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In The Wee Hours Of The Morning, The Texas House Passes Its Budget

Ed Schipul/flickr
The Texas House ended an 18-hour marathon budget debate Wednesday morning

The Texas House wrangled over the next two-year state budget from noon Tuesday until just before 6 Wednesday morning.   Texas Public Radio’s Ryan Poppe reports they’re preparing to adopt the largest budget in state history

 

 

House lawmakers began debating their version of the state’s two year budget early Tuesday and were still at it Wednesday morning.  Members considered hundreds of amendments AS PART OF THE $210 billion spending plan.

 One key change is the additional $2.2 billion for school funding. Chief budget writer John Otto, a Dayton Republican, says it covers an increase in the amount spent for each public school student. 

“It increases the basic allotment from $5,040 per ADA to 5,213 per ADA. That’s a 117-percent increase in the funding formula," Otto said.

The marathon session  included skirmishes over spending on a number of issues including border security. The House plans to fund $500-million dollars to add 250 DPS Troopers being deployed in the Rio Grande Valley.  

“My community is frightened, is frightened, to know and imagine that not only are we going to get that over the next two-years, the 233-percent increase in citations. Not only are we getting that, but we’re getting it double, because we’ve got the surge funded in here, then we also have in additional to hire a new set of full time officers," said Benavides Democratic Rep. Ryan Guillen

A heated moment came when Freshman Republican Dr. Stuart Spitzer added an amendment that succeeded in moving $2.5 million from a program to prevent STD and AIDS, to a sex education program that promotes abstinence. Eagle Pass Democrat PanchoNavarez challenged Spitzer.

 “And you feel that you as a medical doctor that the position you are taking on not just a fiscal standpoint but the actual position that your taking on this issue is prudent for someone in the medical community, a scientist?" Navarez asked.

 

 The Senate must pass its version of the budget that will probably include less money for education and more for border security. 

Then the two chambers will meet in a conference committee to approve a final spending plan that may look very different than the one the House is adopting.

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.