Dem White slams Texas Gov. Perry on budget cuts

By JAY ROOT

AUSTIN, Texas

Democrat Bill White criticized Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday for pressing Texas agencies to cut their spending by 5 percent, calling the approach "Soviet-style" budget management.

With Texas facing a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion, White also refused to rule out future tax increases to close the gap.

"Until you look under the hood and see what you can do, and what the state of the economy is and what the trade off is, you shouldn't be making that decision (on taxes)," White said at a conference hosted by the Texas Tribune online news site.

The Perry campaign, which had allies and at least one staffer in the audience at the Austin Club, wasted little time pouncing on White's comment. Perry spokesman Mark Miner labeled White a "typical liberal Democrat" who would expand government rather than streamline it.

"The only new idea that came out of Bill White's mouth today was to raise taxes," Miner said.

The sparring was taking place one week after White and Perry became the nominees of their respective political parties for the general election in November. By the looks of it Tuesday, both sides will be waging aggressive campaigns.

White, the former mayor of Houston, a lawyer and energy executive, repeatedly referred to Perry as a "career politician" who was more interested in sound bites than undertaking careful policy reforms. He also criticized Perry for relying too much on debt to finance road construction and said the longest-serving state governor was taking credit for Texas' economic strengths without embracing responsibility for policy failures.

"I will try to avoid hot air politics," White said.

White criticized Perry in particular for calling on state agencies to trim their spending by 5 percent to prepare for rough times ahead for the state budget. He promised to take the scalpel-not-a-hatchet approach to the budget.

"It won't be done by things that are just across the board, Soviet style, you know, budget management that only career politicians seem to embrace," White said.

In January, Perry joined Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus, both Republicans, in calling on state agencies to reduce their spending by 5 percent amid declining state revenues. The request exempted federal entitlement spending on items such as the Medicaid health care program, the primary fund for public schools, teacher retirement benefits and a few other items.

The call for restraint comes as state officials are predicting a shortfall of at least $11 billion, a figure that could grow to as much as $15 billion.

Miner said the state still has an $8.2 billion balance in the so-called "Rainy Day Fund." Despite the shortfall, Miner said Texas was much better off than other states that have experienced huge budget shortfalls.

"Gov. Perry has produced a balanced budget with a surplus unlike Houston, which has a budget mess," Miner said.

Perry defeated his Republican primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, by portraying her as a debt-loving Washington insider. Texas Tribune Editor Evan Smith, who conducted the interview with White on Tuesday, predicted the ex-mayor, who served as deputy energy secretary under former President Bill Clinton, could expect some of the same treatment and be "featured in ads as sort of an Obama Democrat."

White quickly sought distance from the White House. He said he was not a "blind follower" of any politician and noted his disapproval of "the whole fiscal management of the country" under the Obama administration. The crowd broke out in laughter when White was called upon to name what items he thought were consuming too much money in Washington.

"Almost everything," he said.