Conservatives and Christians Should Oppose the Texas Budget Because it is Built on Lies

If the Texas Legislature uses all funds available to it this session, it will appropriate at least $279 billion of taxpayer money during the upcoming biennium. That will be an increase of at least $31.5 billion, or 12.7%, from what it appropriated in 2019. Since the 2014-15 budget, the budget in place when much of the current leadership took office, biennial spending will be up by close to $80 billion–or 39%–over eight years by the end of the next budget cycle.

Yet this is not the story that you will get from the pronouncements about the budget being fiscally conservative coming from politicians and special interest groups in Austin.

In his book How to Lie with Statistics, Darrell Huff explains the myriad of ways that numbers and statistics can be used to distort reality. The folks who put together the Texas budget should teach a graduate course on this because they seem to have mastered the technique.

For instance, in 2013 $5 billion of state higher education spending simply disappeared from the budget, making it look like the Legislature was being fiscally responsible; they weren’t. In 2019 the Texas Legislature appropriated $251.8 billion for the current 2020-21 fiscal biennium. This is an increase of $35.2 billion, or 16.25%, over what it appropriated in 2017 for the 2018-19 biennium. Yet this is not what showed up in the official budget summary prepared by the LBB. Instead, using an apples to oranges approach, the LBB claimed spending was increasing by only 6.3%. The final numbers are almost in; it looks like the actual growth in spending for that period will be about 12.58%.

The members of the Texas Legislature are at it again this session, still using the apples to oranges approach. Now, their budget estimates show that overall spending will actually decline by 5.3.%. They do not boast about this, however, for the simple reason it is not true. What they are not telling us, or at least they are not being very clear about, is that the Legislature will spend a significant portion–if not all–of the $32 billion in federal funds Texas is due to receive through Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP). Add that money in and Texas appropriations this session will increase around 14% over 2019.

The ways Texas leaders are trying to hide spending is much like the use of false balances that is an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 11:1). Similarly, Proverbs 20:17 tells us that “Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.” The mouths of Texas policymakers are surely full of gravel after years of using budget gimmicks and slight of hand to hide how much they are increasing the size of state government. But it is not just the leaders who are in danger. Proverbs 11:3 reminds us that we are well guided by the righteous. But as we tolerate crooked leadership by the treacherous we are destroyed.

Texas conservatives and Christians inside and outside of government should oppose the Texas budget. Not only because it continues the rapid increase in the size and scope of Texas government, but also because it is built on lies.