Legislators to face tough budget choices

Lawmakers returning to Austin this month will be forced to find new ways to do more with less.

A lag in economic growth nationwide has left legislators with the lowest state spending cap in history.

And a possible ouster of controversial House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, could result in dimming political futures for a handful of his Rio Grande Valley supporters.

Still, as Texas prepares to kick off its 81st legislative session Jan. 13, legislators from Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr counties remain optimistic for the next five months of lawmaking and political wrangling.

"We haven't been impacted as severely as other states with the economic crisis," said Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-Mission. "But we still need to be extremely cautious as we head into this session."

Statewide debates over road funding, education reform and health care are likely to dominate this legislative term, Valley lawmakers said.
And, as always, each elected official will show up with his own priorities.

Because the Legislature meets once every two years and drafts its budget to cover the interim, lawmakers only have a short period to push their projects through.

Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, hopes to broaden access to school buses for public school students.

His counterpart in Edinburg - Democratic Rep. Aaron Peña - said he will focus on making the cost of public higher education more affordable for middle-class families.

The entire Valley delegation has pledged to bring a state-accredited medical school to the Valley.

But this year, they will have to fight over smaller portions from the proverbial state soup bowl.

Texas ended the 2007 budgeting process with a $2.5 million surplus, but the Legislature is likely to spend taxpayer dollars more conservatively over the next cycle, said Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen.

The Legislative Budget Board - a bipartisan group that develops budget spending limits before each session - authorized lawmakers to spend only 9.14 percent of the state's tax revenues for the 2010-2011 period.

The cap leaves only $79.6 billion for all new spending or tax reductions.

"The governor had already told us we're going to tighten our belt," Gonzales said. "He's already asked state agencies to cut their budgets."
Lawmakers expect to allocate large chunks of that money to maintaining and expanding the state's road system. An independent commission estimated it would cost $313 billion to keep up with the Texas Department of Transportation's traffic needs through 2030 in a report released last month.

And perennial issues such as immigration, border security and property tax rates will likely rear their heads again as Republican Gov. Rick Perry seeks to rally his base in an election year.

As one of the few Democratic strongholds in the state, the region has largely been ignored by statewide Republican candidates, forcing the region's delegates to form unlikely alliances to get their voices heard.

In 2007, three local Democratic representatives came out in support of Republican House Speaker Craddick - much to the chagrin of their own party.

Dubbed the Craddick D's, Peña, Flores and Rep. Ryan Guillen of Roma were rewarded with plum political positions on the criminal jurisprudence, licensing and appropriations committees, respectively, where each held influence over what bills reached the House floor.

But those old strategies are likely to shift in a new political climate.

Democrats picked up three House seats in the November elections, narrowing the Republican majority to a two-representative advantage.
With several opponents from both parties, Craddick appears likely to lose his speakership this term, both his local supporters and critics said.

Should he be deposed, Peña, Flores and Guillen could face tough questions about their support of the Midland Republican and lose their power positions in their committees.

Legislators are expected to cast their ballots for House speaker on the session's first day. The vote could be just the first in a series of surprises this session.

"It's 140 days of many, many bills," Gonzales said. "We just have to make sure that the policies we put in place put us in a better place than when we got there."