AUSTIN, Texas - it is difficult to overstate the fury of budget cuts which reign in the legislators in the capital, where the Republicans who control the legislature and the offices of the State of Minnesota believe voters sent a battleship mandate year last to reduce the size of the Government.
But the Texas Government was already a relatively lean operation after years of conservative fiscal policies. Thus, when the Texas House adopted its draft budget last weekend, the depth of the need for the Republican majority to stick to its promise PAS new taxes cuts became clearer. It was not a pretty picture.
The Bill would slash 23 billion at the current level of the State and federal spending during the next cycle of two years budget - increasing population of 12.3% reduction does not account for the price increase to meet the needs of Texas.
In a party line vote, the House shot dozens of sacred cows. The budget bill makes huge cuts to the education of the public, the homes of nursing and healthcare for the poor. It reduces funding for highways, prisons and state parks. It eliminates the reductions in pre-school, day teacher incentive pay and reduced scholarships for students of the College by two-thirds.
"You reduce bone in the State of Texas," said State representative Sylvester Turner, a Democrat from Houston. "The Republican game is:" we want smaller government, and we will do what was needed by all means necessary, regardless of the cost. "".?”
On Wednesday, the Conservatives and Tea Party supporters held a rally on the steps of the Capitol calling on Parliament to reduce even more deeply in certain programs, while thousands of State workers marching to protest against spending plan House.
What irritates the employees of the State and many liberals in the State is the refusal of Governor Rick Perry and his allies of the House for some of the pain in buffer drawing on more than 6 billion in emergency fundfueled by taxes for oil production. (Last month, the House approved using the Fund $ 3 billion to fill a gap in the current budget for two years).
But the Republican leaders in the House say the State's live with reduced revenues. Increasing taxes would hurt the economy, they say, and soaking in the Rainy Day Fund is unwise, given the prospect of cuts by the Federal Government.
"This is the hand, we have treated," said State representative Larry Taylor of the Houston area, the Chairman of the Republican Party Caucus. "This is how much money we have." We have no choice in Texas. We cannot print money. We cannot go into debt. ?
The depth of the cuts, however, has caused divisions within the party. Some Republicans in the Senate are to follow orders large cuts in money for public education and healthcare for the poor, as a short-sighted. "Children go no further," said State Senator Robert f. Deuell, a Greenville Republican and physician. "If you build a school, or you can build a prison."
The Senate is currently establishing its own draft budget, and Republican leaders say that it will contain approximately $ 10 billion more than the version of the House, especially for the public schools and Medicaid. Republican Senate seek various ways to raise revenue without calling the tax increases, as the acceleration of the collections of the tax and the Elimination of certain exemptions.
In a normal year, the Senate and the House in Texas begin negotiations and split the difference between the proposals. The President of the Chamber, Joe Straus, said in an interview that he saw Bill in house as the beginning of a long negotiation. "We are not blind to the questions that are ignored," he said.
But this year, the two rooms are so far apart, and public opinion here is so hostile to anything that looks like a tax increase, it is not known how the two houses will fill their differences. The House is not likely to accept any increase in income; the Senate is not likely to go hand in hand with deep cuts in education and health care.
Veteran legislators on both sides, said that they suffered from the reaction of the public against federal spending and the deficit in Washington even if the State has little debt. In the Texas House, 31 freshman Republicans are scanned on the tide Tea Party on a platform of small-government, and they are not in the mood to compromise on the tax increase.
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