Advocacy Camp Session Five Wrap-Up
From left: Texas Weekly's Ross Ramsey; CPPP's Eva Deluna Castro; HillCo Partners' Vilma Luna; Deputy Comptroller of Public Accounts Billy Hamilton; Texas Impact intern Emily Blosser; state budget guru Stuart Greenfield
Advocacy Camp was back in action this morning with a panel of state budget experts explaining key aspects of the state budget process.
State budget "guru" Stuart Greenfield, a former state revenue estimator who teaches economics at several Austin-area universities, gave an historical perspective on the Texas budget and compared per capita spending and revenues to other states.
Get Stuart's Charts on Texas Revenue and Expenditure History
Highlights of Greenfield's presentation:
Health and human services spending has increased at a rate 50% more than other areas in recent years, but still is not meeting demand
To bring Texas up to the national average in state per capita expenditures would require $15 billion/year in new spending
Greenfield recommended the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey as a good source of data for advocates preparing legislative testimony.
CPPP's Eva DeLuna Castro stressed that unlike many other states, Texas has a legislatively driven budget. However, she also pointed out that according to state budget analysts, less than 10% of the budget is really available for legislative initiatives.
For 2008-2009, lawmakers will start with 10% cuts across the board (with a few exceptions). In past administrations the starting point for the Texas budget was "current services"—that is, how much would be necessary to fund current programs at the same level of service adjusted for population increases. Deluna Castro said that approach has been abandoned in recent years in favor of a "percent cut" approach.
According to Deluna Castro, Texas would need to spend at least $20 billion more every biennium to fund current services.
Billy Hamilton explained Texas' budget process from the revenue side, starting with its genesis in the post-WWII era.
Hamilton opined that Texas is in a fiscal "Indian summer," where conditions may seem artificially pleasant before becoming brutal in 2009. This session, the budget likely will appear very healthy relative to the past couple of sessions, but due to the decision to apply state resources to reducing property taxes, the budget is expected to be $25 billion out of balance over a 5-year period.
Former state representative Vilma Luna, now a lobbyist for HillCo Partners, agreed with Hamilton that legislative actions in the special session on public school finance have left the state open to big budget problems in the future. She cautioned advocates to be on their guard in the 2007 session and beyond, especially regarding programs funding with "pure general revenue" that don't draw federal matching funds such as immigrant health services, saying these programs would be at the greatest risk for cuts.
Luna urged advocates to work collaboratively through networks on state budget issues. She pointed out that as the budget moves through the legislative process, action becomes more intense with longer days and less public access to information. She said this means advocates need to be able to depend on each other to pass on information and stay on top of budget actions as they occur.
Luna reminded the audience that she had been a sponsor of legislation that would have created a state income tax, and said that Texas needs an income tax. Greenfield pointed out that Texans are paying disproportionate federal income taxes because they don't pay a state income tax.
A special thanks goes out to the Honorable Eddie Rodriguez and his staff for sponsoring Advocacy Camp, as well as to the other members of the Travis Countyb delegation: Elliott Naishtat, Dawnna Dukes, Donna Howard and Mark Strama.
Thanks also to GoGo Gourmet for the wonderful breakfast and coffee; and to Texas Impact Resource Council members Judy Morgan, Tom Windberg, Ted Ziehe and Gaye Kopas for their assistance in planning and promoting the event.
