HOUSE – The House met in joint session with the Senate for the inauguration on Tuesday. Representative Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) sponsor of HB 1, the general appropriations bill which he filed on Tuesday, answered questions from House members about the budget. He explained that HB 1 reflected the guidelines given him by Speaker Straus to 1) Not raise taxes; 2) Not use the Rainy Day Fund; and 3) Show an honest effort to shrink the size of Texas government. He said that HB 1 is within the projected income of the state for the next biennium and under current estimates will leave around $100 million to be appropriated.
As proposed, HB 1 appropriates $156.4 billion from all fund sources for state government operations for the 2012-13 biennium, which represents a $31.1 billion (16.6%) decrease from the 2010-11 biennium. General Revenue funds total $79.3 billion, a decrease of $9.2 billion (10.4%) less than 2010-11 spending levels. It would reduce the number of state employees by 9,287 and would decrease the state contribution rate for retirement benefits from 6.95% to 6%. The bill would not tap into the Rainy Day Fund and the balance in that fund is projected to be $9.4 billion by the end of the biennium. (Note: additional information on the proposal is included in the budget and other major issue categories below.)