A brief audio file in the Texas Tribune reports that state legislators think that they are and they intend to put a stop to that practice in the next legistaive session.
Here's detail from the Austin American Statesman:
What is the shape of Texas' budget for the next biennium? According to the state constitution, Texas must have a balanced budget. Indeed, from a technical standpoint, the 2012-13 budget is balanced, and the state comptroller, as required by the Texas Constitution, has certified that sufficient revenues will be available to cover expenditures. However, the reality is much more grim. The time has come to be transparent and look at the real situation. History repeats itself, and balancing this budget is a repeat play with a much larger shortfall than in prior years.
The 2012-13 budget was balanced using cuts, accounting tricks and deferrals. There were real cuts to state agencies' budgets, but cuts alone would not get the job done. If you want to make big cuts, you have to go where the big dollars are.
Because, according to the Legislative Budget Board's Texas Fact Book , approximately 60 percent of the state's 2011 general revenue — the state's discretionary spending — is for education and 30 percent is for health and human services, there was only so far that lawmakers were willing to go with cuts.
We will pursue this further in 2306 when we cover the Texas budget.
The story mentioned the LBB's Texas Fact Book, Click here for the archive, the 2012 Fact book can be found in a PDF file on the top left corner of the LBB's home page.
