Texas House of Representatives leaders adopted two new budget rules presented by Rep. Matthew Schaefer (R-Tyler), who thanked House Speaker Dade Phelan in a tweet last week.
The first change, according to the Jan. 14 House Journal: major state agencies requesting money must appear before committee to further transparency and accountability.
“There are a lot of state agencies who do come up and testify before the committee about their budget requests but there are a lot that don't and so I think that does put into question what sort of accountability that they had there before,” Vance Ginn, chief economist of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said. “This will help to force that case, which should have already been in existence.”
The second change is that lawmakers will now have 48 hours to review conference committee reports on general appropriations bills instead of 24 hours.
“Oftentimes these are hundreds of pages and even thousands of pages,” Ginn told the Lone Star Standard. “These are massive documents to try to review and only 24 hours just isn't really enough time, but 48 hours will give them more time to look over these documents and also receive input from outside parties, such as their constituents.”
Of the 82 member GOP House delegation, Schaefer is among the top 10 most conservative, according to media reports.
“Rep. Schaefer saw a hole that was within this process and made some common-sense reforms,” Ginn said in an interview. “The transparency and accountability are substantial reforms here that will improve the budgeting process and make sure that the budget is outlining the priorities, not only of the legislators but really their constituents and the taxpayers who are funding government so that they will be better aligned.”
It was widely reported last year that Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar (R) told state legislators to expect a $1 billion shortfall due to COVID-19.
“The Legislature needs to practice fiscal restraint because right now what is needed is to take a close look at every dollar that you're taking out of the private sector from taxpayers and then look at every dollar that's then going to specific programs and assuring that the dollars are reaching the people that it's intended to help because, too often, these dollars go to bureaucracy and waste,” Ginn said.
Fort Worth Business reported that both the state House and Senate are proposing $119.7 billion spending plans over a two-year time frame.
“Both of them have prioritized what we would consider to be a conservative Texas budget, which is one that doesn't increase by more than population growth and inflation and that's something that the Texas Public Policy Foundation has been advocating for years now,” Ginn said. “You can also see in there that they are maintaining the property tax relief that was made the last session. So, that's also good news.”
