At a morning breakfast forum yesterday, held by the Texas Tribune, Senator Kirk Watson said that he would not vote for new taxes or tapping the Rainy Day Fund until state leaders provide meaningful reform on the biennial budget.
Watson called the budget cycle a “big mess” saying the hole is so deep, people cannot tell you how deep it is. Texas finds itself in this budget mess because of “debt, diversions and delay,” argues Watson, he later added a fourth factor of “decoys.” He pointed to the 2003 budget saying it is a myth to say the budget was balanced only by cuts. Rather, he argues, more factors than just cuts were at play including the need to employ a series of decoys – tuition deregulation was offered as one example. When Watson was asked if he supported gambling as another form of revenue, he responded that he would first want to review the fine print on the proposal cautioning the funding source is volatile.
Watson also discussed more public input and local governments having more options. Speaking on the 5% reduction cuts, he argued for increased public and legislative input into the process. In regards to the TxDOT budget hole of $315 billion, he promoted local governments having the option of putting a fee to vote before Texans. He noted many budget fixes during the session are simply Band-Aids, and what is really needed, Watson contends, is real reform on the appropriations process.
“I believe that’s part of the way we have gotten ourselves in trouble. We come back session after session and try to put Band-Aids – what would you do this time, what would you do that time – and the Band-Aids are all washing off,” he said. “I think what we ought to be doing is we ought to be taking it down to the base, and we ought to be looking at how it is we’re going to rebuild that base, where we look at it based upon some values, and we take the time to do it.”
