AUSTIN – Today, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announced his support of Senator Kelly Hancock’s filing of Senate Bill 9 (SB 9) and Senate Joint Resolution 2 (SJR 2) with the following statement:

“I am pleased to support Senator Kelly Hancock’s Senate Bill 9 and Senate Joint Resolution 2 to reinforce constitutional spending limits.

“Texans have spoken clearly demanding constitutionally mandated spending limits.

“With this approach as state senator, I repeatedly filed bills to make spending limits more strict during my eight years in the state senate. Year after year my legislation was bottled up in committee.

“As Texas Lt. Governor, I intend to see final passage of this much needed legislation, SB 9 and SJR 2, during this 84th legislative session.

“This comprehensive principle to fiscal discipline is essential to limiting constitutional spending.”

The following legislation was filed today:

• SJR 2 – Hancock: Relating to the constitutional limit on the rate of growth of appropriations.
• SB 9 – Hancock: Proposing a constitutional amendment concerning the limitation on the rate of growth in appropriations

Both SB 9 and SJR 2 would change the way the Legislative Budget Board calculates the state spending limit. By adjusting the formula to population plus inflation, instead of personal income as it is set currently, it will limit state spending from growing faster than the state’s economy.