HB 2 – The 2016-17 Supplemental Budget Say No to Raiding the Rainy Day Fund

March 23, 2017

Vance Ginn, Ph.D.

Vance Ginn, Ph.D., is an accomplished free-market economist who works to let people prosper. He is the founder and president of Ginn Economic Consulting where he provides high-quality research and trusted insights on how to affect change at the federal, state, and local levels. Ginn’s experience includes time in public policy, government, and academia. He is a fellow or scholar at several think tanks, including at Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and Americans for Tax Reform.

He previously served as the associate director for economic policy (“chief economist”) of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, 2019-20, where he advised the OMB’s senior staff on economic and fiscal policy matters, resulting in $4.6 trillion in savings over a decade and the need for a fiscal rule in the President’s FY 2021 Budget.

Ginn is the former chief economist at TPPF and policy director for TPPF’s Alliance for Opportunity campaign.

The Honorable Talmadge Heflin

The filed House supplemental appropriations bill, HB2, would appropriate $1.4 billion from Texas’ Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), also known as the Rainy Day Fund. However, a committee substitute for HB2 (CSHB2) was recently outlined in the House Appropriations Committee that would increase the appropriation from the ESF to $2.4 billion, which together with $957 million from general revenue (GR) and $1.8 billion from federal funds, would bring the total cost of the supplemental bill to $5.2 billion. An examination of the numbers shows that this is far too costly for taxpayers and that there is no need to use any money from the ESF.

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Vance Ginn, Ph.D.

The Honorable Talmadge Heflin

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