Big Texas Deficit Puts Governor in Tight Spot
Perry Wants Cuts Alone to Close Gap, But Critics Say Solution is Shortsighted
By ANA CAMPOY DALLAS—A Texas-size hole in the Lone Star state’s budget is putting pressure on Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for re-election this year as a model fiscal conservative.
Mr. Perry, a Republican in office for a decade, is touting his tax-cutting prowess and tight-fisted spending record as proof that he remains the right man for the job. He has maintained a wide lead in polls.
But as the state’s budget shortfall widens—to as much as $18 billion, or about 20% of the next two-year budget, according to the state legislature’s latest analysis released earlier this month—critics are complaining that Mr. Perry’s policies have left the state with little room to reduce spending.
"There is no way that they will be able to come up with $18 billion in cuts," said Eva DeLuna Castro, a senior budget analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income Texans. "They would have to shut down our prison system."
Conservatives say that while cutting enough to balance the budget will be hard, it can be done, and that the governor is the right man to do it. "He has worked hard to encourage the legislature to keep spending within the revenue available," said Talmadge Heflin, director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that backs limited government.
Most states have addressed or still face gaps in their budgets totaling $196 billion for fiscal year 2010, while tax revenue declined in the final quarter of 2009 in 39 of the states for which data is available. View interactive
The governor’s cost-cutting zeal is being questioned after the Associated Press reported he had spent some $600,000 of taxpayer dollars over the past couple of years to rent and maintain a luxurious home while the official governor’s mansion was repaired after a fire.
The state’s Democratic Party responded to the report with a YouTube video that flashes images of the governor’s rental home—complete with wood paneling, a chandelier and a heated pool—and plays the theme music from the television show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
"While Texas families tighten their belts…why should we pay for Perry’s extravagant rental mansion?" is the video’s closing line.
A spokeswoman for the governor said that he, too, is cutting back, slashing his office budget by 10.8% and asking the agencies that fund his living quarters to reduce spending by 5%.
