DALLAS — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called for a reduction in the state's debt while increasing spending on transportation by $4 billion per year and cutting property and business taxes.
Despite sharply lower energy prices, Abbott declared in his first State of the State speech Feb. 17 in Austin that "our economic engine continues to gain steam."
Abbott highlighted five emergency items for the current legislative session: early and higher education, road funding, border security and ethics.
"Our fellow Texans face so many challenges: the need for better schools, more roads, border security, better healthcare, more jobs," Abbott said. "They want more liberty and less government, and they deserve ethics reform."
After a record year of bond issuance by the state in 2014 — much of it refunding — Abbott called for structural changes that would reduce Texas' overall debt of $17 billion.
"Debt today becomes taxes tomorrow," Abbott said. "Debt service unnecessarily burdens the state's budget and limits the economic freedom of future generations. We must begin the process now to create a structure to pay down our state's debt."
The recently inaugurated governor also called for a 3% reduction in state employment and a constitutional amendment that limits the growth of the state budget to the rate of population increase plus inflation.
"You'll be surprised to learn that Texas has more full-time state employees per capita than California and Illinois," Abbott said. "That's shocking — it must be changed."
Abbott said the cut in state agency spending would come from hiring freezes, reduction in fuel costs and less travel.
The governor's proposed $4 billion increase in spending would come from three main sources, Abbott said, including Proposition 1, a constitutional amendment approved by voters diverting about $1.7 billion per year from the state's rainy day fund.
A new source of funding would come from half of the sales taxes on cars and trucks in the state. The transportation funding bill has already been endorsed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, leader of the Texas Senate, and Sen. Robert Nichols, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and author of the bill.
"The plan — including the constitutional amendment — is needed to ensure TxDOT has the sustainable, recurring and predictable revenue needed to plan large-scale, multi-year construction projects," Abbott said.
Abbott, who was attorney general before winning election as governor Nov. 4, called for an end to school funding litigation after courts declared the state's formula unconstitutional. That ruling is on appeal to the state Supreme Court.
"It's time to stop fighting about school finance and start fixing our schools," Abbott declared.
The speech came the same day that a U.S. District Court Judge in Brownsville ruled in favor of Abbott's lawsuit seeking to halt President Obama's discretionary use of deportation.
Judge Andrew S. Hanen ordered a halt to the Obama administration's announced on Nov. 20 that would offer protection from deportation and work permits to as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants.
The first of the programs was scheduled to start receiving applications on Feb. 18.
Hanen, an outspoken critic of the administration on immigration policy, found that Texas and the 25 states that had joined in the litigation satisfied the minimum legal requirements to bring their lawsuit. Hanen ruled that the Obama administration had failed to comply with basic administrative procedures for putting such a sweeping program into effect. The administration said it would appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, which has also opposed Obama's policies in previous decisions.
Abbott declared victory on the immigration lawsuit before his state-of-the-state address.
"President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat, and Judge Hanen's decision rightly stops the President's overreach in its tracks," Abbott said in written statement. "The District Court's ruling is very clear -- it prevents the President from implementing the policies in 'any and all aspects.'"
