The 2026-27 Texas Budget Contains More than $50 Billion in New Spending
Reason #3 Why Republicans Should Vote Against the Texas Budget
This is the third installment of the series, Ten Reasons Why Republicans Should Vote Against the Texas Budget, originally written and published by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
When the Texas House and Texas Senate vote later this month on whether to approve the final version of the Texas budget (House Bill 500 and Senate Bill 1), Figure 1 shows that they will be voting on whether to approve more than $53 billion in new spending of state funds.
There are two major appropriations bills in each legislative session. One of them is known as the supplemental appropriations bill. In this session, the supplemental bill is HB 500. Traditionally, the supplemental bill is supposed to make up for any funding shortfalls in the current two-year fiscal biennium.
However, the Texas Legislature has largely filled HB 500 with new spending for the upcoming 2026-27 biennium, spending that should be appropriated in SB 1. Because most people ignore the supplemental bill, and they can increase spending limits under the Tax Spending Limit, the Legislature is trying to sneak more than $19 billion of new spending past Texans who would rather have the $19 billion go towards property tax relief.
The Legislature also uses budget gimmicks and other tricks to hide new spending in SB 1. The Texas Legislative Budget Board’s (LBB) summary of the House version of SB 1 shows that overall state spending is increasing by $4.4 billion, or 1.3%, over the previous biennium. However, by shifting spending between federal and state funds, using the supplemental appropriations to increase the spending base, and various other budget stunts, Figure 3 shows that the LBB—and our elected officials—are hiding more than $33 billion in new spending of state funds in SB 1.
Even though the Texas Legislature plans new spending of $53 billion in state funds over the next two years, only $6 billion of that will go to taxpayers in the form of property tax relief. The other $47 billion will go to constituents whom legislators value more than taxpayers. Texans deserve better.
no one will stop the democrat House speaker. he has total backing of all the democrats & no one but a couple of Republicans (Brian Harrison for one) fight him on anything. the house did NOTHING for weeks at the beginning of the session. democrats are in charge of what is brought to vote. Senate has been stellar in following the gop platform, while Burrows has ignored it. BUT Abbott & Patrick all think Burrows is doing a fantastic job!! we complain, but senators & reps don't read emails, letters, Twitter responses, etc, or even know what is on their voice mail. every contact you make has the same response: staff will read & respond. and then you get a form letter back months after you took the time to voice your opinion. remember Cornyn was booed at CPAC a few years ago. he seemed genuinely surprised he was booed, but if he read anything he received, he'd have known. all a farce, a total farce as long as Bush, Perry, Strauss, Bonnen, Phelan, & Burrows are backed by democrats.