AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Could Texas get zero federal stimulus money to improve its schools? Representative John Smithee said Texas' education budget was three billion dollars short, so we used stimulus money for it.
But some say there was no shortfall because of up to nine billion dollars in the rainy day fund. The Obama administration is warning states it may withhold millions of dollars if they use stimulus money to fix budget problems and not to help schools.
"It is prudent for us to have a rainy day fund, the fact that we have a fund should not be used to penalize us -- we would have been the only state affected to this with this new rule, said State Representative John Smithee.
Smithee said the fund consists of hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and Texas has followed the law.
