Another Perry bait-and-switch.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-legislature/82nd-legislative-session/perrys-rainy-day-fund-used-up-say-some-republicans/>>>>snip
Taking a moment to praise his state, he told the audience at the Republican Leadership Conference that the Legislature had just balanced the budget — without raising taxes and while maintaining essential government services. “I might add that new budget leaves $6 billion in a Rainy Day Fund,” he said, to the delight of the crowd.
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Just ask a Republican state legislator why $6 billion of taxpayer money sits in the bank as teachers lose their jobs. The likely answer? Because it’s already accounted for.
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That means when lawmakers come back in two years — and without a change in federal law diminishing the state’s obligation to Medicaid or an increase in Rainy Day revenue from an improved economy — they will need most of the remaining $6 billion to pay another past due bill.
“Effectively they’ve used it,” said Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business and a former state lawmaker. “They just aren’t going to fess up until January of 2013.”