Texas legislature studies two ways to spend $130 billion

AUSTIN, TX (KCBD) – After a brief week involving two temporary conferences underneath the dome and the inauguration ceremonies Tuesday, state lawmakers filed their 2024-25 finances proposals and adjourned for 5 days.

The 1,033-page budgets are related in mission however differ intimately on the right way to spend the state’s historic projected income stream and its $33 billion surplus from the final session. Each proposals cease on the constitutional and legislative spending caps of $130.1 billion {dollars}, leaving greater than $50 billion up for grabs in supplementary appropriations payments and different, post-session funding requests.

These state budgets applicable funding to every part from working prices for the Texas Bullion Depository to utility prices for various state companies, from salaries for state-employed staff to IT expenditures, and from public colleges to frame safety.

Buried within the public college financing portion of the budgets is $15 billion within the “Property Tax Reduction Fund,” which is able to go towards limiting how a lot a faculty district can cost a home-owner yearly. By lowering the “compression” on district’s tax charges, the state will pressure them to drag much less income from native taxpayers and can as an alternative subsidize that distinction with cash from the reduction fund.

It’s price noting the Home finances proposal would cut back the compression charge by 7.75 p.c; for comparability, in 2022-23 the proposal solely lowered the compression charge by 0.3 p.c. A college finance professional informed KCBD it is a good, “aggressive” step in making an attempt to make up for progress in appraisal values, which have gone up in Lubbock about 20% up to now two years. The professional stated combining that with a rise within the homestead exemption to $70,000 – which is included within the Senate model however not the Home model – would have a good probability at lowering the typical taxpayer’s obligations annually.

One other less-obvious funding plan for West Texas is the $350 million appropriated in 2024 for rural regulation enforcement grants. On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, promised that funding for sheriff’s workplaces who’re scuffling with paying their sheriffs and deputies sufficient to remain aggressive. The budgets set this cash apart underneath the Comptroller’s workplace, ready for laws to find out the right way to applicable it later within the session.

The road-item investments for method funding for Texas Tech didn’t change a lot, although a number of the Texas Tech System’s colleges obtained marginal modifications of their working budgets. On the identical time, the Senate has put aside $2.5 billion to determine what it calls an “endowment” for universities like Texas Tech to make the most of as a substitute for the Everlasting College Fund, which is reserved for the College of Texas and Texas A&M methods.

The Legislature additionally intends to speculate at the least $1 billion in its beleaguered juvenile justice system, which has confronted rising criticism over the previous 12 months on account of stories of insufficient staffing, unsafe and unsanitary dwelling circumstances, and poor psychological well being amongst detainees. That $1 billion funding would signify a 50% enhance in its working finances from 2022-23.

Now, every finances will undergo the everyday legislative course of, committees, amendments, flooring votes, amendments, and passage, earlier than going to what’s referred to as a “convention committee,” the place representatives from every chamber will hammer out and reconcile the 2 payments’ variations right into a single balanced finances. That’s the solely authorized obligation the Legislature is beholden to earlier than sine die Could 29.

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