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"Our fellow Texans, the poor,
the middle-class, the sick, the elderly, the
disabled, our schoolchildren, they all need us to
stand up today."
This ideological attachment to
limited government that the GOP has worked
tirelessly to enshrine in the Legislature has helped
Texas earn the distinction of ranking close to the
bottom among the 50 states in per capita spending on
public education.
"A lot of people have misunderstood
the message that the voters are sending when they
say 'less government, more efficiency,'" said Rep.
Helen Giddings. "They do mean that. But then you
have to go further and ask them the specific
and the answer to that, overwhelmingly, is 'no'.
'Do you want to see cuts in assistance to nursing
homes?' The answer is 'absolutely no'. So we
have to be sure we understand the message the voters
are sending us." It has been no small
challenge for Democrats to broaden the budget
discussion to include corporate tax exemptions
passed by previous legislatures. But many,
such as Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) feel
that it is time for those who backed such
legislation to come forward and publicly defend
their choices in light of the current crisis.
"We need more transparency, we need a systematic
review of all tax expenditures," Villarreal said.
"Similar to the way we scrub our budget, we need to
be evaluating tax loopholes that leak billions of
dollars from our state coffers and treat
one taxpayer differently than another." The Texas
Legislative Study Group, in a report submitted last
Sunday during the third day of floor debate, offers
this grim assessment: "In the
wake of a recession, this budget will deliver an
economic blow that costs Texas over 335,000 jobs
over the course of the next two years, 44 percent of
which are private sector jobs."
"Voters don't want waste, and neither
do I," Rep.
Giddings said. "But I also want to make sure that we
take care of our elderly, and we make sure that
there are opportunities there for young people that
want to go to college, and who don't
have to take out loans in such amounts that they
will be indebted for many years to come." |
