AUSTIN, Texas — Lawmakers convene Tuesday for the start of the 89th legislative session. Before each session begins, the Texas comptroller issues the Biennial Revenue Estimate to project how much money lawmakers will have to allocate for the next two-year state budget period.
Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported lawmakers will have $195 billion in revenue for general spending.
“Texas is in good financial shape. I expect revenues to grow through the next biennium, although at a more moderated pace than historical levels,” said Hegar.
Hegar also says there is a nearly $24 billion surplus in the state’s budget, money left over from the last budget cycle, which he credits to conservative budgeting.
But during the last biennium, lawmakers had a surplus of $33 billion to allocate. A historic total that Hegar credits to economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, record high inflation and significant federal dollars sent to the state.
The surplus was mainly spent to decrease property taxes.
“The Legislature can take pretty significant bites out of several major issues, but it’s hard to swallow one at one time,” said Hegar.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote that his first focus for using the surplus is “to continue to cut property taxes and increase teacher salaries.” He also wants to add new dispatchable power to the grid.
Fiscal policy expert Rahul Sreenivasan of TEXAS 2036 believes the state should address long-term challenges such as ensuring clean water sources and workforce readiness with investments in child care and education. He thinks that may take many years to fulfill.
“The long-term challenges are in the scale of hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few decades,” Sreenivasan said.
Other stakeholders are eager for an immediate funding option. The conservative Texas Public Policy foundation commented that “Any available surplus should be used to… keep Texas moving down the path of property tax elimination.”
Texans Care for Children CEO Stephanie Rubin stated, “The Legislature will clearly have money available to invest in priorities like public education… and overhauling outdated technology in the state’s Medicaid enrollment system.”
“Those discussions come about where do we see not just the cash flow of the state of Texas next year, but where do we think the economy is going? What are the indicators that we see? So it’s a wide range of different questions,” said Hegar.
Gov. Greg Abbott wants lawmakers to allocate money for and pass a school voucher bill that would fund private schools with public dollars. The bill died in previous sessions, but $4.5 billion was set aside. Hegar says that is included in this year’s surplus.