It's one of the most eagerly awaited events in Texas politics: on Monday, state comptroller Susan Combs will provider her revenue estimate. It's a projection of how much money the state will have to spend over the next 2012-13 biennium.
State legislators, who begin their once-every-two-year session on Tuesday, will then write a budget to match that revenue estimate. All signs are that they'll have anywhere between $15 billion and $28 billion less to work with. With many state politicians having pledged not to raise taxes, something will have to be cut.
To hear an interesting discussion about the challenges of slashing the budget, take a listen to the latest Texas Tribune podcast featuring KUT's Ben Philpott and the Texas Tribune's Evan Smith, Ross Ramsey, and Elise Hu.
http://media.kut.org/sounds/news_00023677/Tribcast_01_05_2010.mp3
The revenue estimate will be issued at 10 a.m. at the Comptroller's Office at 1711 San Jacinto Blvd. It will also be posted on the Comptroller's website.
In case you're wondering what a revenue estimate looks like, here's Combs' projection from 2009.
