Month: <span>March 2011</span>

A plum state job for a budget cutter

Gov. Rick Perry, a career state employee, is something of a hero to the antigovernment Texas Public Policy Foundation because he heeds the TPPF’s advice on axing lesserpaid state workers, including teachers, from the public payroll. Perry and the TPPF “think tank” are two peas in a pod when it comes to telling lesser mortals […]

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Trying to soft shoe the bad news

As did many other Republican freshmen state representatives, Dee Margo of El Paso campaigned against higher state spending and for smaller government. On his campaign website, Margo even mentioned a nonexistent state “surplus.” So, now that the Republican leadership in Austin is planning deep cuts in public education and other important services, what does Margo […]

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Second and loong

Call it a small step for public education…with a long way still to go. About $2 billion of the $3.2 billion that Gov. Perry and House leaders agreed to spend from the Rainy Day Fund is expected to go to public schools through the school finance formulas, according to Quorum Report. Keeping in mind that […]

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It is very wet out there

Gov. Perry’s public, but reluctant agreement to use as much as $3.2 billion of the Rainy Day Fund to help the Legislature close one budget hole is hardly cause for celebration. That will help lawmakers get rid of a deficit for the current fiscal year but still leave a revenue shortfall as big as $23 […]

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