The Senate Finance Committee’s proposals won’t be voted on and sent to the full chamber until April.
The details and decision-making behind the Senate Finance Committee’s latest budget effort — laid out over more than 1,000 pages — were hammered out largely behind closed doors. State agencies, advocacy groups and private citizens asked for tens of billions of dollars worth of requests, which were debated in smaller committee work groups not subject to public meetings laws.
The full committee heard nearly 100 hours of public testimony on the budget bill over nearly two dozen meetings in less than two months. Monday’s meeting offered the first clear look at potential winners and losers.Senate budget leaders declined to fund $1 billion for some programs requested by colleges and universities that the schools said would have allowed them to freeze tuition for two years.
The senators approved $500 million for broadband programs and $1 billion for a Texas “water fund” to helpThey also earmarked $18 million over the next two years for foster care services for children without placements. When the state cannot find a suitable placement for a child who has been removed from the home, the Department of Family and Protective Services is required to provide temporary emergency care until a placement can be secured.
And the panel set aside $1 million to help county election workers get trained in security measures, a response to an uptick in violence andSenators also funneled more than half a billion in new money to the Texas Department of Public Safety — including money for some 250 new officers, $381.5 million to revamp the training facility in Williamson County, and tens of millions for bulletproof windshields, new helicopters and upgraded communications equipment.
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