Of course, the budget is 10x bigger than it was 30 years ago too.
Posted on 09/04/2014 1:29:44 PM PDT by smokingfrog
As Texas lawmakers convene in January for the next legislative session, their chief task will be to write a two-year budget. And the state's next comptroller will be charged with estimating how much revenue lawmakers can expect to work with.
The responsibility has become a political minefield, particularly after Comptroller Susan Combs’ estimate ahead of the 2011 session drew criticism for underestimating tax revenue by several billion dollars. Combs’ office recently researched the accuracy of revenue estimates going back 40 years and found that, by one measure, other comptrollers’ estimates have landed farther from the actual number.
Since 1942, the Texas Constitution has required that the comptroller produce a Biennial Revenue Estimate to provide lawmakers a guide of how much money they have available for their next budget. Texas is one of only four states that meets every two years instead of annually. In the past, critics have argued that the state should meet every year, citing the difficulty of properly anticipating the state's needs so far in advance.
Chief Revenue Estimator John Heleman, who led the study, analyzed the estimates of tax collections in the Certifiable Revenue Estimate, which is the updated forecast the comptroller provides after each legislative session. Heleman said he focused on that figure rather than the one the comptroller provides before the legislative session because the CRE factors in changes made to tax laws made during that session, some of which can have dramatic impacts on revenue.
Why go back only 40 years? Before that, Heleman found that the state budget was structured differently, making it difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison between those older revenue estimates and more recent ones, agency spokesman Chris Bryan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at myhighplains.com ...
Of course, the budget is 10x bigger than it was 30 years ago too.
lol
trouble predicting the future... really? You don’t say?
Who could have predicted this?
The solution is simple. Don’t spend money that you do not already have. Never plan to spend more than you already have in the coffers.
At the end of the current biennium, the state’s Rainy Day Fund will have a balance of about $8.1 billion, absent any appropriation that might be made by the Legislature. At the end of the 2014-15 biennium the balance is projected to be approximately $11.8 billion, absent any legislative appropriations.
http://www.window.state.tx.us/news2013/130107-BRE.html
Regardless of the story, why would anyone use Texas Trib, which is funded by our old friend Soros, as any credible resource?
Is there any chance anything Soros does is honest, honorable or with our best interest in mind?
The Texas Tribune is not a credible source. This is almost a non-story. Probably only written to give Mike Collier some free publicity.
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