Texas Senate budget also bleak, has more school funds than House version

The Texas Senate’s version of the state budget doesn’t look much beefier than the House’s version, though Senate writers found more money for public education, higher ed, border security, cancer research, criminal justice and state parks. Unlike the House version, the Senate version calls for slashing the Public Utility Commission’s benefit fund by 90 percent.

The Senate budget, which also does not dip into the state’s emergency Rainy Day Fund, calls for $158.7 billion in total spending compared to the House budget of $156.4 billion, a difference of $2.3 billion in total funds and $400 million in general revenue. Both versions of the budget are posted on the Legislative Budget Board’s website.

Compared to the House budget, the Senate budget allocates $500 million more to the Permanent School Fund (still leaving a shortfall of $9.3 billion), plus $400 million to help salvage funding for programs in areas including pre-K, high school completion and college readiness.

The Senate budget gives $500 million more to public institutes of higher education (cutting general funding by 5 percent rather than 10 percent) and does not call for closing four community colleges like in the House budget. The Senate version also includes a contingency rider of $50 million for financial aid programs, and $130 million less in cuts to benefits packages for higher ed employees.

The Senate version allocates about $112 million for border security, compared to the House’s allocation of about $77 million. Senate Finance chair Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) has cited drug violence in Mexico as one of the most pressing issues facing Texas. The Senate budget also has $203 million more for criminal justice programs.

Additionally, the Senate version includes $821 million for the state’s Cancer Prevention and Research Institute — an increase of 261 percent from the previous budget — while the House version provides CPRI with $221 million — a decrease of 3 percent. The Senate budget also has about $29 million more for the Parks and Wildlife Department (though the parks department would still be facing a 29 percent budget cut even under the Senate’s conditions).

The Senate budget calls for slashing the Public Utility Commission’s benefit fund from $249 million to $25 million, a reduction of nearly 90 percent. The House version called for less severe cuts to PUC of about 24 percent.

While the House budget eliminates funding for the state’s Alternative to Abortion program and abstinence education, the Senate version increases funding for government grants to crisis pregnancy resource centers and preserves abstinence education funding at current levels.

Through the state’s anti-abortion program, pregnancy centers were slated to receive $8 million in funds during the current biennium. Of that, $5 million of that was diverted from federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds and $3 million came from general revenue. The Senate budget calls for increasing that total to $8.3 million for 2012-2013. (While the current budget provides for pregnancy centers to serve some 36,000 clients in two years, the Senate budget projects the centers will serve 32,000 clients in two years.)

The Senate budget re-allocated $1.1 million for abstinence education, which is again estimated to serve nearly 11,000 people in two years.

Both versions of the budget call for eliminating the Office of the State Prosecuting Attorney, a small state agency created in 1923 that represents the state before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and in the state’s 14 lower appellate courts. Staff consists of three attorneys, the State Prosecuting Attorney and two assistants. Eliminating the office would save $900,000, according to the budgets.