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Tuesday, July 22, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3
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House committee continues
work on Texas budget cuts
AUSTIN (AP) — The House Ap
propriations Committee worked
Monday toward finding the “magic
number" that would help balance
the state budget but not cut too
much to win legislative approval.
“I don't know where that magic
number is,” said committee chair
man Jim Rudd. D-Brownfietd. “It’s
somewhere above $1.3 billion and
probably somewhere less than $3 bil
lion."
The panel worked for a second
day on proposed spending cuts, but
took no votes.
Gov Mark White has called a spe
cial legislative session for next
month to make sufficient cuts to put
a dent in, or erase, the projected def
icit.
Comptroller Bob I^ullock has pre
dicted the shortfall would be $2.3
billion by Aug 31. 19B7. He is ex
pected to raise the deficit prediction
to at least $3 billion
The appropriations committee is
going agency by agency to find
aces to cut current spending. The
egislative Budget Board staff has
produced two sets of cuts. Reducing
most agency spending by about 14
percent would save $2.3 billion. Cut
ting spending by about 34 percent
would save $3 billion
But the budget board director
cautioned the committee that such
steep cuts might not be feasible
“The staff is not going to be able
to speak very positively about any of
these reductions.'* Jim Oliver told
the committee
For example, the committee Mon
day looked at numbers that would
cut Department of Public Safety
spending by $5.8 million this year.
Reducing most agency
spending by about 14 per
cent would save $2.3 bil
lion. Cutting spending by
about 34 percent would
save $3 billion.
The budget board direc
tor cautioned the commit
tee that such steep cuts
might not be feasible.
£
Those cuts would include cancelling
two trooper recruit training pro
grams. at a cost ol 180 new troopers.
The cut also includes less frequeni
replacement of DPS “pursuit vehi
cles” and equipment
The committee could begin voting
on cuts today.
Some agencies probably will be
immune to cuts because of federal
court orders, said Rudd, who men
tioned the Texas Department of
Corrections and the Department of
Mental Health and Mental Retarda
tion.
“It’s not off limits.” he said of
TDC. which is under a court order
from U.S. District judge Wilham
Wayne justice, "but I don’t want to
get William Wavne any more mad at
us than than he already is.”
Rudd met with White early Mon
day to discuss the committee's pro
gress. White indicated he thought
the committee should come up with
cuts of more than $1.3 billion,
according to the chairman.
"$1.3 billion is just the floor."
Rudd said. “We can go to $2 billion
It doesn't bother me F.very little bit
hurts. I don't know how much hurt
is hurt. What I’m afraid of is you’re
going to get it so high that you may
start losing vines and may not pass
the bill in the House
“That's what we have to be con
cerned with. We have to cut just
enough to get our 76 votes” in the
150-member House, he said.
Legal drinking
age change
to encompass
several laws
•AUSTIN (AP) — The legal age
for drinking alcoholic beverages in
Texas will go from 19 to 21 on Sept.
1, and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage
Commission on Monday reminded
Texans that the change will cover
several laws.
Possession or consumption of al
cohol in the state of Texas by people
under 21 will be a crime.
Also illegal in this state will be the
selling of alcohol to those under 21,
the department said
The change also applies to the age
when people can enter liquor stores.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 1,
possession of an alcoholic beverage
oy a person under 21 will be a misde
meanor with a possible fine of $25 to
$200
Sale of alcoholic beverages to un
derage people is the most serious of
fense, the commission noted.
The penalty for a first violation is
a $100 to $500 fine and a year in jail.
A second violation can lead to the
same jail term and a fine of up to
$1,000
W.S. McBeath, administrator of
the alcoholic beverage commission,
said a common misconception is that
all these drinking age vioutions only
apply to public places, and not to
private parties or automobiles.
But “that’s not true,” McBeath
said. “It will be just as illegal in a
party barn, a fraternity house or a
car parked on private property.”
Ag commissioner
calls for united front
By Mary Frances Scott
Staff Writer
Texas Agriculture Commis
sioner Jim Hightower met with
the Board of Regents Monday in
an attempt to rally the state agri
cultural institutions into a united
fight against the state's crumbhag
budget
Hightower said the meeting
didn’t specifically address budget
cuts, but did address the need for
agricultural institutions such as
Texas AicM. Prairie View AJcM
University and the Texas Depart
ment of Agriculture to team up in
addressing the Texas Legislature,
both during the general session
and the upcoming August 6 spe
cial session called by Govemor
Mark White
“What we’ve got to do is go in
together, not as rivals fighting for
the same thin slice of pie, he
said.
“The message we will take to
the special session is that we
should not, in our eagerness to
save $100 here and $1,000 there,
cut our programs of economic
development, Hightower said.
“Now is not the time to cut re
search and extension programs.
“It’s a question of do we want
to be a backwater state or do we
want to be a front line, progres
sive, enterprising, national leader
on the level of New York. Califor
nia and Massachusetts,” he said.
Jim Hightower
Despite the gloom over the
budget. Hightower saw the bud
get crunch as an historic opportu
nity to redirect the agriculture
economy of the state by moving
into production of non-tr ad i
tional Texas crops such as
blueberries, wine grapes, pinto
beans and Christmas trees.
Currently, many products are
shipped out of state after harvest,
processed into an array of pack
aged foods, and then shipped
back to Texas for retail sale.
Hightower wants to out a stop
this by building a food isroc-
sing industry within Texas.
:h
to
essmj
which he said will help not only
farmers, but the entire sagging
economy.
Local school budgets up
$2.7 billion in last 2 years
AUSTIN (AP) — Local school
budgets have grown by $2.7 bil
lion in the two vears since the
legislature passed HB72, the
sweeping school reform law, the
Texas Resea rt h League reported
Morulav
The higher spending was
funded as much by local property
taxes as by record-setting in
creases in state taxes, said the
non-profit educational corpora
tion “Over the past two years, an
added $1 billion in state aid was
matched by a $1 billion increase
in local school property taxes.”
the group reported
“Last year, trustees in the 1.063
local school districts levied the
largest school property tax in
crease in history — $551 million."
The remaining $700 million in
increases was funded by bond
sales, federal aid, school fees and
other revenue sources, the study
said.
The group also said school dis
trict tax levies in Texas increased
an average of 13.3 percent last
year.
Texas may find profits in rubber crop
RIO GRANDF. CITY (AP) — Sci
entists report that pilot projects on
natural rubber plots have been suc
cessful. indicating Texas farmers
mav be able to produce the new crop
at a profit.
But Texas-produced natural rub
ber probably would have a tough
fight against imported rubber, gov
ernment and state scientists say . The
United States now is dependent on
imported natural rubfier.
Pilot programs have monitored
the growth of guavule. a bushy
shrub native to the Trans-Pecos area
of West Texas and the Chihuahua
Desert in northern Mexico.
Test plots are being observed near
Rio Grande City, Pecos and Fort
Stockton, as well as in parts of Ari
zona. New Mexico and California.
“We found out that we can estab
lish the plant, and it produces pretty
well." said C.L. Gonzalez, a U.S. De
partment of Agriculture researcher.
The U.S. has had to import about
800,000 metric tons of natural rub
ber each year from Indonesia and
other parts of the Far East at a cost
of about 40 cents. Synthetic rubber is
produced domestically, but that is
unacceptable for use in tires and
some defense applications.
Guayule could be produced
cheaper in South Texas than at any
other location because of adequate
rainfall coupled with low -cost land,
Gonzalez said.
The crop could fill m as a substi
tute for cotton seed farming, said
John P. Wagner, associated director
and principal investigator of a
guavule project conducted by Texas
A£cM scientists at Pecos and Fort
Stockton.
“I’m saving it has potential to be a
new crop,” Wagner said. “I am not
saving it could revolutionize farm-
The guayule project at A&M be
gan in September 1983 under the
auspices of the U.S. Army Tank Au
tomotive Command, which provided
an initial $300,000 to build a pilot
guayule processing plant at the
Texas A&M Research Extension An
nex in Bryan, Wagner said.
He saio he didn't know how much
it would cost to produce natural rub
ber or how muen revenue the indus
try could provide. But the rubber
production would have the advan
tage of being fully mechanized, he
said.
Gonzalez said the cost of imported
rubber must rise to at least $1 a
pound before locally produced rub-
oer would be a viable option.
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