PRIMARY CONCERNS CAPITOLGains
BY MARK BORSKEY Guest Writer
On March 1, primary voters in Texas
participated in Super Tuesday, so called because the largest numbers of presidential convention delegates are up for grabs on that day. While the presidential contest monopolized most of the public’s attention, there were also a great number of state offices on the ballot. All of the Texas State House and
Congressional seats were up for election, as were half of the Texas State Senate seats. Unfortunately, only about two-thirds of voters continued down the ballot after they voted for their preferred presidential candi- date. I say unfortunately, because state leg- islators can often have just as much impact on our daily lives and businesses as the president does. This year, roughly 4.2 million voters
participated in the primary; 2.8 million Republicans and 1.4 million Democrats turned out. In 2008, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton where on the Democratic primary ballot, these numbers
40 Summer 2016
were almost exactly the opposite. When you see the media refer to “voter enthusi- asm”, this is how it manifests itself. Twenty-two Texas primary races went
into overtime and were decided in the May 24 runoffs. Because of the nature of the district lines in Texas, most of the action takes place during the party primaries. When it comes to the general election in November, there will be surprisingly few truly competitive seats in Texas. During the last legislative session,
there were 98 Republicans and 52 Democrats, while the Senate had 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats. After the general election, the Senate will most likely keep this partisan ratio. There will also be little movement in the House. The make up of the next Texas Legislature will be a political doppelganger to the current one.
What a Difference a Year Makes During the 84th Legislative Session,
Texas was awash in cash. Thanks to the oil and gas fracking boom, along with a gener- ally robust economy, Texas ended the Session with a $4.2 billion budget surplus
and $10.4 billion in the Rainy Day Fund— and that was after lawmakers passed $3.8 billion in tax cuts by increasing homestead property tax exemption and lowering the state’s franchise tax rate by 25 percent. While Texas is a much more
economically diverse state than it was 20 years ago, oil and gas revenues, along with sales tax from all the products and equipment the petrochemical industry buys, still make a significant contribution to the state’s coffers. Between the effects of the Great
Recession, the recovery, and oil still under $50 a barrel, Texas has had a wild budget- ary ride. In the span of just five years, Texas went from painfully cutting $15 bil- lion to balance the budget in 2011, to the luxury of an enormous unspent surplus in 2015, to the possibility of using that entire surplus by the end of this year.
Is a Budget Storm Headed for
Texas? In short—it's too early to say.
However, unless there is a positive change in oil prices in the near future, and a recov-
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