Published: February 12, 2001While President Bush is lobbying Congress to pass his $1.6 trillion tax cut proposal in Washington, lawmakers in his home state are struggling with budget problems that some critics are tracing to tax cuts Mr. Bush passed here as governor.
For the last week, state legislators have grown increasingly testy about budget projections showing that the state will have little, if any, money to spare. Lawmakers in both parties are talking of possible cutbacks after the projections showed that the state's once-healthy surplus might be nearly erased by budget overruns, particularly from health care costs like Medicaid.
"There's no doubt in my mind that George W. Bush's tax cuts have put us in the situation we're in right now," said State Senator Mario Gallegos, a Houston Democrat who regularly criticized Mr. Bush in the presidential campaign.
Mr. Bush's record of cutting taxes in Texas was a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. In 1997 and 1999, Mr. Bush shepherded a total of $2.9 billion in tax cuts through the State Legislature, much of it in the form of property tax reductions for homeowners. At the same time, budget surpluses enabled lawmakers to expand financing for education and some other services.
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