The Texas Budget Compact, is it really helping the future of Texas?

 Gov. Rick Perry is at it again with his ideas of not touching the Rainy day Fund and refusing to increase taxes to help out the budget crisis. On Monday April 16^th Governor Rick Perry announced his five part Texas Budget Compact to lawmakers. Gov. Rick Perry said, “It is imperative we remain committed to the sound conservative values that have made Texas the prosperous state it is today, and take steps to advance us even further.” The Texas Budget Compact is composed of five very conservative principles: practice truth in budgeting, supporting a constitutional limit of spending to the growth of population and inflation, oppose any new taxes or tax increases, preserve a strong Rainy Day Fund, and cut unnecessary and duplicative government program and agencies. Perry said this  “will lead to a stronger Texas.”

Conservatives took this very well. Conservative groups like Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and Americans for Prosperity are almost ecstatic about the Governors proposal. AFP director Peggy Venable said, “The most important promise in this compact is that it limits government growth to the growth of population and inflation, and that’s just good common sense."

I think basically Perry’s proposal is summarizing that he wishes to continue budget cuts in schools and cut even more government programs that help low income families. Texas Democratic Party Chair, Boyd Richie said about the proposal "Perry is calling on his fellow Republicans to commit to permanently underfunding public education and human services. He’s leading Texas into a race for the bottom that jeopardizes the future of both our children and our parents,"

Texas schools are already suffering from the budget cuts and with a proposal like this there is almost no hope for public education. Rita Haecker, president of the Texas State Teachers Association said, "Instead of sitting on billions of taxpayer dollars left idling in the Rainy Day Fund, which is flush and growing, the governor and the legislature should be using part of that money to preserve and ensure a strong future for the public schools.”

So just who exactly will be benefiting from this Budget Compact? Certainly not children, parents, schools, health care professionals, seniors, and low-income families. So how will this be helping our future?  During a statement Senator Kirk Watson said about Perry that "Perhaps he hasn't listened to the teachers, parents and children who've suffered as a result of bad budget practices and the perpetual lack of budget transparency. Or he hasn't heard from the health care professionals across Texas who are struggling under this budget, or the seniors, children and low-income Texans who were targeted by it," said Watson.

I believe that this proposal will hurt more people than help them. There are so many Texans out there who can’t afford healthcare and rely on these programs that Perry is planning to cut.  There are overcrowded classrooms, teachers loosing there jobs, and now there’s going to be kids who will lose health services because and Gov. Perry still doesn’t want to touch the rainy day fund? And Perry says that this plan will help the future of Texas? 

Is the smoking ban really common sense?

In a recent blog post by Lone Star Gazette, titled Smoking Ban In Texas: Common Sense, the author, Brandy argues that Texas should pass a state wide smoking ban.

Her argument is that it should be common sense to ban smoking all throughout Texas "Smoking, not only smells bad and lingers in your hair and clothing, it also is very bad for your health.”  Although this might be true, many might disagree. A lot of smokers don’t mind the smell and certainly don’t care that its bad for them so it may be common sense to some but to others its not. I don’t think you can justify common sense as the reason to depriving someone of their personal rights. I think everyone knows that smoking is bad and despite this people still smoke, and they deserve that right to choose for themselves if they want to continue to smoke or not.

Banning something because its “bad” hasn’t always worked. Alcohol for example is bad for you and can be very damaging to your health, and there are no attempts of banning alcohol today. Why? Because they already tried it and it completely failed. Prohibition became an amendment to the constitution and it failed because people were finding ways to do it anyway and it caused more problems than solving them.

“Everyone knows second hand smoke causes cancer so why would Texas continue to allow this to continue?" The government makes a lot of money on taxing cigarettes, if they ban it completely people are still going to find ways to obtain cigarettes and none of that money will go to them but to people who are selling it illegally.

I think there should be accommodations for smokers and non-smokers; there should be designated smoking areas, bars that do allow smoking and non-smoking bars. Not everyones views on smoking is the same, and people who do smoke shouldn't be denied the right to be able to.