Are you familiar with what he really did? Do you remember that the people he was giving instate tuition to have been in the state at least ten years and must have graduated from a Texas high school within the last three years? So, they have been living here as state residents for at least ten years. So, for that to cost the Texas taxpayer one must assume that they would have gone to college in Texas at the higher rate anyway. Would they have? Are they replacing out of state students who would have attended in their place? No!
So, where is the cost to the taxpayer?
They were illegal. All you have said is that he rewarded trespassers who had a history of living off the taxpayers’ education dollar for years. The cost to the taxpayer? Additional resources consumed at the universities for each additional student. Did out of state applicants who would have paid a higher rate get denied admission, perhaps. Did legal Texas Americans from get denied admission because a trespasser got admitted instead, perhaps.