On Friday, Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, made the following statement regarding the letter issued to state agencies by Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Joe Straus. The letter provides instructions for state agencies to prepare their legislative appropriations requests for the 2018-19 budget and require “each agency to trim four percent from their base appropriation levels” and provide budget information by program that will help with conducting zero-based budgeting throughout the legislative process.
“The Foundation commends state leaders for taking steps that should help agencies and legislators be good stewards of taxpayer dollars next session. Moving to a program-based budget and performing zero-based budgeting are recommendations that the Foundation has advocated to increase budget transparency for years,” said Mr. Heflin. “By holding down the growth of the budget and providing more budget transparency, legislators can pass a historic second consecutive conservative budget and potentially have the opportunity to cut the tax burden on Texans.”
To schedule an interview with Mr. Heflin, please contact Caroline Espinosa at [email protected] or 512-472-2700.
Talmadge Heflin is Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin.