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: Grits for Breakfast

Tight budgets and corrections priorities

Federal budget numbers are always flabbergasting to me and I can only react with awe to the news that the 2009 federal deficit totaled $1.2 TRILLION, with a big, fat, capital "T."Most state budgets including Texas, OTOH, must balance themselves or else request specific debt approval from voters in bond elections, so state budgets by far are hit harder when tax revenues level off or decline in tough times. The Houston Chronicle's April Castro had a good piece yesterday what Texas' state budget picture might look like ("Lawmakers await comptrollers revenue announcement," Jan.6), predicting a modest $2 billion surplus over the last biennium:Texas will likely have to pay up to $2 billion for its share of costs from Hurricane Ike, rapid growth in Medicaid costs and enrollment, lower oil prices that might mean less income in the state's Rainy Day Fund, slowed consumer spending and lower-than-projected revenues from the state's new business tax in the fund intended to pay for public schools...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 07, 2009 (boomark / email).