Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation praised the Legislature’s passage of a stronger spending limit in Texas that will benefit Texans and the state’s prosperity.
“Since 1978, Texas has had a constitutional spending limit that helped restrain the growth of spending based on changes in personal income. While that growth rate made sense more than forty years ago when there was rampant inflation, this metric contributed to excessive growth in the budget over time as it exceeded the average taxpayer’s ability to pay for it,” said Vance Ginn, TPPF’s Chief Economist. “TPPF has been working on reining in this growth rate in statute and even through the tangible maximum growth goal in the Conservative Texas Budget for many years to better align government with the needs of the state while not excessively burdening taxpayers and the economy.”
Senate Bill 1336 passed the House yesterday and will soon make its way to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Ginn continued: “We applaud the tireless work by Sen. Kelly Hancock who has had his spending limit bill pass the Senate in multiple sessions and the bold effort by Rep. Greg Bonnen this session to collectively find a way to pass it in the House thereby strengthening the state’s spending limit. The improved limit will include covering more of the budget, moving to a better metric of population growth and inflation, and raising the threshold to exceed the limit to a supermajority of three-fifths. This critical reform that places much of TPPF’s Conservative Texas Budget in state law is yet another way that Texas is leading nationally to support the needs of the state while removing barriers like excessive spending to enhance opportunities for people to prosper.”