On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:31:58 -0500, Cliff
wrote:


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,6524985.story
"It's gotten messy in Texas"
"Think California's budget crisis is bad? Check out the latest news from
Austin."
[
The Texas miracle is starting to look like one of those Virgin Mary-shaped burn
marks on a tortilla: pretty exciting until it goes stale. With the Lone Star
State facing a budget shortfall comparable to California's — a state that
right-wing pundits have derided for years as a mismanaged liberal tax trap — it
might be time to concede that conservative fiscal policies aren't necessarily
the cure-all their apologists pretend them to be.

Texas officials have been able to conceal the bad news until recently because
they pass a budget only every two years, so they got a free pass in 2010. Now,
facing a $27-billion spending gap (about a third of the budget), and with a
statehouse jammed with conservative lawmakers who would sooner trade in their
pickups for Priuses than raise taxes, the legislature must consider devastating
cuts to schools, Medicaid and public assistance programs.
...
Gov. Rick Perry enjoys boasting about all the California businesses lured to his
state by the friendlier taxation environment, recently completing a five-day
trip here trying to entice a few more. Perry also likes to rail against the
federal economic stimulus program even though his state only managed to balance
its budget in 2009 with the help of $12 billion in stimulus grants.
...
But an awful lot of those jobs are the sort of low-paying posts you'd expect in
a state that ranks No. 42 out of 50 in per-pupil education spending. Among
wage-earners in Texas, one-third make too little to stay above the federal
poverty line for a family of four, roughly double the percentage of such
low-wage Californians.
...
]


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