For years Texas has been taunting California with claims that if we ran our state like they do theirs, we wouldn’t be in as bad shape. In a macabre kind of way, this is pretty funny.  LA Times:

But the latest budget projections out of Texas have sharply changed the discussion: The Lone Star State is facing a budget gap of about $27 billion, putting it in the same league as California among states facing financial meltdowns. The gap amounts to roughly one-third of the state’s budget.

In a place where government is already lean, there aren’t many areas to make up that kind of cash. The budget blueprint Texas’ Legislature is mulling would mean layoffs for tens of thousands of teachers, closure of community colleges, and a severe reduction in state services for the poor and those with mental health problems.

Texas has a two-year budget cycle, which allowed it to camouflage its red ink last year, thanks in large part to billions of dollars in federal stimulus money. Now, however, “someone just turned the lights on in the bar, and the sexiest state doesn’t look so pretty anymore,” said California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, with evident satisfaction.

It would be funnier if the end result of this situation wasn’t likely to be a lot of pain and hardship for those who can least take cuts to an already paper thin safety net.

The dire fiscal situation will likely lead them to do what California has done and cut deeply into their education system, cutting their nose off to spite their face. Unlike California, they are not starting out with an excellent higher education system. As the Times notes, they were already having a hard time luring businesses to the state due to their education system.

The state’s dogged determination to not tinker with its tax system or lean on business in other ways is certain to win points with some executives. But some Texans question whether business leaders will tolerate the resulting deterioration of public infrastructure, particularly in the education system.

State Rep. Dan Branch, a Republican from the Dallas area, says his efforts to bolster the state’s university system are colliding against a public perception that “governments are wildly bloated and massively in debt. When we have that perception out there, we have to manage it.”

Branch went on to note that outsiders might question if Texas’ commitment to education was ever a “serious effort.” It wasn’t if they cut it to the bone, but what choice will they really have?

Just like here in California, Republicans will stop any efforts to raise revenues.  Their legislators are even resisting calls to dip into their $9B emergency reserve, citing gloomy fiscal forecasts.  They are going to look damn silly if they don’t tap into it and two years later the economy has improved. Of course, then they would avoid dipping into it to try and play catchup with education/infrastructure funding. If they don’t use it now, when will they?

This is actually an excellent organizing opportunity for progressives in Texas to point out the failures in the Republican’s fiscal philosophy. Good luck to them and to those who will suffer from what are sure to be draconian cuts.  Sigh.