Since 2004, state spending is up 12 percent beyond population and inflation growth – a testament to the weak spending limit applied to Texas’ budget.
Though the state legislature must pass a balanced budget (meaning spending can be no greater than the revenue anticipated), the state constitution and enacting statutes only limit the spending growth in certain areas. The net effect is that less than half of all appropriated funds are actually subject to a cap.
In addition to its application, the existing spending cap is also flawed in its definition. Rather than being defined by a metric factoring population and inflation growth, it’s defined as the “rate of growth in the state’s economy” – however legislators are allowed to define exactly what that means. Should legislators seek to spend above and beyond the limit they set for themselves, they only need a majority vote in both chambers to “bust the cap.”
Taxpayers concerned about the exploding growth of government should tell their lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment strengthening the existing state expenditure limit.
Rather than capping only a portion of the budget, all state spending (including those related to drawing down federal funds) should be subject to the cap, and a super-majority vote of both legislative chambers should be required to exceed it. Additionally, rather than basing the limit on the ill-defined and legislatively malleable phrase in place now, it should instead be based off the rate of population and consumer price inflation growth.
This measure goes to what citizens can actually afford, not what lawmakers want to spend.
Had such a limit been implemented in 2004, Texas taxpayers would have saved an estimated $22 billion.
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