Proposed state budget for Texas House leaves over $50 billion to grab

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This story is being updated.

Texas House of Representatives leaders on Wednesday unveiled a new House preliminary budget bill for the 2024-2025 biennium that proposes an unprecedented $130.1 billion in total revenue at a time when the state is awash in more cash than the constitution allows. legislators to spend. .

The proposal appears to leave more than $50 billion of cash on the table at a time when the state has a total of $188.2 billion of funds available for spending over the next cycle, including a historical cash balance of $32. 7 billion dollars.

The Senate did not appear to have filed its version of the bill by Wednesday morning, but Senate Finance Chair Joan Huffman said it would be filed by the end of the day. Both bills are likely to be drastically changed before the budget is finally passed around May.

“This budget is historical, balanced and conservative and is the starting point for our further discussions,” Huffman. said on twitter Tuesday.

The 1,033-page preliminary budget bill, drafted by House Appropriations Division chairman Greg Bonnen, was filed early Wednesday morning. It includes a section saying that the House of Representatives will propose in a later bill about $6 billion in additional spending for the current biennium on projects such as building hospitals, school security and others.

Last week, the state comptroller projected that the state would receive at least $108 billion in federal funds, $68 billion in earmarked state revenue from fees and other sources, and $165 billion in general revenue for use by legislators over the next two years.

The $288.6 billion of total funds in the House of Representatives proposal is significantly larger than the $265 billion of total funds allocated in the 2022-23 budget.

The proposal gives a first look at where the Chambers can go in funding Texas businesses. Last week, state leaders learned that lawmakers would convene their 140-day session with Treasury balances higher than the budgets of nearly half the states in the US, even as the country faces a potential recession.

The 88th Texas Legislature met on January 10. The adoption of a balanced budget is its only constitutional obligation during the session.

Last week, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said in his biennium revenue estimate that with a cash surplus and 5.7% growth in total revenue in 2024-25, lawmakers will have an unprecedented $188.2 billion in general spending. — historical growth of 26.3% compared to current spending. biennium.

Among lawmakers’ biggest budget concerns is that state law and the Texas Constitution limit the amount by which tax spending can rise between sessions.

But some of the same Texans whose record tax payments have propelled the state into such a positive position are themselves struggling to recover from the economic fallout from the pandemic – increasing pressure on lawmakers to use the extra money to make ends meet.

State leaders are pushing property tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades among their biggest ambitions this session, but requests from lawmakers and government agencies far exceed the amount of cash available for the next budget, as is often the case early in the cycle.

Someone always leaves with less money than they asked for.

Meanwhile, as inflation rises and property taxes skyrocket, schools and rural hospitals are closing, government workers are leaving en masse, the power grid is vulnerable, water problems are escalating, juvenile prisons are on the brink of collapse, and inflation is pushing many residents and government agencies overcame their critical points — along with a host of other issues across the state.

“If you count all the ideas, all the money is $32.7. [billion] — is spent more than five times,” Hegar told the Texas Tribune last week. “There are just too many requests. … Some ideas are better than others. So they have to prioritize.”

Agency requests for new money alone—for everything from staffing upgrades to a new law enforcement training center—come to more than $15 billion in total revenue. And some of the anticipated calls for cash, such as new money for children’s mental health programs, have not yet found their way into these legislative appropriation requests.

State budget officials set the cap at 12.3% based on Texan personal income growth, population growth, and inflation adjustments. This figure is subject to change as expenditures are adjusted in the current biennium.

From the bills introduced on Wednesday, it was immediately unclear whether the bills violate spending limits that were set last November at about $135 billion but could be changed as state budget chiefs update their numbers this week. Several funds are exempt from the restrictions, and legislation could be passed later that would move dollars further.

However, there are several ways to bypass the caps.

If money is spent with the approval of voters in a constitutional election, then it is exempt from the spending cap. Reducing government taxes — such as sales and franchises — or lowering property taxes can also circumvent restrictions.

And aside from all that, legislators could simply hold a vote — a political risk for some — to remove spending caps.

Disclosure: The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts provides financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their complete list here.