DALLAS — The Texas Senate’s chief budget writer said Monday there is little enthusiasm among his colleagues for the $164.5 billion, two-year budget the House passed late Sunday.
Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he expects to begin hearings on three House-approved budget bills during the week of April 18.
The measures include HB 1, the budget for fiscal 2012-2013, and two bills that resolved a $4.3 billion revenue shortfall in the current biennium.
“To get the senators to vote for HB 1, they’re going to have to see all the cards on the table,” Ogden said.
Proposals in the Senate would add about $10 billion to the House spending plan. The Senate has not yet compiled its own budget bill.
A Senate Finance subcommittee looking for up to $5 billion in additional non-tax revenue over the next two years is expected to report to the full committee later this week.
The House approved the budget bill by 98 to 49 Sunday, with two Republicans joining the Democrats’ unanimous opposition.
The 1,000-page document would reduce spending by $23 billion over the next two years.
House Appropriations chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said he expects the bill to be amended during negotiations with the Senate.
“This budget is the result of the worst recession that anybody in this room has ever experienced,” Pitts said Sunday after the vote.
“I want to promise you that we will do everything we can in conference committee to bring back a better bill,” he said. “I know this bill is not perfect.”
The Legislature’s 140-day regular season will end June 30, but a special session is expected.
Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, a former chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said that for the first time ever, the budget allocates more for debt service on state bonds issued for highway projects than for new roads.
Pickett said the Texas Department of Transportation will spend $1.15 billion on new road projects over the next two years, while paying debt service of $1.65 billion on $11.9 million of outstanding bonds.
The department’s total budget is $8 billion.
Lawmakers rejected most of the 400 amendments offered to the budget bill, including one by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, that proposed an 18-month budget instead of a 24-month one.
The House bill reduces state aid to local school districts by $5 billion from current spending over two years, a 9% cut, and is $7.8 billion shy of the allocation required under current law. Senate proposals would restore state aid to current allocations, which would still be $4 billion lower than current law requires.
The cut in direct state aid for public education is the first one since the Foundation School Program began in 1949.
Districts would see their per-student allocation fall by $850 a year.
Higher education will receive $21.1 billion, down 7.3% from current spending. The House budget bill lowers funding for five state health and human services agencies to $54 billion over the next two years from the current $65.4 billion.
