Comptroller: Texas trails nation in job growth

But Hegar remains confident, saying state is better positioned than others

AUSTIN — The slumping energy industry is dampening Texas’ economy just as lawmakers face a new obligation to pour billions of dollars into transportation, the state comptroller told legislative leaders Monday.

However, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar did not sound the alarm in his presentation to the Legislative Budget Board headed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

The state still has a cushion of money left unspent by lawmakers when they last met in 2015, and it is in a better position than a number of other energy states, Hegar said.

“The budget continues to work,” Hegar said after his presentation. “If you look at us compared to others, we should be very thrilled we are not in a recession. We’re not (experiencing) negative job numbers. In the last 12 months, we’ve still gained over 170,000 jobs … which I think is a testament that the 10th-largest economy in the world is significantly more diverse and resilient than it was in prior economic downturns.”

Texas had a job-growth rate of 1.4 percent between June 2015 and last month, trailing the 1.7 percent national rate for the same period, according to the comptroller’s office.

The state has been growing slower than the country as a whole since last October because of oil and gas prices, said Dale Craymer, president of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association.

Oil prices at $41 a barrel are lower than Hegar predicted when he lowered his state revenue projection last year in the face of a faltering energy industry.

Nonetheless, Hegar, who will give a revenue estimate for the next twoyear budget in January ahead of the legislative session, does not plan to update his projection before that.

Lawmakers left $4 billion on the table when they wrote the current budget, so lawmakers will have a cushion going into the next session.

That cushion is about $4 billion smaller than the last time the Legislature met in regular session, Craymer noted.

In addition, Hegar pointed out that a voterapproved initiative will take $2.5 billion a year

“The budget continues to work. If you look at us compared to others, we should be very thrilled we are not in a recession.”

Glenn Hegar, Texas comptroller

in sales tax revenue for transportation.

Lawmakers also will face other large financial obligations, such as paying for Medicaid growth and shoring up the Teacher Retirement System health insurance program, Craymer said.

“We’ve been through it before. It’s been worse,” Craymer said.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dennis Bonnen, an Angleton Republican who serves on the Legislative Budget Board, said lawmakers will meet Texas’ needs.

“We’ll have more than enough money to fund the core needs of state government,” Bonnen said.