#RickPerry, Texas GOP use smoke and mirrors, kick budget can down road

This AP story nails it ... despite pre-start-of-session promises that the Texas Legislature and Gov. Rick Perry would actually cut the budget, much of the budget cutting is "smoke and mirrors and misdirection," as Democratic State. Sen. Garnett Coleman put it, while there's still real, painful shortfalls to things like education, and some of that caused by the smoke and mirrors as well as actual cuts.

Details of the smoke and mirrors? Right here.

The first accounting shift was to delay a $2.3 billion payment owed to public schools in 2012-2013 by one day, so that the bill isn't technically due until 2014, thereby going into the next budget. The new budget also assumes there will be no growth in the number of school children in Texas, even though it is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Critics say the state will short school districts $2 billion that way.

Lawmakers also decided to rewrite the laws that determine how Texas pays for public education, since the Legislature could not afford what the law mandated. They slashed $4 billion in what will be the first cut in per-student spending in Texas since World War II. Districts must either lay off thousands of teachers and increase class sizes, increase local property taxes or both.

Republican leaders came up with another $800 million on paper by ordering the Legislative Budget Board, essentially the Legislature's accountants, to forecast a faster increase in land values in order to show more property tax income for schools. While signs do point to a recovering economy, state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, found the move dishonest.

"The education cuts hurt our children and economy and the accounting tricks will put the state into a deeper ditch in two years," Villarreal said.

Lawmakers also chose to ignore the estimated $4.8 billion extra it would need for the Medicaid health care program because of Texas' fast-growing population and high poverty rate. By simply opting not to budget for it, conservatives showed their hatred for the program and could technically balance the budget.

Of course, this is nothing new.

The state's been lying about things like "fee increases" not being tax increases for years. And, it has raised taxes.