The Texas Tribune featurs a series of articles and content on the fund, and defines it like this:
The Rainy Day Fund is a savings fund that allows states to set aside excess revenue for use in times of unexpected revenue shortfall. It can plug holes in the budget, defend against an economic perfect storm and keep the deficit clouds at bay.
Using the fund itself isn’t particularly easy. If the comptroller says that revenue will decrease between legislative sessions or if a budget deficit unexpectedly develops, it requires a three-fifths vote to transfer money away from the fund.
Of course, if members want to use the money for any other situation — like say, a budget shortfall — then they’ll need to reach two-thirds of their colleagues, an even higher threshold.
If the economy went to hell after the Legislature wrote its budget, the fund would offer an escape from deficit. They could rely on it to fill in budget holes.
The Texas Weekly has also published a series of guest columns by Texas legislators on whether the Rainy Day Fund should be tapped in order to fund current needs. Remember that the 82nd Legislature controversially decided not to tap into the fund in order to prevent $5 billion in cuts to public education.
Unfortunately these are behind a pay-wall. I'll see what I can do to get access and share them, but the little made available gives an idea about where these individuals stand.
- Matt Krause: The state's Rainy Day Fund should be kept as insurance against real financial downturns. If the state needs money for water programs, it should get that money by cutting other programs that are less important
- Borris Miles: The Rainy Day Fund has been used for public education before and should be used for it now — to reverse drastic cuts made in education spending during the 2011 legislative session.
- Allan Ritter: Using the Rainy Day Fund now will help address the state's water needs and keep general state spending on water down for decades to come.
- Charles Perry: It's proper to use the state's Rainy Day Fund for a $2 billion water plan, but it isn't necessary until 2015, and using it now would force lawmakers to bust the constitutional cap on budget growth.
