- Texas Remains $4.1 billion short on its budget:
The chairman of the Legislative Budget Board John O'Brien
told lawmakers Tuesday that they did not appropriate enough to cover
state expenses for Medicaid and other programs. The state is short more
than $4.1 billion in the current budget.
The chief revenue
estimator for the Texas comptroller, John Heleman, said the Texas
economy had rebounded faster than the rest of the nation. He also said
that the state had recovered more than 440,000 jobs, but that many
people had moved to Texas since 2008 and have not found jobs.
- Houston grappling with decade of deficit spending:
The city of Houston has been papering over multimillion-dollar budget
deficits for nine years by borrowing money, tapping its rainy day fund,
selling buildings and just plain putting off bills to the future,
according to city finance officials.
Numbers in a report from the city's Long-Range Financial Management
Task Force, an ad hoc group that recently submitted more than 100 ideas
on how to address Houston's looming fiscal problems, indicate that
three consecutive mayors and their city councils have taken their own
approaches to adhering to the city's balanced budget law while spending
more than they took in.
