funding. It is not complicated to understand that
Federal education money is meant for education and not for diversion
to Governor Perry's pet projects, such as the Trans Texas corridor or
the Enterprise Fund neither of which have anything to do with
education. It would be quite preposterous to divert highway funds for
medicaid reimbursement! It is astounding for Mr. Burkett to claim
that "Dogget has actually prevented Texas from getting $831 million
from the federal government" when in actuality, all Mr. Perry had to
do was pledge to spend education funds on education, which is a normal
legislative requirement for various other funds. He refused to do so.
His refusal to do so made his intentions clear. What a shame for our
teachers, our students, and our future.
Further the author objects to the use of the rainy day fund for
education. School teachers layoffs, UT faculty and adminstrator
layoffs, and drastic reductions in health care spending are as much a
catastrophe as that caused by a natural disaster. The $9 billion in
the Economic Stabilization Fund, also known as the rainy day fund
should be used to close the gap in the state budget as many economists
have stated that we Texas can't just cut its way out of the shortfall,
without severely impacting the state economy. I also take issue with
the author's contention that the Federal government which is facing
its own massive deficits should bail out the states with tax
increases. Where is the accountability for elected state office
holders? I feel that the rainy day fund should be tapped for education
as it was the legislature which decreased school funding by reducing
property taxes by $2 billion, which was supposed to be offset through
new business and cigarette taxes that never materialized.
In summary, Congressman Doggett had the best interests of the school
children in mind when he proposed his amendment, while Governor Perry
gave higher priority to the interests of his fat cat business cronies.
I agree, Texas should be able to spend their money the way they want to but somehow Lloyd Dogget is so politically powerful that he prevented Texas getting $831 million from the federal government. Taking money from the "rainy day fund" for education is wrong its called the "rainy day fund" for accidents and natural disasters and funding more school programs is neither of them. Whats funny about Lloyd Dogget is that he wanted to increase the overall education spending in a time like this? I don't know where he gets his logic there must be a deeper reason for this but it does sound crazy to increase the spending for education and also taking it out of the rainy day fund sounds even more crazy.
ReplyDelete