An unbalanced budget
Gov. Rick Perry called a special session Monday night after a Democratic filibuster of a public education reform bill prevented the Legislature from balancing the budget before the legislative session’s end.
“This special session is going to be about putting the finishing touches on what we already know and perceive as a truly historic legislative session.”
— Gov. Rick Perry said Monday at a press conference to discuss the end of the 82nd legislative session.
“If all we do is hold the line on taxes, if all we do is balance a budget exclusively by cutting spending, I think that would represent a pretty amazing accomplishment.”
— Perry at Monday’s press conference.
“It fails seniors and children and leaves hand-outs to political cronies, corporations and power brokers.”
— Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, on the state budget that cuts about $4 billion from public education and nearly $1 billion from higher education.
“The party in control has done nothing to deal with the long-term fiscal problems that they themselves created. In fact, doing nothing at all would’ve been better than the results that we are seeing today.”
— Farrar on the 82nd Legislature’s “Republican supermajority.”
Savings for UT
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity released a study last week that suggests an increased emphasis on faculty teaching at UT would result in significant savings, according to The Texas Tribune. The center used data released by the UT System that included faculty members’ salaries and research expenditures.
“These findings bring to light very real opportunities to provide a better education to students at vastly lower costs while preserving UT-Austin’s ability to conduct world-class research.”
— Texas Public Policy Foundation spokesman David Guenthner in response to the center’s study, according to The Texas Tribune.
“The faculty at a top-tier university like ours are productive and efficient, but more important, they engage in the top-quality instruction and research that make an institution great. That quality should be part of any measurement.”
— UT President Bill Powers in response to the study, according to The Texas Tribune.
