We’re just one week away from across-the-board budget cuts known as “sequestration” and State Representative Mark Strama (D-Austin) is warning of the impact it could have on Texas.
“If we have to suffer the cuts of sequestration on top of the cuts we just made last biennium, it would be really harmful to the state economy,” he said after a Friday press conference at the Capitol.
Rep. Strama was referring to public education, which would be the sector most affected by automatic spending cuts in Texas. Education funding could lose as much as $517 million if Congress doesn’t pass a deficit reduction bill by March 1, according to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
Cuts to the public sector have stifled the private sector economy and job growth, he said, citing an economic study from Yale University about public spending cuts during recession periods.
But at the state legislature here in Texas, this particular problem can’t be solved.
The outcome is up to Congress and the President. Still, Strama, a democrat who announced this week that he’s not running for re-election, said he prefers President Obama’s approach to combine certain tax increases and spending cuts.
