ABSTRACT
Much of politics is clashing ideologies, contrasting campaign prom-ises, and conflicting partisan agendas. Budgets, on the other hand, force concrete decisions about who pays and who benefits. Officials in Texas state government make critical decisions about how much revenue to raise, through what kinds of taxes and fees, levied against whom. It makes other decisions, just as critical, about how to spend those revenues, on what services, and for whose benefit.
