The Rainy Day Fund.

 The Texas rainy day fund was started in 1988 in response to an economic downturn that caused a severe budget shortfall.  To ease the impact of future economic downturns the legislature set aside a portion of taxes collected from oil and gas revenues to create the fund which now has a balance of about $9.4 billion. Democrats believe now is the time to start using these funds to bail to help close the projected $27 billion budget shortfall. However, the Republican members of the Texas House are opposed to using the rainy day fund, also known as the Reserve Fund, while the Senate has agreed in principle to use 3.2 billion from the fund to close this year’s budget deficit.  There is no agreement on whether the Republicans will agree to use the Reserve Fund to close the gap in the 2012-2013 budget.  Governor Perry and Lt. Governor Dewhurst are strongly opposed to tapping the fund for this purpose.

 In Amarillo, and Lubbock two television advertisements are being released by conservative groups on the way Texas Public schools spend their money. If the House and the Senate agree,   money from the Reserve Fund can be used in many beneficial ways, to pay for hiring teachers laid off in droves from the public schools, health care, prisons and state highways.  The Republicans need to show leadership to resolve the budget crises they helped to create in the first place. They lowered property taxes by $2 billion which they planned to offset by increase in business taxes which never materialized due to the recession, leaving the schools with huge deficits resulting massive teacher and staff layoffs.