By: Ryan Poppe, Texas Public Radio
Leaders in the Texas Senate have released a two-year budget proposal that spends more on border security and calls for property tax cuts. Texas Public Radio’s Ryan Poppe reports on a plan for spending 6-percent more than the current budget.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Senate Finance Committee Chair Jane Nelson unveiled a budget bill that’s $3 billion dollars bigger than the budget proposed in the Texas House.
Both Republicans highlighted its call for cutting $4 billion in taxes. Nelson said that would include $3 billion in school property tax relief for homeowners and another billion in tax cuts for businesses.
Nelson: ‘We want actually people to feel it’.
Patrick: ‘Yeah, real tax relief now and bringing down the value increases.”
The House budget doesn’t identify specific tax cuts. Nelson and Patrick didn’t say how property taxes would be cut. The Senate budget also doubles the amount the state is currently spending on border security. It keeps the current per student funding for public schools, which many lawmakers want to increase. It adds just over $2 billion dollars for increased student enrollment growth.
Democratic Sen Carlos Uresti of San Antonio is newly appointed to the Senate Finance Committee and says he is comfortable providing homeowner tax cuts as long as it public education funding doesn’t suffer.
Sen. Uresti: “Well it’s a great start, you know we are a growing state. Everyday hundreds of people are coming to Texas and we can’t say ‘We’re open for business, come to Texas’ and not be prepared to educate their kid.”
Uresti would also like to see more money for fixing problems within the state’s foster care system. The senate’s budget also eliminates funding for the State’s Public Integrity Unit until it is moved out of the Travis County District Attorney’s office and it defunds the Texas Racing Commission. The proposals from both legislative chambers are just the beginning of a debate over how and where to spend state money, and who gets what is likely to change. During the last session, for example, the House budget at the beginning of the session was about $120 billion dollars smaller than the one eventually passed.
. RP TPR News]
Ryan E. Poppe | Reporter – Legislative Bureau Chief | KSTX 89.1 FM
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