Oh jeez!

http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-state-budget-crisis-2011-1#

Notice how many of these are Red States, take Texas for example, please!

While Texas Gov. Rick Perry sucked up to the “tea party,” declaring himself opposed to “government bailouts” and prattling about seceding from the union, he papered over his state’s budget gap with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act funds, including increased federal handouts for education and Medicaid. So when you, the California taxpayer, hear talk of the Texas Miracle, you should take pride in having helped pay for it.

The supposed superiority of Texas over California in fiscal policy long has been a conservative article of faith. In 2009 the libertarian American Legislative Exchange Council published a report co-authored by the conservative economist Arthur Laffer underscoring the contrast. The report posited that “Texas’ superior policies over the past several years are making the Lone Star State more resilient to the current economic downturn.”

But Texas was hardly immune to the recession. From 2006 through 2010, the unemployment rate in Texas soared from 4.4% to 8.3%. Yes, that’s a better showing than California, which went from 4.9% to 12.5%, but the difference may reflect the huge effect on California’s economy of the popping of the housing bubble, which jumped our unemployment rate to a new magnitude and is likely to keep it there for a while.

LA Times

We need to be clear. Republicans have been in firm control of Texas for many years now. We have had a Republican Governor since 1995. Republicans have long been in control of  both Houses of the Texas Legislature.

Republicans would have you believe that only states run by Democrats face these types of deficit problems.

However, because we are not powerless as free citizens, this problem is also on average Texans who have enjoyed low taxes even as our state has failed on so many measures of education and public health.

Texas is 43rd of the 50 states in overall tax burden.

And, of course, we have millions of Texans who can’t even be bothered to vote in most elections.

This combination of  a bad national economy, a destructive ideology, low taxes, and a short-sighted public has real consequences.

As reported by the Texas Tribune, here is how the Chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee, Jim Pitts, sees the upcoming state budget—

“Pitts didn’t sugarcoat the proposed cuts, which strike a potentially devastating blow to public education and health care, eliminate 9,000 state jobs and shutter two state institutions for people with disabilities, one prison unit and three Texas Youth Commission lock-ups.”

The Austin American-Statesman recently reported on the extent of the likely cuts for education in Texas–-

“As many as 100,000 school district jobs could be eliminated in the face of a significant reduction of state aid for public schools, said Lynn Moak, a school finance consultant…The proposed budget does not cover $9.8 billion owed to the school districts under the current school finance formulas. Legislation will be needed to reduce the state’s obligations by that amount, which includes money to pay for new students in public schools and replace the federal stimulus dollars that legislators used in 2009 for basic school funding. Democratic House members said the budget proposal pretends that the 170,000 new students expected in Texas classrooms just won’t materialize. Nor was money included to pay for new textbooks or supplemental science materials that are needed to prepare high schools for the upcoming end-of-course exams. Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, told the State Board of Education on Wednesday that she would fight for those classroom necessities. Shapiro has long led the Senate Education Committee.”

Even a Republican State Senator is upset.

What did she expect?

The Daily Hurricane

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