AUSTIN – The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) Center for Fiscal Policy and former chairman of the Texas House Committee on Appropriations, and TPPF Economist Dr. Vance Ginn issued the following statement on the spending limit reform contained in Senate Joint Resolution 2 and its enabling legislation, Senate Bill 9.
“We applaud the recommendations outlined in SB 9 and SJR 2 to strengthen the state’s spending limit,” said Heflin. “The current spending limit covers only about 40 percent of the total budget leaving opportunities to play shell games with taxpayer dollars. These measures would cap the appropriations required to be certified by the Comptroller at the rate of population growth plus inflation. Limiting the footprint growth of government will allow Texans, especially the working poor, more opportunity to prosper.”
“The spending limit recommendations in SB 9 and SJR 2 announced today set the stage for significant spending limit reform in Texas,” said Ginn. “This is necessary as the state’s total budget is up considerably more than increases in population growth plus inflation since 2004. By putting safeguards in place that cap a major portion of the budget using past population growth plus inflation, Texans will have that opportunity to keep more money in their pockets where it belongs.”
The Honorable Talmadge Heflin is the 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.
Vance Ginn, Ph.D. is an Economist in 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, Texas.