The Texas House of Representatives just passed its version of the new biennial state budget. While the final state budget will be a product of negotiations between the House and Senate, the House version provides some clear insights into the Texas Legislature's  priorities.


The good news is that a robust Texas economy is still providing ample revenue to fund essential services without tax hikes. In fact, the House budget fully funds Texas' "Rainy Day" account, which should grow to $4.3 billion over the next two years. This provides an emergency nest egg to cover unanticipated expenses or economic downturns.


The House version of the budget also left $4.2 billion unappropriated to provide another source of prudent savings for the future.


It is proposed that Texas spend a total of  $150.1 billion over the next two years from all sources of funding. About half of this is amount ($72.5 billion) is from general revenue, or the money from Texas taxpayers that is spent on general government programs. The rest comes from the federal government to help fund various programs at the state level.


The new budget targets several items I had flagged as being of great important. First, this budget restores the Teacher Retirement System to actuarial soundness with $668 million increase in the state's contribution to the pension fund. Restoring the fund to actuarial soundness is the first step in pension benefit increases for our retired teachers.


This budget also fully funds the local school property tax reductions enacted last spring and increases funding for public education by 8.9 percent over the current budget. Higher education funding was increased by $925.9 million, or 9.2 percent.


This budget also makes improvements in health care by funding enhancements to the Children's Health Insurance Program and providing $690.2 million in increases to reimbursement rates for medical care providers.


Public safety saw several noteworthy improvements, too. The Department of Public Safety will obtain a $101 million increase for their homeland security programs and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice received $61.5 million to expand efforts to divert offenders from the prison system who may be rehabilitated without incarceration.


This budget also increases funding for state parks, ensures that funds collected for trauma care are spent on this purpose, and targets breast cancer with $4 million in additional funding for screening and treatment.


In addition, this budget finishes the elimination of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fee on phone bills. So, not only does this new budget not increase any taxes – it actually gets rid of a fee used to fund a program whose work has been completed.


I authored an amendment to the budget that was adopted to have research performed by our Health and Human Services Commission on the costs to the State of Texas and local hospital districts of providing health care services to illegal immigrants. This information, once compiled, with be sent onto the United States Congress. Showing how much this costs may assist us in spurring better border security and increased reimbursements for the costs being imposed upon our citizens.


This is a budget that puts our money on the things that matter the most: education, retired teachers, property tax cuts, public safety, and health care. It does it while living within our means and sets aside money for a rainy day. It even eliminates a fee paid by Texans that has outlived its purpose.


This was a good budget for Texas and I look forward to approving the final version when the work of the budget conference committee is completed.

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