As the 82nd Legislature moves from regular session to special, it does so knowing that lawmakers fulfilled their one constitutional obligation: passing a budget. Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, called the headline numbers in House Bill 1 “a compromise between the House’s horrific budget and the Senate’s awful alternative.” However, lawmakers failed to pass any of the necessary school or health and human services funding bills that they sought. So the special session is about how to change the state’s financial responsibilities and eke out those numbers for a biennium. Another way to put it: The ship of state is sinking, and the Lege has not even rearranged the deck chairs.

Unless Republicans can be persuaded to release more of the $6 billion Rainy Day Fund, the headline numbers are locked in. During the debate on school finance reforms in Senate Bill 1811, Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, told his fellow lawmakers, “When we stood up here and passed House Bill 1 the first time, I said, ‘This is your school finance vote, members.'” However, there are codas to Hochberg’s judgment: First, HB 1 contained a poison-pill amendment that cuts all cash to public schools unless a funding reform bill is passed; second, Republicans already plan to use the Rainy Day Fund to backfill the predicted $4.8 billion Medicaid budget shortfall at the end of the biennium; and third, Appropriations Vice Chair Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, has warned that no matter how skinny this budget looks, Gov. Rick Perry will demand more cuts in the interim. So next session’s baseline spending will look even worse – except, of course, for the business and economic development funding, which is the only area to see increases.

2012-13 Texas Budget: Total Spending by Article

With % change from 2010-11 spending (rounded)

Article I: General Government: $4 billion (-10.7%)

II: Health & Human Services: $54 billion (-17.2%)

III: Agencies of Education: $76 billion (-1.1%)

IV: The Judiciary: $0.64 billion (-4.6%)

V: Public Safety and Criminal Justice: $11 billion (-5.3%)

VI: Natural Resources: $3 billion (-13.4%)

VII: Business and Economic Development: $24 billion (+5.0%)

VIII: Regulatory: $0.7 billion (-12.8%)

IX: General Provisions: $2 billion (N/A)

X: The Legislature: $0.34 billion (-8.8%)

Total: $172 billion (-8.1%)

This article appears in June 3 • 2011.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.