HEGAR SAYS LEGISLATURE SHOULD HAVE $119B IN REVENUE

  

State Comptroller Glenn Hegar estimates that lawmakers returning to the Capitol today will have as much as $119.1 billion in revenue available for general-purpose spending in the 2020-21 budget.

That’s an 8.1 percent increase from the amount available in the current two-year budget.

Conservatives have suggested the fatter revenues should mean lawmakers cut taxes.

Progressive policy groups say the additional revenue should translate into greater spending on services, for everything from cutting lines at driver’s license offices to increased subsidies for college education.

Hegar, however, sounded a note of warning, saying “the Legislature will again face some difficult choices in balancing the budget,” listing education spending and property tax cuts as “the most pressing and costly budget drivers.”