FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 10, 2011
CONTACT: Brian Stephens
512-320-0222 x112 (office)
512-565-0506 (cell)
House Budget Bill would Cut Texas' Future Short
(AUSTIN, Texas) — TexasForward, a broad coalition of groups from across Texas urging a balanced approach to the state’s revenue crisis, released the following statement on the filing today of the House budget bill.
“A state budget that spends only what the Comptroller tells us will be available ($72 billion) would take us back to levels of investment
not seen since the 2006-07 budget. Today, Texas has hundreds of thousands more children who need schooling or health care than it did in 2006, and millions more people using its roads and infrastructure every day.
“A cuts-only approach could cost Texas hundreds of thousands of jobs - public sector jobs in schools and private sector jobs in health care - and jeopardize the moderate economic recovery that the Comptroller is predicting. In addition, the needs of many harworking
Texans will go unmet.
“We need to move Texas forward by taking a balanced approach that protects working families, advances our economic recovery, and secures a prosperous future. That means we must spend the Rainy Day Fund and find other revenue to continue to meet current needs and investments in schools, health care, and roads.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 10, 2011
CONTACT: Brian Stephens
512-320-0222 x112 (office)
512-565-0506 (cell)
Revenue Estimate Shows State Needs a Balanced Approach
(AUSTIN, Texas) —TexasForward, a broad coalition of groups from across Texas urging a balanced approach to the state’s fiscal crisis, released the following statement on the Comptroller’s biennial revenue estimate announced today:
“The Comptroller’s estimate shows Texas revenue is coming up billions of dollars short of the amount required to meet our state’s minimum need for essential public services. Addressing this huge revenue shortfall by cutting spending alone would hurt Texas families and the Texas economy. In the short run, Texans would lose jobs. In the long run, Texans wouldn’t have the education and skills we need to compete in the global economy.
“Texas needs to take a balanced approach, rather than closing the shortfall through cuts alone. We need to use money available in the Rainy Day Fund, we need to maximize federal funds, and we need to consider ways to add new revenue. Only through a balanced approach can we protect Texas families and the Texas economy.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
CONTACT: Brian Stephens
512-320-0222 x112 (office)
512-565-0506 (cell)
New Coalition Urges a Balanced Approach to Move Texas Forward
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A new coalition of Texans today urged the Legislature
to spend all of the Rainy Day Fund as a balanced approach to bridging
the state’s anticipated revenue shortfall and fueling new economic
growth.
Texas Forward, whose 37 member organizations represent educators, health
and human services nonprofits and others dedicated to better lives for
all Texans, believes this is not the time to cure budgetary problems
with cuts alone. Texas children and their families need more help, not
less, in these difficult economic times.
“The Rainy Day Fund, which is expected to include more than $9 billion
by the end of the current fiscal year, was created to help lawmakers
meet financial emergencies. And, this emergency is of monsoon
proportions,” said Reverend T. Randall Smith, president of the Board of
Directors of Texas Impact.
Janet Ketcham, ceo/president of Child Advocates of San Antonio (CASA),
said a practical, balanced approach to drafting a new state budget also
will require some carefully targeted cuts. But they must be combined
with spending all of the Rainy Day Fund, maximizing the use of federal
dollars and creating new revenue streams that treat all individuals and
businesses equitably.
“The health, safety and, in some cases, even the lives of millions of Texans are at stake,” she added.
Here is what closing the shortfall with deep budget cuts alone—the
approach now advocated by some state leaders—would mean for millions of
Texans:
- More
crowded classrooms in the public schools, weakening the learning
environment, reducing achievement, undermining college readiness, and
prompting more kids, particularly disadvantaged youngsters in need of
individual attention, to give up on school and drop out. More dropouts
ultimately will cost every taxpayer more in criminal justice costs and
lower Texas’ attractiveness to employers with high-paying jobs.
- Additional
university tuition increases too high for many middle- and low-income
families to afford. Promising young people will drop out of college,
never enroll or take on a mountain of debt to fulfill their dreams.
Student financial aid, meanwhile, will be reduced, compounding the
problem.
- There
are approximately 150,000 disabled and senior Texans on Medicaid home
and community services who want to live as independently as possible and
age in place. Reductions in Medicaid home and community services will
result in many people going into more costly nursing home or other
institutional services.
- Thousands
of working families will lose access to affordable health insurance for
their children because of likely cuts to the Children’s Health
Insurance Program, or CHIP. Many of these kids will end up in public
hospital emergency rooms, where treatment is more expensive, and local
taxpayers will have to pick up the tab.
- Prevention
and Early Intervention (PEI), which provides delinquency prevention,
helping youth in crisis, and abuse and neglect prevention services under
the Department of Family and Protective Services, will be all but
eliminated. Such cuts threaten the safety of thousands of Texas
children.
Rev.
Smith concludes, “It would take years to recover from many of these
budget cuts and program reductions. Texas must move forward, despite our
financial challenges, and we can do so with an equitable, balanced
approach to budget-setting that will spur economic recovery and keep
pace with the state’s needs.”
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