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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2010
Media types, Democrats, and some Republicans are playing the religion card in the
Speaker's race. This election has nothing to do with religion; it has everything to do with policy. And with leadership. Speaker Straus did have a Republican
majority last session. Yes, it was a slim majority, but he had one nevertheless. That is a fact. Despite that, major
legislation, such as Voter ID, was killed under his watch. That is a fact. Democrats chaired too many committees. Another
fact. Each
session the Members should choose, from within the GOP Caucus, the most capable and qualified candidate for Speaker. That
candidate this time around is Ken Paxton. His resume, professionalism, and competence, as well as his courage, make him the
best choice. Joe
Straus had the backing of only 11 Republicans last session (notwithstanding the tradition of unanimous election of the obvious
winner); he was not the GOP's candidate. He should not be their choice this time.
Denise McNamara
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2010
Prior to the creation of the LBB in 1949, individual appropriations bills funded state agencies. In 1973 the LBB’s powers were expanded to include analyses of
the performance of state agencies and the creation of fiscal notes to estimate the probable cost of proposed legislation and
resolutions. The LBB is made up of
the Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House, Chair of Senate Finance, Chair of House Ways and Means, Chair of House Appropriations,
three appointed Senate members, two appointed House members.
The good news
is that there is more than one way to come up with a budget. When Texas Legislators report to Austin in January, they will
have three possible methods for creating a budget:
• Baseline budgeting,
• Zero-based budgeting, and
• Performance-based
budgeting. Baseline budgeting begins with the existing budget as a starting point; zero-based budgeting starts the process
from scratch; and performance-based budgeting begins by identifying the core functions of government, requiring agencies to
rank their activities based on priority.
From 1973 to 1991 the LBB practiced zero-based budgeting, a process in which
each state agency begins from zero and must justify every dollar budgeted. This method was also used successfully in 2003
during an economic situation similar to today, a multi-billion dollar deficit and recession, allowing legislators to balance
the budget without raising taxes. Performance-based budgeting, while the preferable method on paper, requires more time and
resources. Governor Perry, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst,
and Speaker Joe Strauss have already requested that state agencies identify a percentage of their current budgets to be cut,
following the baseline budgeting method. As demonstrated in 2003, zero-based budgeting is an efficient and effective way to
cut the budget.
Contact your legislator and let them know your opinion on the best way to handle the looming budget crisis.
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