From the Houston Chronicle:
The Texas Legislative Budget Board set a $77.9 billion cap on state spending Thursday for the 2014-15 budget year, a 10 percent increase above the current discretionary spending limit.
But Republican leaders said the actual state budget likely will be less. Gov. Rick Perry and his allies have said they want to limit spending increases to population growth plus inflation. Ursula Parks, the budget board's director, told lawmakers that experts estimate that rate will be 9.85 percent in 2014-15.
The spending cap is based on the economic forecasts of state revenues over the next two years. The final cap, though, will be set by State Comptroller Susan Combs in January when she issues an official revenue estimate for 2014-15.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, said his chamber will produce an appropriations bill where spending increases are limited to that rate, and bragged that Texas ranks 49th in the nation in terms of per capita state spending.
Democratic state Rep. Sylvester Turner, vice chairman of the House finance committee, objected to making commitments before the 2013 legislative session even begins.
From Quorum Report:
The Legislative Budget Board adopted a constitutional spending limit of $77.9 billion for the coming two-year budget period, anticipating a growth in state personal income of 10.7 percent.
That’s up from the $70.4 billion in spending for the current biennium from tax revenue not constitutionally dedicated.
The LBB adopts a constitutional spending limit based on a forecast of the rate of growth in personal income in Texas over the coming fiscal biennium (FY 2014-15). It relies on five different estimates of what that rate of growth will be – some of them by private sector analysts and some in the public sector.
Those forecasts range from a low of 8.7 percent from the University of North Texas Center for Economic Development & Research to a high of 12.2 percent from Moody’s Analytics. This relatively robust growth in personal income reflects an economy in recovery helped along by high energy prices.
In the end, though, the LBB, comprised of the chambers’ leaders, budget writers and other senior leaders, sided with the estimate of 10.7 percent growth calculated by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
