Posted on 07/27/2011 5:24:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Gov. Rick Perry, flanked by nearly all of the Texas Panhandle’s state House delegation, touted a state budget bill Tuesday that was the product of more than six months of negotiations in Austin.
Perry was at the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce to ceremonially sign the budget bill and a balanced budget amendment that forces state lawmakers to address budget shortfalls every two years.
The Republican-dominated state Legislature finalized a budget bill last month that slashed about $4 million from public education statewide and cut social services funding.
“Our main job is to do everything we can to maintain the economic climate in which businesses of all size can flourish and grow,” Perry said. “The fiscal restraint that’s been showed in Austin is not just a one-time thing. It’s ingrained in our state.”
State Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, who introduced the governor, lauded state legislators’ efforts to bridge a projected shortfall of $27 billion.
“We balanced the budget with the revenue we had, and we didn’t go into a deficit spending situation,” Smithee said.
Freshman lawmaker state Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, and veteran legislators Reps. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, and Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, also joined the governor.
Perry said state lawmakers received a bevy of calls before and during the legislative sessions to tap the state’s Rainy Day Fund, an emergency stash of cash at lawmakers’ disposal.
“The good news is that we ignored those voices, as we have done in the past, because we know higher taxes kill jobs,” Perry said. “We held the line on taxes and balanced the budget, exactly like we said we’d do.”
In his usual anti-Washington tone, Perry railed against federal lawmakers who he said continue to balloon the country’s deficit.
“It’s time for Washington, D.C., to take a little lesson from Texas,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at amarillo.com ...
I hope this is the beginning of a push by all states to reform the universities and public education.
I agree that I do not like the o or GE’s CEO sending jobs to China. I am not sure how that applies to gov goodhair.
Palin is a very great lady and I love the way she goes after those who do and say the wrong things but looking at this realistically, she would be a very weak candidate against Obama. I know it's not fair but she is still being characterized as a quitter and other ridiculous claims against her but perception becomes reality and she is damaged goods. There is too much at stake to even consider something as risky as choosing Palin as our nominee.
Perry is our best bet to defeat Obama and that is the prize. We must choose the strongest candidate to do that.
You put that so well.
Rick Perry has been attracting businesses to Texas and there are jobs here.
Obama and his people are sending jobs to foreign countries and smothering business here at home through taxes, lawsuits and regulation.
They are opposites.
Perry wants a strong U.S. economy and jobs.
Obama wants a weak U.S. economy, 99 weeks of unemployment, food stamps, public sector jobs, bigger government.
The battle of Washington, D.C., versus Texas continues — and this time it's D.C.’s turn to be fed up. On the letters page of Wednesday's New York Times, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, slams Gov. Rick Perry for failing to take $830 million in federal money that Perry and other Republicans complained had strings attached but that Doggett says would have prevented “anti-education ‘smoke and mirrors’ budgeting” by the state.
In the latest round of the political feud over $830 million in federal funding, House Republicans, led by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, passed a bill Saturday that attempts to block the enforcement of the Texas-specific Education Jobs amendment.
The latest chapter in the feud between Gov. Rick Perry and Representative Lloyd Doggett over $830 million in federal money for education unfolded Tuesday, when, in his State of the State address, the governor called out a “certain Texas congressman” for singling out Texas “for punishment in pursuit of his own agenda.”
The dispute between Mr. Perry and Mr. Doggett, Democrat of Austin, began in August, when Congress passed legislation to give $10 billion in aid to allow states to hire and retain teachers. Tacked onto the law was a measure proposed by Mr. Doggett and supported by other Democrats — applicable only to Texas — that requires the governor to offer his assurance that the money will be used to “supplement and not supplant” state education financing through 2013.
Six months later, Texas is one of only two states that has not received money from the fund. Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Education to claim the money — without complying with the Doggett provision — and the state’s Congressional delegation has split along party lines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/us/13ttdoggett.html
Texas will soon be receiving the $830 million in funds for public education that have been tied up in political wrangling.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made the announcement Friday. Gov. Rick Perry said he welcomed the department's decision to approve the state's application for the funding.
The federal budget deal negotiated to avoid a government shutdown this month removed the strings U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Austin, had attached to the funds.
The bill removed a requirement that Perry, a Republican, use the funds to supplement existing school spending rather than just replace state funds in order to balance the budget.
http://weareaustin.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=139676
During his 2010 re-election campaign, Gov. Rick Perry vowed to secure $830 million in federal education aid for Texas schools that had been held up in Washington.
The stalled money became the subject of a political fight between Perry and Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin after Doggett inserted into the law special conditions that Texas must meet to get its share of $10 billion in education funding disbursed to states.
...
In a press release of his own... Perry said: “Today is a victory for Texas schools that have been waiting for these well-deserved federal funds for far too long. Thanks to our persistent efforts, including those of U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sen. John Cornyn and other dedicated members of the Texas congressional delegation, along with House Speaker John Boehner, this funding will soon be flowing to the school teachers and schoolchildren of Texas.”
With the state's application approved, we're moving the meter to Promise Kept.
Nominate for Post of the Day!
None of that prevents gov goodhair from being a RINO. Actually, in TX, the gov is not in a strong position. The lt gov has more power. He is a RINO, too.
Thanks, but at this point, we must keep our eyes on the prize and that prize is the ejection of Obama from our White House. We need to do that with the most conservative candidate we can get. I see little value in us trying to tear down our own people. Anyone of them is far better than Obama. This man is a disaster to our country. He is dangerous. We cannot have four more years of Obama!!
Concern about his willingness to have government force behavior on the citizens in irrelevant in you opinion?
"That's why I am supporting Governor Rick Perry for re-election. He does what is right regardless of whether it is popular. He walks the walk of a true conservative. And he sticks to his guns – and you know how I feel about guns!" ...... Sarah Palin, January 17, 2009
"That's why I am supporting Governor Rick Perry for re-election. He does what is right regardless of whether it is popular. He walks the walk of a true conservative. And he sticks to his guns – and you know how I feel about guns!" ...... Sarah Palin, January 17, 2009
Imitation is the highest form of flattery (or is it flatulence?).
Yesterday you used the term anti Christ in a Sarah Palin thread (that mods removed) today you use term liar.
Is Sarah Palin still your first choice like you claimed about 6 weeks ago?
I do not believe for a moment that you ever supported Gov Palin!
Who do you think you are fooling?
Unlike you, that does make me suicidal. Perry is almost a sure thing if he gets in to beat Obama and, unlike Romney, can be said to be a legitimate conservative.
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