State Representative Phil King (R- Weatherford) announced today the allocation of federal education dollars that have recently been made available to Texas. School districts across Parker and Wise counties will receive a total of $8,058,906.

As we progress through this legislative session and attempt to craft a fiscally responsible budget in the shadow of the looming shortfall we are facing, there have been many calls from outside groups to spend money that we don't have. I would like to share with you an excellent video of former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm discussing these challenges facing the state.

Rep. King was recently a guest on the Wallbuilders LIVE! radio program with Rick Green.

State Rep. Phil King of Weatherford, deserves a great deal of credit for keeping the Texas budget from becoming a massive stealth fee hike. Rep. King and his allies chopped $100 million in raised fees out of the budget proposal, fees that were hiding in some of the hundreds of amendments that had been attached to the bill.

King stated, “Our job is to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes like in California, where they took on a ton of debt and raised taxes and increased their trouble. Our job is to get through this without raising taxes, that will hurt the economy, and without going into debt because that will hurt the state budget in the long run.”

Yesterday State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) successfully passed amendments to House Bill 1 (the state budget bill for Fiscal Years 2012-2013), which freeze hiring by state agencies and prevents $100 million of new broad-based fees from being implemented by the state on taxpayers. The hiring freeze amendment would call for a freeze on non-essential state hiring effective September 1, and would apply until August 31, 2013, the last day of next budget cycle.

Last week State Representative Phil King (R- Weatherford), at the request of schoolteachers and superintendents, signed on as co-author to HB 2491. In an effort to support teachers in the classroom, HB 2491 implements a two year moratorium to suspend all state mandated testing and assessments for a period ending September 30, 2013. In addition, superintendents may apply funds or appropriations originally intended for this testing to support teacher jobs and the resources they need.

Today State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) filed three bills to consolidate four state governmental agencies in an effort to preserve money that can be better used in the classrooms of public schools and for other essential services provided by the state. HB 2664 will abolish the Texas Facilities Commission and provide an estimated savings of $4.2 million; HB 2665 will consolidate the Board of Plumbing Examiners and the Texas Funeral Commission into the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and provide an estimated savings of $1 million; and HB 2879 will suspend the Texas Historical Commission and provide an estimated savings of $4.6 million.

State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) today lauded the great strides made by the Texas Legislative Tea Party Caucus, which was only organized a few weeks ago. The caucus, third largest in the legislature with 57 members, held an orientation for Tea Party groups from all across Texas. Over 300 Tea Party organizers, representing hundreds of thousands of voters, came to Austin for the orientation two weekends ago.

As you know, due to the projected reduction in tax revenues from the recent economic crisis, Texas must reduce the size of its $87 billion biennial budget by approximately $15 billion. Currently, 40% of Texas’ budget is dedicated to funding public and higher education, making it THE highest priority of the state and the largest budget item (the average of all other states’ spending on education is 30.9% of their entire budget) Examining Decades of Growth in K-12 Education, Texas Public Policy Foundation, pg. 12. It is impossible to balance the budget, given the size of the shortfall, without reducing education funding.