Action Update - Issue 79 :: October 3, 2006

Budget Reform...Is it Possible?

by Janelle Shepard

The Texas state budget process is confusing and complicated.  Governor Perry has asked for reforms for years.  The opportunity to eliminate wasteful spending is difficult because the budget does not allow the Governor to really participate in the process and the line items are too large and encompassing.

Statewide, taxpayer advocates are applauding the recent budget process reforms introduced by the Governor.

Peggy Venable with Americans for Prosperity states: "We have been working to put Texas taxpayers in greater control over how much government they want and are willing to pay for," said AFP-Texas director Peggy Venable. "The current state spending limit put in the State Constitution in 1978 is inadequate." "The taxpayer protections Gov. Perry outlined in his budget reform proposals are a blueprint for the legislative session," said Venable.

BUDGET REFORM PROPOSALS:

• Impose a real spending limit on state government.
  “It is time to create a state spending limit in Texas that is real, that requires fiscal discipline, and that more closely mirrors population growth and inflation costs,” Perry said. “The spending limit in effect today is hardly a limit at all because it is tied to personal income growth. Tying how much we spend to how much we make is a recipe for runaway spending.”
  
• Require dedicated funds to be used as intended, or refunded.
  “It is time for a truth in spending initiative that ends the fraud where money raised for one purpose gets spent on something entirely different. If you are charged a fee for a specific purpose, the money ought to go to that express purpose – or be returned to the taxpayer who has been fraudulently charged,” Perry said.
  
• Require detailed budget line-items instead of lump sum line items.
  “Hiding wasteful expenditures behind worthwhile expenditures is a budgetary sham that makes government more bloated, less accountable and less transparent,” Perry said.
  
• Require all state agencies to publish expenditures online in a clear, concise and consistent format.
  “I have a simple philosophy about transparency in government: if the taxpayers are picking up the bill, they ought to be able to look at very item on the receipt,” Perry said.
  
• Amend the constitution to allow the state to return surplus revenue to taxpayers.

from the San Antonio Express News

Workers' comp fixes win praise

Travis E. Poling

Two years after a very public pullout from Texas' workers' compensation insurance system, the surgeons at San Antonio Orthopaedic Group say they are willing to give it another try.

"We gave our word to the state and to the governor's office that we would come back if they reformed the system," said Usman "Sani" Mirza, who manages the 24-doctor practice.

The Texas Workers' Compensation Commission had capped doctor fees at a low rate and halved the amount surgical centers were getting for treating an injured worker going through the system.

But in 2005, after employers, workers, insurance companies and doctors all declared the system broken, the Legislature passed a bill that folded most of the commission's responsibilities into the Texas Department of Insurance. 

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INFORMATION:
Janelle Shepard, Executive Director
Texans for Texas, Inc., 815-A Brazos St #384, Austin, TX 78701-9996.
© 2004 Texans For Texas, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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