POLS 2312 1st Edition Final Exam Study Guide Lectures 29 34 Lecture 29 September 14 The Texas Budget Who is Speaker of the House Joe Straus is Speaker of the House but Tea Party Republicans are not happy with him because they think he s not conservative enough So the Tea Party candidate who will be running against Joe Straus is Scott Turner What are the five categories in the Texas Budget The Texas Budget has 5 categories 1 General revenue funds budget 2 General revenue dedicated funds budget 3 Federal funds budget 4 Other funds budget 5 All funds budget Oil and gas are a big part of the Texas budget as well What are Texas tax policies There is not state income tax in Texas so property and sales taxes are high The Tea Party wants to get rid of property taxes and raise sales taxes What do revenue sources include Revenue sources includes taxes sales and property oil and natural gas production taxes and taxes on tobacco alcohol auto and hotel It also includes federal matching fund grants and fees and investment earnings Texas also takes revenue from interest on bonds and other investments sales of goods services it provides income from public lands that re rented state lottery tobacco settlement Lecture 30 November 17 State Taxes What are regressive state taxes Regressive means that the poor are taxed at a higher rate than the wealthy Sales and use taxes are regressive Flat taxes are also generally categorized as regressive What are matching federal funds Federal funds match grants for Medicaid temporary aid to needy families education and roads With matching funds the more a state spends What is sales tax The sales tax is the largest source of income for the Texas government Hawaii has the highest income tax rate at 11 and Texas has the lowest with none The Legislature makes a two year budget and only meets 140 days every 2 years and a large portion of the budget is dedicated What s the pay as you go limit The pay as you go limit means that the state budget must always be balanced Any bill to be appropriated must be cleared by the comptroller who must certify that there are funds Lecture 31 November 19 State Budget What does the Texas Constitution say about the budget The Texas Constitution sets specific spending limits on some services Non dedicted spending can t grow faster than the estimated growth of state s economy Texas will not spend more than 1 on poor children and caretakers No more than 5 of the state budget is spent on debt What is the LBB Developing the state budget falls to Legislative Budget Board LBB They analyze agency programs estimate the costs of the new legislation and create a draft budget for legislature They review 5 year projections from each department Hearings are held before the legislature begins session What is the BRE The comptroller determines the Biennial Revenue Estimate BRE The BRE can be updated if dramatic changes take place What does the State Board of Education do The State Board of Education has 15 members that serve a 4 year term They oversee the Permanent School Fund execute education budget nominate commissioner of education purchase textbooks and shape what s in them and they set the education standards for students and schools Lecture 32 November 21 Texas Education Policy What is Obama s immigration policy Obama talked about immigration policy and deportation policy The Texas government wants to sue Obama over this because he s not going to deport anyone with family born in America What are the three big issues that shaped Texas Education Policy over the last 50 years 3 big issues shape Texas public education policy over the last 50 years 1 Desegregation 2 Equity in public school funding 3 Search for educational excellence which measures and demonstrates high stakes testing Lecture 33 November 24 Education and Health Care How many school districts does Texas have Texas has 1 265 school districts and 374 districts that are considered wealthy when in the beginning it was just 30 What was Brown vs Board of Education The Texas Constitution called for segregation Black students had fewer school days and 1 3 rd less funding than white students In 1957 Brown vs Board of Education passed desegregating schools What was San Antonio vs Rodriguez San Antonio ISD vs Rodriguez addressed equity in public school funding What was Edgewood ISD vs Kirby Edgewood ISD vs Kirby in 1989 declares the existing funding system in violation of the state constitution Robin Hood funding emerged because of this case which was where property wealth districts share their local tax revenue with poor districts What were some education reforms in the 1980 s In the 1980 s they selected a committee on Public Education and centralized state control over public education Ross Perot a rich businessman created No Pass No Play If football players didn t pass their classes then they couldn t play football In the 1990 s In the 1990 s students in low performing schools had some ability to move out of them if they could find better schools and if those schools would take them Governor Bush led the effort and created NCLB No Child Left Behind What happened after these reforms After reforms dropout rates seemed to decline but only because of how they measured it Texas starts counting how many people dropout from 10th grade but most other states count from 8th grade or even 7th grade Scores on standardized tests rose but there are still debates over how to test people and there were multiple budget cuts to education How many people are in poverty 18 of Texans are in poverty compared to the national average of 15 An income of less than 11 170 is considered poor and 58 of poor households are employed What is Medicaid Medicaid is medical care for the poor disabled or need financial assistance What is TANF TANF Temporary Aid to Needy Families is welfare income assistance medical and social services This gives people an income child care and social services One must be near poverty and children must be in the household to receive care This aid is limited to 36 months 3 years What is Medicare Medicare is for the old but doesn t cover nursing homes To get coverage over this they need Medicaid as well Most doctors will not accept Medicare or Medicaid as a form of payment What is Obamacare Obamacare hasn t been fully passed yet To have this states need state health care exchanges and they need to expand Medicaid which is something Texas does not want to do Texas is the state with the highest