Pitts asks Combs to testify about Texas' current, $4.3 billion deficit

Rep. Jim Pitts, the House's chief budget writer, sent a letter late Tuesday to Comptroller Susan Combs, asking for her to explain to his committee -- in writing and in person -- just exactly how Texas fell into a fiscal ditch and how it might escape.

Pitts, R-Waxahachie, asked Combs specifically to explain how and why state spending in the current two-year cycle will exceed the revenue guesses she made in 2009 by $4.3 billion -- at least, according to her January revenue estimate. He noted that in June 2009, she certified that the just-passed 2010-2011 budget was balanced. But on Monday, Pitts filed House Bill 275, to draw down rainy-day fund money to cover the gap Combs now projects for the cycle that ends Aug. 31. (Recent cuts may reduce it by a billion or so.)

"I am fully aware that passage of HB 275 will require a difficult supermajority vote by the House membership," Pitts wrote. "Before I ask them to take that vote, it is important that House members have a true picture of our fiscal situation." He asked Combs to answer six questions he posed in writing by the close of business on Wednesday, and then appear at 8 a.m. Thursday before House Appropriations "to have a further discussion with the members."

Some key House GOP budget writers have said privately they can't rely on Democrats to help them tap $9.4 billion of rainy-day money and don't think they could get more than 90 of the chamber's 101 Republicans to vote for doing it. That may explain why Pitts has adopted a strategy of seeking to use the rainy day fund to plug holes in the current budget, which only requires a three-fifths majority, or 90 votes. Using any of the money in the 2012-2013 cycle would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber. Pitts has remained very tight-lipped about whether, after the current cycle's deficit has been eliminated, he might seek a second dollop of rainy-day moolah to help reduce the really huge, $20 billion-plus gap awaiting lawmakers as they write the next budget.

If you want the line to go dead, just ask him about it.

Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/03/pitts-summons-combs-to-discuss.html

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