Today, the Texas House unanimously passed House Bill 2, which is the state government’s supplemental budget that funds expenditure shortfalls in Medicaid and other programs to complete the current 2016-17 budget. HB 2amounts of $1.1 billion in state funds from general revenue and $2.9 billion in all funds are below the Conservative Texas Budget (CTB) supplemental appropriations limits of $1.2 billion in state funds and $6.1 billion in all funds. If the current HB 2 is passed into law, the 2016-17 Texas budget would be a Conservative Texas Budget based on an increase in population growth plus inflation above appropriations in the 2014-15 budget. The Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy Director Talmadge Heflin made the following statement:
“We applaud the Texas House for completing the 2016-17 state budget with passage of a supplemental appropriations bill that remains within population growth plus inflation,” said Mr. Heflin. “By passing a 2016-17 Conservative Texas Budget, legislators will have met the needs of Texans while limiting the burden of taxation so there are more opportunities for everyone to prosper.”
For more information or to request an interview with Mr. Heflin, please contact Caroline Espinosa at [email protected]or 512-472-2700.
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. The Texas Public Policy Foundation aims to advance a societal framework that effectively fosters human flourishing based upon cooperation and mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and speech.