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Texas' budget shortfall dwarfs corrections budgets

Comptroller Susan Combs issued her proclamation today regarding how much money Texas legislators have to spend in the next biennial budget: $72.2 billion, down from $87 billion in the last budget. But the real budget gap is bigger than the $14.8 billion difference between those numbers, because population growth and inflation means the state must spend more to provide services - particularly for education and healthcare. Also, smoke-and-mirrors tricks from past budgets eventually must be paid for (e.g., the $61 million owed to UTMB for prison healthcare services already provided). Bottom line, according to those who estimate such things, if Texas continued spending at current levels, adjusted upward to pay for those (not really optional) services, the budget would reach $99 billion...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 10, 2011 (boomark / email).