Texas Shortfall

The economy is weighing heavily on everyone's minds these day. Texas, although not hit as hard as other states, is facing a budget shortfall that ranges anywhere from $18 to $24 billion for next year.  State agencies are bracing for cuts, anywhere between 3 and 5 percent. Earlier in the year Texas law makers asked state agencies to reduce their spending from the $87 billion general fund by 5 percent. In addition to these cuts, for the 2012-2013 year, lawmakers have asked the agencies to reduce costs by an additional 10 percent. Certainly these cuts will help in the budget deficit, but it won't be nearly enough.

State senator Kirk Watson suggested reforms for the state budgeting operations. The suggestions included a special commission to create a plan for fixing the states long-term budget issues, suspending the collection of any dedicated tax or fee if the fee or tax is not spent for its intended purpose, and the Legislative Budget Board to receive regular updates on the state's fiscal position.

These reforms in theory sound good, obviously reform must happen in order for Texas to balance its budget. But these things alone won't balance the budget. Unfortunately due to the lack of economic responsibility by the states leaders cash cuts will be made to state programs. Something needs to change in the way Texas manages and spends its money, hopefully the present huge deficit the state faces will be a wake up call for lawmakers to do whats right for the state of Texas and its citizens. Either way, it's going to be a long road.

Blog Stage 6

Classmate Tex Is published a great blog about the over abundance of paid political ads that popped up this campaign season. I too, as a voter in Texas was annoyed at the amount of ads that I received in the mail and had to cringe every time an ad aired on TV while I was trying to watch the 6 o'clock news. Tex Is brought up probably the most important point that candidates need to learn: the ads don't work!  He said after receiving the ads he couldn't remember who sent them, and probably the rest of the population who were sent the ads couldn't remember the candidates name as well. Unless, of course, they were already voting for that person. Many candidates choose to run ads that don't paint their competitor in a good light, but how effective are they? I would hope that most people who are still undecided as to who they are going to vote for research their candidate and don't make decisions based on the most often inaccurate claims made in the paid advertisements.

I also have to agree on his second point, candidates need to find a better arena than our mailboxes and televisions to duke it out. The only thing I look for when I have to painfully watch an ad on television is who paid for the ad, that way I can figure out how badly that person skewed the truth in order to make the other candidate look bad. There are other more effective ways to campaign than to annoying the voter population, and after this election season I have to agree that I would rather receive bills in the mail than multiple political advertisements.