In an interview with 660 AM- The Answer’s Mark Davis, IPI president Tom Giovanetti praised Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s “incredibly ambitious agenda” for the legislative special session.
“There’s something on here that’s totally unexpected that I think is really significant,” he said.
“He proposed in his call a structural limitation on state spending in Texas that state spending could not be higher than inflation and population growth,” said Giovanetti. “These are the kinds of things that conservatives have been calling for for years. Not so much balanced budget requirements but spending limitations.”
Giovanetti then explained why balanced budget rules can hurt taxpayers in the long run. “I’ve always been leery of the balanced budget amendment at the federal level because… all the institutional pressure will lead not to lower spending but higher taxes. What I think the conservative, free market solution is is spending limitation. And Gov. Abbott pulled that out of nowhere and put that on the call for the special session which I think is remarkable.”