Austin, TX
Texas Legislature outlines state budget proposal
AUSTIN, Texas — State lawmakers are working on plans for what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calls a conservative approach to budgeting.
In a statement, Patrick announced the filing of the Senate budget proposal, saying, “Our conservative approach to budgeting has allowed Texas to maintain a pristine balance sheet going into the next biennium. This will keep our state’s economy the envy of the nation and the world.”
Along with the Senate, the House also filed its budget proposal. Both include more than $150 billion in spending driven by Republican priorities such as increased border security and school vouchers.
Rep. Mary González, D-El Paso, is the vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee. She describes the first draft of the chamber’s budget proposal as a work in progress.
“Our budget is a moral document of how we think we need to plan for the future of this state that is bigger than a lot of countries,” said González.
Lawmakers have a $24 billion surplus to allocate, which is $10 billion less than the last budgeting cycle. Chamber leadership describes their budgets as fiscally conservative, with the House proposal totaling $335 billion and the Senate $332 billion.
“They’re leaving room, for themselves on, in terms of, like, additional priorities that will come through during the legislative session,” said Rahul Sreenivasan with Texas 2036.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, says how lawmakers allocate the money “will determine the financial boundaries under which we operate when considering all other major legislation, including school choice, water infrastructure, and more.”
The priorities for the upper and lower chambers are similar, signaling a reset from previous tension that stemmed from the failure of educational savings account legislation in the House. Now it’s back on the table.
“We have the means to provide not only public education with the money it needs to go forth and do good work, but also to establish a new ESA program,” said James Quintero with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Both chambers allocated $1 billion to school vouchers. This is double the allocated funding from the last legislative session.
“I do foresee us having deeper conversations on guardrails and protection of taxpayer dollars,” said González.
There is nearly $5 billion set aside for public education that includes teacher pay raises, and $6.5 billion is currently assigned to border security, which Patrick says is to “continue Texas’ strong presence at the border and maintain current border security operations.”
“I hope that the national government will become more willing to do what it needs to do on the border and take less pressure off the Texas budget,” said Quintero.
And decreasing property tax is another large ticket item for both chambers.
“The House version of the bill basically says we set aside this $3 billion contingent upon the passage of some legislation,” said Shannon Halbrook with Every Texan. “The Senate version of the bill, on the other hand, does specify that they want to increase the homestead exemption once again.”
While the House committees are not yet set, the Senate finance committee will start budget hearings early next week. The last budget is expected to be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature in May.
Austin, TX
Mother searching for answers after Texas college student Brianna Aguilera found dead after football game
The mother of a Texas college student is desperately searching for answers after her daughter was found dead near campus after attending a tailgate, according to reports and authorities.
Brianna Aguilera, a 19-year-old student at Texas A&M University, was discovered dead outside an apartment complex around 1 a.m. Saturday morning, just hours after she attended a tailgate for Texas A&M’s football game against the University of Texas, KSAT reported.
Aguilera’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, told the outlet that she has received inconsistent answers from the Austin Police Department after investigators said Aguilera likely died by suicide.
Detectives told her she had fallen from 17 floors, the mother recalled.
“There are a lot of inconsistencies with the story,” Rodriguez said. “He told me they said she jumped, and then he told me that the friends said they didn’t know her whereabouts.”
The heartbroken mother said her daughter, a sophomore at the university, was not suicidal and was looking forward to her future as a lawyer.
Rodriguez called police after her daughter did not answer her phone after Friday’s game, noting she saw Aguilera’s phone pinging in Austin.
Cops then instructed her to wait 24 hours before filing a missing persons report, the outlet reported.
Officers later found Aguilera’s cellphone on Saturday. However, Rodriguez was not told until 4 p.m. that day that her daughter was in the morgue, the mother recalled.
Rodriguez believes something more sinister could have been at play leading up to the fatal fall.
She maintained that one of the 15 people inside the apartment must know something about her daughter’s death.
“There was a fight that happened between my daughter and another girl, and they were all staying in the same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and the detective just disregarded them,” Rodriguez said.
Austin police said Aguilera’s death is not being investigated as a homicide, as the investigation has not revealed any suspicious details, the outlet reported.
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the aspiring lawyer’s cause of death.
Aguilera hailed from Laredo, where she attended United High School. She was a “seasoned cheerleader” and received Magna Cum Laude honors before graduating high school, according to a GoFundMe organized for her loved ones.
“She was pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer and was attending The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M,” the statement continued.
“The details surrounding what happened next remain unclear, and her mother is still awaiting answers,” the fundraiser continued.
The GoFundMe has since raised over $28,000, more than double its $12,000 goal.
“Im so grateful for your love and support at this moment. The unexpected loss of my brie brie has been a tremendous challenge, but I find strength in the outpouring of kindness,” Rodriguez said in a Monday message to the hoards of supporters.
“I’ve experienced every parent’s worst fear, but I’m comforted by the knowledge that my brie brie touched so many hearts.”
Texas A&M University did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Austin, TX
Austin Light Rail gets ‘medium-high’ rating from federal transit officials
AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Light Rail project is creeping closer to the station after a promising rating from federal transit officials last week.
In an annual funding recommendation report from the Federal Transit Administration, the project received an overall project rating and local financial commitment summary rating of “medium-high.” It also received “medium” ratings for mobility improvement, land use and project justification summary.
The line received a cost-effectiveness rating of “low,” which may reflect the problems the Austin Light Rail has faced since its 2020 voter approval as part of Project Connect. The project included “a generational $7 billion transit overhaul and an ongoing 20% property tax increase,” the Austin American-Statesman reported, but the cost of the light rail has since increased.
The funding recommendation ratings are set to allow the Austin Transit Partnership to compete for federal funding through the Capital Investment Grant. The line’s overall rating also “signals that federal staff view the project as financially and technically viable,” according to the Statesman.
Austin Light Rail was 27 miles long at the time of Project Connect’s passing but has since been reduced to under 10 miles. It would run north to south between 38th and Oltorf streets and include an eastern spur stretching from Lady Bird Lake area to near the inside of State Highway 71.
Austin, TX
What seed did Texas volleyball get in the NCAA Tournament?
For the first time since 2022, Texas volleyball will enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed.
The NCAA Tournament’s selection committee released its field of 64 Sunday, and Texas (23-3) received one of the coveted top-four seeds, which means the Longhorns won’t leave Austin until a possible trip to the Final Four Dec. 18-21 in Kansas City, Mo.
Texas, the No. 3 overall seed, will open the tournament Friday at 7 p.m. against Florida A&M at Gregory Gymnasium on the Longhorns’ campus. With a win, the Longhorns would face either No. 8 seed and defending national champion Penn State or South Florida this weekend in a second-round contest.
If Texas wins both its games this upcoming week, the Longhorns could face No. 4 Indiana, No. 3 Wisconsin or No. 2 Stanford in the regional tournament. Those programs are the other top-four teams in the Longhorns’ Austin Quadrant.
The NCAA will release its full tournament schedule later Sunday.
The NCAA volleyball tournament is structured like college basketball’s postseason tournament and features 64 teams, including 31 automatic qualifiers and 33 at-large selections. The selection committee seeded the top 32 teams with the top 16 identified in rank order.
Top-ranked Nebraska, the nation’s only unbeaten team, is the No. 1 overall seed while SEC champion Kentucky is the No. 2 seed. Pittsburgh earned the final No. 1 seed and the fourth overall seed.
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