Hey, buddy, can you spare $15B in fees?

Yep, the Texas Lege is going to pass a balanced budget that will close a $27 billion gap (NOT $15 billion, you have to allow for natural growth in programs) without raising taxes or touching the rainy day fund.

Well, the GOP's backdoor taxes, otherwise known as fees, won't do it, no matter how laughably transparent they are.

Here's the one I love:

State employees and retirees who smoke would pay a $30-a-month "tobacco user monthly premium surcharge," raising an estimated $42 million for the budget.

Yep, that's from the same Rick Perry and GOP legislative wingnuts who want to "get government off the people's back."

I guess that doesn't include spying on state employees, let alone retirees, to see if they're smoking or not.

An "electronic filing of documents fee"? The state already charges you to renew a car registration online. So, are we going to get fee double-dipped?

Short answer? Of course we will.

You know what's coming?

You know how colleges, starting a couple of decades ago, started charging more and more activity and user fees?

Well, if you're sending a kid to public school ... don't be surprised if you get stuck with some fees. But, what about kids already on free lunches? Ahh, well, social Darwinism says they probably shouldn't be in school anyway.

Oh, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are you really sure you want to get rid of your state's income tax and lean on sales taxes? (And double-dipping fees?)

And, do you want to base your optimism on such a revenue structure on nutbars such as former Texas Rep. Talmadge Heflin?

Those who had claimed a massive Texas budget shortfall made assumptions about future spending that do not square with the realities of the legislative budget process. Agencies present legislators with optimistic or inflated requests, and legislators almost always pare those back to fit within the available revenue. The paring is much more aggressive during revenue difficulties.

Texas. The Ponzi State.™