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The proposed 2026-2027 Texas state budget is setting off alarm bells when it comes to the price tag.
“There’s too much spending, too much taxes, to little liberty for Texans across the state,” declared Economist Vance Ginn. “I think this is a bad budget.”
The $337 billion budget has passed in the Republican-held Texas House, and Senate, but Ginn says it seems more suited to a liberal state like California. For instance, while the budget includes funding for school choice, Ginn calls that “a token gesture in exchange for a staggering $8.5 billion in additional handouts to government schools.” Going into the budget process with a $28 billion budget surplus and $28 billion in its rainy-day fund, Ginn says lawmakers should have given Texans a bigger tax break instead of more spending.
He also says splurging today could mean some harsh budget decisions tomorrow. “What we’ve had is a robust economy because more people are moving here,” he said, “but I’m fearful that that’s going to end soon and that’s going to put us in a dire situation moving forward.”
Ginn points to the past decade of budget ups and downs in Kansas, which had a big enough surplus to implement tax cuts, but didn’t get spending under control and eventually had to raise taxes again.
At this point, he says only Governor Greg Abbot can head off Texas’ coming “California” style budget.
“I would say ‘governor, I think you should veto this budget. It’s not fiscally conservative, that you’ve pushed for, for a decade now in Texas.’ This is not sustainable. It’s a ticking time bomb that is going to blow up soon if we don’t get control over it.”