Political Updates
Chapter Ten: Revenues, Expenditures, and Fiscal Policy

Looking Back, pg. 418

A robust Texas economy in the late 1990s allowed the Texas Legislature to lower taxes for the state's residents. Unfortunately, by January 2001 a slowing economy limited the state's revenue and increasing demands for public services heightened competition for state dollars. Some blamed former Governor George W. Bush's presidential aspirations for tax cuts that they believed they were ill conceived. By June 2001, Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander predicted that state budget makers would face a $5 billion shortfall in the 2004-2005 biennium. Some legislators even began discussing the possibility of a state income tax.