Abbott feels confident that Houston Crime Stoppers can still get funding despite his line-item veto.
He says he vetoed items that can be funded through other means
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday signed a $217 billion budget that will fund state operations for the next two years, giving final approval to a belt-tightening spending plan loaded with conservative wins while vetoing a handful of earmarked items largely because he said they could be funded by other means.
Among the governor’s vetoes was a provision allocating $4 million to fund a public safety grant program in Houston. Lawmakers provided the money to the Texas Department of Public Safety with the intent that it go toward a nonprofit in the greater Houston area that works to prevent and solve crimes through community engagement.
In a note explaining his veto, Abbott said the state in recent years has tried to transfer grant-making authority from DPS to other non-law enforcement agencies. DPS also did not ask for the money in their request to legislators, he noted, adding that the allocation would “return the department to being a grant-making entity.” While those funds will be unavailable for Houston nonprofits, Abbott said other avenues for providing state funds remain open.
“This veto will not prevent Houston Crime Stoppers from being able to receive grant funding from the Office of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division — or encumber Houston Crime Stoppers’ ability to provide awards to appropriate recipients,” Abbott wrote. “I therefore object to and disapprove of this appropriation.”
The director of Houston Crime Stoppers had
no immediate comment Monday, said a spokesman for the nonprofit.
Legislators also gave DPS almost $10 million for safety education campaigns, which Abbott said was more than what the agency requested for the initiative. He cut in half the program’s allocation, providing DPS $4.7 million in 2018, and urged the agency to ask budget-writers for more next time if needed.
Cuts aid to colonias
The first-term Republican governor also stripped more than $850,000 for the secretary of state’s Colonias Initiatives, a program founded in 1999 to help residents who live in underserved and povertystricken areas along the Texas-Mexico border to get their homes connected to water and waste services. Explaining his veto, Abbott said several other state agencies already have money to address problems in Texas colonias.
“Each of these agencies provides direct client services to Texans living in colonias, while the Secretary of State primarily serves in a liaison and reporting role,” he wrote.
In another veto, Abbott nixed a $6 million appropriation meant to be paid out over two years for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s air quality planning and assessment efforts.
“This program funds, among other items, bicycle use programs, carpooling awareness, environmental awareness campaigns, and locally enforceable pollution reduction programs in near non-attainment areas,” he wrote, adding that local governments can foot the bill and that state resources should be targeted “to combat the business-stifling regulations imposed on these areas by the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Environment Texas, an advocacy group in Austin, slammed Abbott’s decision to slash the air quality program and one that would retrofit or retire cars that harm the environment. Houston residents, in particular, will suffer from the governor’s decision to severely cut the air quality money given its “serious problem with air population,” said Luke Metzger, the group’s director.
“These kinds of programs are critical to cleaning the air and saving lives, so we think it’s a dangerous move by the governor,” Metzger said. “We think the governor’s move is penny wise and pound foolish because by cutting these programs, he’s making more people sick down the road.”
Tighter times
Citing lean times for state revenues, Abbott said the budget, which state lawmakers approved in May, addresses the state’s most pressing needs while keeping spending below the estimated growth rate in the population and inflation. He cut about $120 million with line-item vetoes, including an air quality program, public safety grants, and colonia outreach efforts.
“Even in a tight budget climate, this budget prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of all Texans,” Abbott said in a statement.
At the start of the legislative session in January, state lawmakers were told they had fewer funds to work with than they had in the 2015 budget negotiations — the product of tax cuts and a pronounced slump in the oil and gas industry. This year’s budget pumps hundreds of millions of new funds into the state’s embattled Child Protective Services, allows police departments to apply for grants to buy bulletproof vests for officers, and re-ups nearly $1 billion in border security efforts that lawmakers first approved two years ago. Abbott also said that “all eligible prekindergarten students will receive a high-quality education by increasing standards statewide,” but the budget does not include any new money to school districts to help them meet the new requirements.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick hailed the spending plan, saying, “The Texas Senate took the lead on the conservative state budget, which Gov. Abbott signed today. This budget is more than a billion dollars less in general revenue than our current budget and contains no new taxes and no new fees.”