BORDER SECURITY BACKED IN TIME OF BUDGET CUTS

AUSTIN -- House Speaker Joe Straus said Tuesday that the Texas
Legislature should consider implementing four-day workweeks and
furloughs for state employees when it meets next session.

Straus, R-San Antonio, told lawmakers that the state's looming budget
deficit may also require them to consider a blanket moratorium on new
state-funded programs or services, ways to improve the collections of
fines and fees, and stopping the issuance of state bonds.

The assessment came at a time when Republican Rep. Jim Pitts, House
appropriations chairman from Waxahachie, said Texas could consider
expanding gambling and increasing fees as it looks to a possible $18
billion deficit.

As lawmakers considered how they would tackle budget problems in the
2011 session, they also said they were concerned about whether the
state was spending wisely to secure the border.

State Rep. Norma Chavez, who sits on the Appropriations and Defense
and Veterans Affairs committees, said she was not convinced that all
the money for border security is reaching El Paso and other border
cities.

Chavez, D-El Paso, said lawmakers need to know that the money is
reaching places facing the greatest threat of spillover violence from
warring drug cartels.

"We are literally on the front lines of the war on drugs," she said.
"Everybody here should be greatly concerned that after (the violence)
leaves the border region, it is coming to San Antonio, it's coming to
Austin and it's going to the big cities in Dallas."

Lawmakers said they wanted to make sure that money was being used
wisely because they would find it difficult to dedicate more money for
border security next session.

Still, they said, they would work with state agencies to make sure
that appropriate resources were allocated to protect Texans.

State agencies have already been asked to cut 5 percent of their
budgets to prepare for the deficits lawmakers will face next year.
Straus said the cuts were only the beginning in a long process of
seeking reductions. Even so, he urged lawmakers to avoid raising taxes.

The state expects to have $8.2 billion in its rainy day fund by
September 2011, but lawmakers will not use all of the money to fill
the budget gap. So Pitts asked lawmakers to consider all options,
including allowing casino gambling.

Chavez said that could be good news in light of the Tiguas' efforts to
reopen Speaking Rock casino.

"If the state of Texas passes gambling, the Tiguas can open their
doors the day after," Chavez said. "It is the positive consequence of
a bad deficit."

Chavez and others asked about recent criticism from five congressmen,
including Silvestre Reyes and Ciro Rodriguez, who said Gov. Rick Perry
was not sending enough money to the border.

The group said an average of $125 million annually in Department of
Homeland Security funding has gone to the state since 2006, but that
Perry sent less than 10 percent of that to border law enforcement agencies.

They said they plan to ask the U.S. Government Accountability Office
to study how much of the federal money allotted to the state has been
allocated to the border.

"We understand the needs and challenges that life on the border
brings," the group said. "We agree that more can be done, but we
cannot do it alone. And we need to deal in facts, not myths."

Perry's office did not respond directly to statistics provided by the
congressmen. But spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the governor and
the Legislature have secured hundreds of millions of dollars over the
years for additional border security to fill in the gaps left by the
federal government.

"Securing the international border is a federal responsibility but a
Texas problem, and Governor Perry remains focused on protecting Texans
from those who would do us harm," Cesinger said.

State Rep. Ruth McClendon, D-San Antonio, said she was concerned by
the assertion from the congressmen. She said Perry's claim that his
demands for federal dollars over the past six years have gone
unanswered does not make sense if congressmen say that he has received
half a billion dollars for such measures.

McClendon said lawmakers needed to know exactly how money for border
security was being disbursed.

"We ought to be able to know where it is, and if we can put it under
one umbrella, then we can have more accountability," McClendon said.

El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza, however, told
lawmakers at the committee meeting that El Paso has benefited from
money that pays for more prosecutors along the border and promotes
greater collaboration among border prosecutors.

Esparza said the money allows El Paso to dedicate one prosecutor
solely to border security.

"It's always sexy to give money to cops," he said. "It's tough to give
it to prosecutors, but this effort really allows us to work closely
with law enforcement."