Grading Texas

The prospects of deep cuts to important public services are bad enough for millions of workingclass Texans without Gov. Rick Perry continuing to make cavalier statements that insult the people he was elected to serve. The most recent example occurred yesterday when the governor, at a news conference, ridiculed the “proponents of Armageddon” for “needlessly” raising concerns about the anticipated spending reductions.

In the first place, the concerns were prompted by Perry’s repeated insistence that a revenue shortfall, now projected as high as $27 billion, be bridged with spending cuts and spending cuts alone. So far, the governor has even ruled out any expenditures from the Rainy Day Fund to help ease the emergency.

Secondly, being worryfree about financial “Armageddon” comes easily for a governor with a sixfigure state salary, a large, taxpayerpaid staff at his beck and call and a $10,000permonth, taxpayerpaid mansion to call home.

But a personal form of “Armageddon” may very well be at the door for the custodians, secretaries and other nonprofessional staffers who will start losing their jobs in the Vidor ISD this month, mainly because Perry and the Legislature have refused to adequately fund the public schools. By the time a new state budget is drafted, something akin to Armageddon also may be breathing down the necks of thousands of newly unemployed teachers and state employees. And, it may be a reality for thousands of lowincome, working parents who will see their kids lose health care coverage because of cutbacks to CHIP.

The only optimistic note from yesterday’s news conference was a vague hint that Perry – prompted by Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden – may take a look at the underperforming margins tax. Efforts to milk more revenue from that source, however, are sure to prompt howls of outrage from many business people.

But Perry should tone down the rhetoric. The political campaign, at least the governor’s race, is over. It is time to govern, not sound like a yakshow host on Fox.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/011311dntexperrydewhurststraus.a94a8e20.html#

http://orangeleader.com/topstories/x233958489/VidorISDtobeginreductionofworkforceJan31

I posted a blog item last week about how parents and other taxpayers – including people who normally don’t want any part of the political world – are beginning to realize that they and their children will be the ultimate victims of the deep budget cuts being championed at the state Capitol by Gov. Rick Perry and some Republican legislators.

Well, the lights continue to blink on.

While Perry was in Austin, trying to downplay the seriousness of a revenue shortfall as high as $27 billion and poohpoohing any notion of spending any part of the state’s Rainy Day Fund to help ease the emergency, more than 800 of his angry and concerned constituents were trying to squeeze into the Fort Bend School Board’s meeting room in Sugar Land.

Why? Fort Bend ISD, one of hundreds of budgetstrapped school districts across the state, is considering closing several schools.

In Austin, on Tuesday night, about 300 people attended a parents’ meeting to protest the possible closure of one of several schools that Austin ISD is considering shutting down. In each case, hundreds of school kids’ lives will be disrupted, their new schools will be more crowded and teachers’ jobs will be lost.

Every day, the news clips include several stories of school districts’ budgetary woes, all traceable to the governor’s and the Legislature’s failure to adequately and equitably fund the public schools. The recession hasn’t helped, but the basic problem is a school finance failure at the statehouse.

This morning’s clips also included discussions of possible layoffs in El Paso ISD and various costcutting possibilities in San Antonio ISD, including layoffs, a shorter school week and consolidating some specialty schools.

“You couldn’t spend enough to make some of those groups happy,” Gov. Perry told the Houston Chronicle in an interview on the same day the Fort Bend parents besieged their local school board.

“Those groups” obviously include Fort Bend parents and thousands of others throughout the state who soon will be barging in on their local school boards when their neighborhood schools also are threatened with closure.

All the peaceful, public activism is good. But now it’s time for these parents to turn their attention to the root of the problem – the Capitol. There is a lot of room for peaceful rallying on the Capitol grounds or even outside the governor’s office. Let Perry hear and see how unhappy his everyday constituents really are.

The governor didn’t even see fit to make education funding an emergency on the first day of the session. But he did give “emergency” status to legislation protecting private property rights and ending the practice of “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants, both hotbutton priorities of conservative Republican primary voters.

Some say Perry is keeping his options open for a 2012 presidential run. I say it’s time for him to quit dreaming and start listening to the thousands of everyday Texans who want an adequately funded public education system.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/capacitycarecostsarefactorsinaustinschool1179509.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7376607.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7375326.html

Money – more specifically, the lack of it – was big news in both Austin and Sacramento today.

In Sacramento, Jerry Brown, the new California governor, laid out his plan for addressing a budgetary shortfall estimated at $25.4 billion. You remember California. It’s that large state on the West Coast, the state that envies Texas, according to Rick Perry, the perpetual Texas governor.

Well, that envy – if it ever existed anywhere outside Perry’s mind – is now officially a thing of the past. That’s because Texas now has an even bigger shortfall, about $27 billion, based on revenue projections released in Austin this morning by Comptroller Susan Combs. The shortfall is the difference between the projected general revenue available for spending during the upcoming biennium ($72.2 billion) and what it would cost to maintain state services at their current levels, taking into account population growth and enrollment growth in the public schools ($99 billion).

In Texas, Gov. Perry and legislative leaders – on the eve of the legislative session, which convenes tomorrow are still insisting that the huge revenue gap be closed with crippling budget cuts to such essential state services as education and health care. In California, Gov. Brown also is proposing budgetary cuts but wants to balance them with a series of tax increases for the next five years.

Unlike Perry, Brown also would specifically protect spending on public education, grades K through 12. Perry talks a good game on the importance of public schools and their role in creating a strong economic future, but Brown actually is doing more than talk. He also is trying to spare public education – and the future of California – from devastating budget cuts.

If Perry has his way in Texas, and Brown prevails in California, guess which state will be attracting the better, higherpaying jobs in the nottoodistant future? (Hint. It won’t have a Capitol in Austin.)

Brown also may represent the interests of Texans better than does Perry. According to an independent poll published in several Texas newspapers over the weekend, Texans strongly oppose spending reductions for schools and health care programs. Some 70 percent said the Legislature shouldn’t cut spending for schools, and 61 percent oppose spending cuts on health care programs for children and low to moderateincome families.

It is time for Perry to stop dreaming, quit bashing California and help fix Texas.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/sharedgen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/01/10/revenue_estimate_puts_shortfal.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011003388.html

http://www.statesman.com/news/texaspolitics/voterswantschoolsandhealthcaresparedfrom1173164.html

Many Texans, so far, haven’t paid much attention to all the talk about budgetcutting at the statehouse. And, many who have seen or read something about it have had difficulty relating to the supersized numbers in news accounts. Slowly, however, light bulbs are beginning to blink on, as in the News 8 Austin story (linked below) about Austin ISD considering the closure of Barton Hills Elementary, among several other schools, to meet a $20 million district shortfall.

After the Barton Hills principal sent letters to parents on Thursday, warning of the possible closure, one parent interviewed by the TV station reacted: “I was blown away by the fact that they were saying we were going to have this kind of gigantic budget cut. I mean obviously having two children here, it’s a very personal matter.”

Yes, elections matter, and November’s election is beginning to matter for many Texans who may have thought that the warnings of budget cuts were exaggerated – or intended for someone else.

In other news reports this morning, Round Rock ISD has imposed a hiring freeze, Hutto is considering closing a school and cutting 80 staff positions and Bedford is closing a school as part of a consolidation of elementary campuses.

Unfortunately, there will be a lot more of the same to come.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/275977/austinschoolstargetedforclosureamidbudgetcuts