AUSTIN, Texas, May 29 (UPI) -- Texas lawmakers have passed a tight budget, and have one more day to pass a final bill to make the legislation work, officials said.
The legislative session ends Monday and the House and Senate must sign off on Senate Bill 1811 to free up about $3.5 billion to make the two-year budget work, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday.
The $172 billion 2012-13 budget is about $15 billion less than the current budget because of federal and state funding cuts. State dollars in the budget fell by about two percent.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said deep spending reductions were made "not because we wanted to, but because the economy and the voting public demanded it."
SB 1811 would move some payments to school districts into the next budget, freeing the money for use in the new budget.
Democrats didn't much like how the budget was passed.
"This Legislature had other options. We had other choices that we could have made, but the Legislature failed to have the courage to do what is right for all of Texas," said state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio.
