Signitures being added
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- The following budget report was released from chron.com
AUSTIN, Texas - The state's massive budget is days away from final approval.
House and Senate negotiators have finished settling differences in the two chamber's proposals to spend roughly $180 billion over the next two years. The document is being printed and passed out so it can be signed and sent to each chamber for approval.
The agreement includes $11 billion in federal economic rescue money, gives schools an extra $2 billion and puts $186 million in the cash-strapped TEXAS Grants college financial aid program.
Most of the spending in the two-year budget will go toward health care and education in 2010-2011.
Among the highlights, the budget includes:
_ $2 billion in transportation bonds for building new roads;
_ almost $10 million to begin installing seat belts in school buses;
_ $500 million into the ever-expanding Medicaid program;
_ about $20 million to help rebuild the badly burned Texas Governor's Mansion, including $11 million in federal economic bailout funds.
Now that the bulk of the budget work is finished, the financial path is cleared for final discussions on a slew of costly bills that had been left in budgetary limbo. Measures to give some businesses a temporary tax cut, reduce college tuition rates and rebuild the hurricane-ravaged Texas coast were on hold until lawmakers had a better idea how much money would be left over.
But with just a week remaining in the legislative session, it's crunch time to get it done.
A supplemental budget - used to pay for unexpected costs in the previous budget cycle - is pending in a Senate committee and still needs to finish its trek through the legislative process.
"That's sort of where they do the evening up at the end," said Ross Ramsey, a longtime legislative observer and editor of the online political newsletter Texas Weekly.
The House version of the supplemental version spent about $3.3 billion, but that number is expected to swell. It includes $300 million to restore the Hurricane Ike-damaged University of Texas Medical Center in Galveston and $1.6 billion to help cover rising Medicaid costs.
"They'll be fine," said Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, a former chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee. "UTMB will get rebuilt and they got as much money as they asked for."
The infusion of federal money has helped lawmakers to close a gap between available state revenue and spending needs they identified.
"I think everything we needed to get funded probably gets funded," Chisum said, praising the bill for limiting growth to inflation and population growth. "Nothing of major consequence didn't get funded, but there's always some little things that didn't get through."
