deficit

^{By Lloyd Criss—Galveston County Democratic Party Chairman}

For many decades Texas had a tax structure that provided adequate revenue to fund public education and balance the state budget. Occasionally the tax structure produced a surplus. Prior Democratic administrations wisely converted the surpluses into savings and created the Texas Rainy Day Fund for unanticipated circumstances.

In 2006 Gov. Rick Perry passed legislation that contained substantial tax cuts to benefit certain big businesses. This tax cut legislation created a $5 billion dollar shortfall in state revenue. By 2011 this shortfall, combined with a recession driven decline in sales tax revenue, blossomed into the $27 billion budget deficit crisis for the 82^nd Texas Legislative Session.

This historic budget crisis was no accident. The shortfall had been forecast by the state comptroller at the time. The state treasury isn’t broke; it was robbed of the funds we need to serve the citizens of this state.

If you agree that we can't allow American taxpayers to be robbed by 16 international corporations who pay to manipulate our government so that we pay more, and they pay less to operate it, please use the tools you have at your disposal — your social network — to share this video and make the truth go viral.

Over the last two weeks, tens of thousands of workers and their supporters have flooded the Wisconsin and Ohio state capitols, pushing back on their newly-elected Republican Governors' attempts to revoke collective bargaining rights for public workers.

In a pointed Op-Ed in Sunday's New York Times, Nobel Prize winning Economist Paul Krugman looks at Texas' financial deficit and the children who will suffer as a result of Republican politician's malfeasence:

At the state and local level, however, there’s no doubt about it: big spending cuts are coming.

And who will bear the brunt of these cuts? America’s children....

And in low-tax, low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right. The high school graduation rate, at just 61.3 percent, puts Texas 43rd out of 50 in state rankings. Nationally, the state ranks fifth in child poverty; it leads in the percentage of children without health insurance. And only 78 percent of Texas children are in excellent or very good health, significantly below the national average....

Anyway, the next time some self-proclaimed deficit hawk tells you how much he worries about the debt we’re leaving our children, remember what’s happening in Texas, a state whose slogan right now might as well be “Lose the future.”