AUSTIN – Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar this week released a statement noting that for the first time in nearly thirty years Texas will not have to issue Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRANs), short-term (one year or less) debt obligations to meet cash flow needs, for fiscal 2016. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy Director Talmadge Heflin issued the following statement:
“We applaud the news that for the first time in nearly thirty years Texas will not have to issue short-term debt to meet fiscal 2016’s cash flow needs. This shows that not only can legislators meet the needs of the state with a conservative budget that doesn’t grow by more than population and inflation and provide $4 billion in tax and fee relief, but they can do all of this without the need for issuing short-term debt. If legislators continue being good stewards of taxpayer dollars by passing conservative budgets and returning excess dollars, Texas can provide the best avenue down the road to prosperity for current and future taxpayers by not borrowing money.”
The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In the 78th Session, Heflin served as chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations and navigated a $10 billion state budget shortfall through targeted spending cuts that allowed Texans to avoid a tax increase.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.