Posted on 09/03/2011 4:26:26 PM PDT by smokingfrog
During a legislative session where hardly any services were spared the budget ax, funding for border security actually increased.
Despite major cuts across most state services, from education to health care, lawmakers increased funding for border security in the next biennium by tens of millions of dollars.
The biennial budget for border security nearly doubled, from $111 million to $219.5 million.
Border security and the debate over whether Texas is home to spillover violence is a big concern for state leaders. And it's an increasingly hot topic as Gov. Rick Perry launches his presidential campaign. Perry has long said the federal government hasn't lived up to its financial obligations on the border, forcing the state to foot the bill.
“The people [in Mexico] are defenseless, and the corruption is just so great that if Mexico were to collapse we would have a major problem along the border,” state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, the vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told the Tribune recently. “So far the majority of violence has been limited to that side of the border. But part of the reason is that on this side of the border we are prepared. And we have to be prepared.”
Among the border security line items for the next biennium, lawmakers have set aside nearly $40 million to the Department of Public Safety for general border security — funding that goes toward salaries, costs, training and equipment for the Texas Highway Patrol, criminal investigations, the Texas Rangers and aircraft operations.
Local border security was allotted nearly $50 million over the next biennium, money earmarked specifically for Texas DPS officers along the border, additional Texas Rangers personnel, the Border Operations Center — a central clearinghouse for information related to crimes on the border — and Joint Operations and Intelligence Centers.
(Excerpt) Read more at texastribune.org ...
More webcams? More watering stations?
Yep. I’m sure that’s where all the money is going...
wait a second, how many times have we been told this is a federal problem and states aren’t supposed to do anything?
It sucks that Texas is going to have to foot the bill for what is a primary federal responsibility.
um... we’d still be paying for it if the feds did it
And how many times have we been told that Rick Perry has put out the welcome mat for illegals?
Securing the border is not inexpensive. Do you want your taxes in Texas to be raised in order to do something that the Fed Government is failing to do?
Um...if you want to pay for it all by yourself that is fine. I would think it would be easier to split it up a bit between the other states.
Who says this will do anything to keep out illegals?
Yeah. That's the ticket!
I have read here of FR that Perry has a secret plan to send private limos to Mexican prisons so he can pick up even more convicts and move them to our country.
It’s rediculous that Texas taxpayers have to foot the bill to protect our nation’s borders. That’s one of the few jobs that legitimately belong to the feds.
It’s more rediculous that people attack Perry for not doing enough about border security, when border security is a federal function, and he is doing a lot already.
shhhh!
He’s trying to keep it a secret.
It’s called double taxation.
direlection of duty is what Janet and the boys are doing.
Texans now have to provide our own security.
Hey Janet, the bill is in the mail.
AMEN! THANK YOU!
Well, remember the old abandoned super collider tunnel outside of Waxahatchie? Gov. Perry has turned that into a hub for the importation of illegals.
He has multiple tunnels branching off that go to Brownsville, Laredo, Del Rio, Eagle Pass and El Paso.
This is how he is getting all of his Cartel Compadres into Texas for his personal gain. They sell drugs and carne guisada and he pockets the cash.
Unbelievable!!!
Too bad Cern, Switzerland gets to have all them Lepton-photon conferences now instead of good-ol Texas. I'm sure they will hunt down that elusive Higgs particle soon enough and we'll all be sorry (unless a black hole accidentally develops).
Ping!
If the funding increases will the security increase?
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