Perry Outlines Budget Reforms

5-Point Plan Would Lead to Less Government Spending, More Accountability for Taxpayers

DALLAS – Gov. Rick Perry today outlined a sweeping, detailed plan
for budget reforms that will promote fiscal responsibility in state
government.

“Today I am announcing five key budget reforms that will restrain
spending, open the state government checkbook to the public, and end
the disingenuous money-shifting shell games that allow funds to be
spent on priorities other than what was promised,” Perry said. “I
believe it is time to create a state spending limit in Texas that is
real, that requires fiscal discipline and that more closely mirrors
population growth and inflation costs.”

Perry said he is proud to be the only Texas governor since World War
II to sign a budget that reduced state spending. He has also line-item
vetoed more than $2.5 billion in proposed spending since becoming
governor, nearly six times as much as the last four governors combined.
The governor said his budget reform initiative is needed to ensure that
state government is fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.

Perry’s 5 point plan would:

• Impose a real spending limit on state government.
  “It is time to create a state spending limit in Texas that is real,
  that requires fiscal discipline, and that more closely mirrors
  population growth and inflation costs,” Perry said. “The spending limit
  in effect today is hardly a limit at all because it is tied to personal
  income growth. Tying how much we spend to how much we make is a recipe
  for runaway spending.”
• Require dedicated funds to be used as intended, or refunded.
  “It is time for a truth in spending initiative that ends the fraud
  where money raised for one purpose gets spent on something entirely
  different. If you are charged a fee for a specific purpose, the money
  ought to go to that express purpose – or be returned to the taxpayer
  who has been fraudulently charged,” Perry said.
• Require detailed budget line-items instead of lump sum line items.
  “Hiding wasteful expenditures behind worthwhile expenditures is a
  budgetary sham that makes government more bloated, less accountable and
  less transparent,” Perry said.
• Require all state agencies to publish expenditures online in a clear, concise and consistent format.
  “I have a simple philosophy about transparency in government: if the
  taxpayers are picking up the bill, they ought to be able to look at
  very item on the receipt,” Perry said.
• Amend the constitution to allow the state to return surplus revenue to taxpayers.

“If Texans elect me to another term as governor, I will fight to end
the budgetary games, the funding diversions that charge a fee for one
purpose and fund another purpose and I will stand for an effective
spending limit that requires Austin to budget like working families do
everyday,” Perry said.

Full details of the plan are available at:
http://www.rickperry.org/pdf/BudgetReformProposal.pdf