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Broken Promises and Plain Ol’ Bad Budgeting

Tuesday, October 04, 2011 |

A kid buys a dog from a guy for $100.  But when he goes to pick up the dog, it's dead.  The guy tells him it died after the kid agreed to buy it, so, tough luck, he's not giving the money back.  But the kid hauls off the dead animal anyway.

A few months, later the guy runs into the kid and asks what he ever did with that dead dog.  The kid says, "I held a raffle. I asked, 'Would you be willing to pay $10 for a dog?'  I collected $1,000."

The older guy is flabbergasted.  He asks, "Weren't people upset when they found out the dog was dead?"  The kid says, "Not really. Just the lady who won. So I gave her $10 back."

Folks, that kid has the skill set necessary to write the Texas budget.

Bad news for budget honesty 

Last week, the Comptroller revealed some very troubling new numbers showing how those in control of the Capitol entice Texans into paying a tax or fee for a specific purpose (such as 911 service, parks, clean air programs, utility bill relief for seniors, etc.), but then divert that money away from the promised use to help prop up the state's rickety tax system and budget.

This, of course, is a practice that's been going on for a couple of decades.  But it's gotten worse and worse in the last few years, because those in control of the Capitol are having more and more trouble covering over and propping up their failed business practices.

And as we now know from this report, the use of diversions absolutely exploded during the last legislative session.

In 2001, the total amount of these diversions was $1.6 billion.  In 2009, it was expected to be $3.7 billion.  This past session, we were told the total might grow to $4 billion or even $4.5 billion.

The real number?  According to the Comptroller, it now stands at $4.95 billion.

$4.95 billion.  A 200 percent increase in the last 10 years.  About $198 paid by every man, woman and child in the state of Texas.

More money, more problems (passing bills)

This terrible budget habit has been something I’ve been concerned about, and worked to end, since I was elected to the Senate five years ago.  This past session, I carried what I called the Honesty Agenda – a package of bills to make the budget process open and honest and make sure people could see how their money was being spent.  A lot of it was passed into law – you can see a summary of all that here.
 
I’m very proud to have opened up the state’s budget process and finances in these ways.  But those in control of the budget doggedly blocked my bill to have the state stop collecting these fees when the amount of money that was being horded for budget-propping purposes exceeded the amount being spent on the stuff it was supposed to be spent on.  In fact, this bill wasn't even voted on by the Senate Finance committee – and believe me, I pushed to get it voted on.

When power plays stopped committee action, I proposed a floor amendment to a must-pass bill that would have capped diversions at no more than double what was spent on intended purposes.  Unfortunately, that push for open and honest budgeting failed on a party-line vote.

During the debate on that amendment, the Senate Finance Chair said I was right and that the state needs to reform the budget.  And then, of course, he moved to kill the amendment anyway.

The big picture: So this is what running a business looks like?

The worst part of all of this is, this isn’t really the bad news.
 
No, the bad news is that these diversions aren’t an isolated problem.  Really, they’re just part of the pattern of debt, diversions and deception that’s allowed those in control to balance a less-than-transparent budget for years.
 
And in case you’re wondering how long it’ll be until all of this catches up with them ... well, I’d say about 15 months.
 
The budget passed this year was very hard.  It’s required widespread cuts in classrooms across the state.  It’s led to a 10-figure shortfall in healthcare funding.  And there have been so many layoffs among state, school district and other public employees that it’s pushing up the state’s unemployment rate.
 
But that’s not the end of it – not by a long shot.

  • Many expect the state will come into the next session facing a budget hole of $10 billion or more.
  • More than 100 school districts are preparing to sue the state alleging that it’s failed to meet its constitutional obligation to provide a fair and adequate school finance system.
  • The widely and wildly unpopular Margins Tax has been in need of reform for two sessions and isn’t getting any less broken (it also has been challenged in court as being unconstitutional).
  • Those in control of the budget intentionally underfunded the state’s Medicaid obligations by more than $4 billion – a hole they’ll probably have to fill shortly after the session starts, so we know we'll probably start with a budget deficit.
  • Oh, and there’s that matter of almost $5 billion in diversions. 

All of this adds up to significant budget problems in 2013.  The sooner we start being honest about them, the easier it will be to solve them.  Those in control of the Capitol like to say we should run Texas government like a business. That sounds great.  Almost fits on a bumper sticker.  

But this ain't no way to run a business.  Unless you want to run it into the ground.  

And now, a weight update

I really need to lose weight.  Some of you, I'm sure, are spending lots of time worrying about my commitment to getting back into shape in time for a mid-November half marathon.  Your thoughts and prayers are highly appreciated.  

I don't mean to sound unappreciative but, frankly, I don't think you're praying or thinking hard enough.  Get after it. Here's the update:

Pounds lost: 3

Running mileage gained:  Progress so negligible that I considered removing the category.

New body parts hurting:  3 (There are 5 hurting, but 2 were hurting when I started the program.)

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