Texas Government Elliot Ch 11-14
The origins of modern welfare policy lie in
President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
The Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) is also known as the
Rainy Day Fund.
__________________ are a source of funding designated to a university for things outside the regular appropriations process such as creating a new program.
Special items
When you pay your motor vehicle registration fees, the money goes into which fund?
State Highway Fund
Which public university in Texas can trace its origins to the Texas Constitution?
Texas A&M University
The core curriculum used at all public colleges and universities in Texas is developed and standardized by which agency?
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Article 3, Section 49a of the Texas Constitution, also known as the pay-as-you-go limit, requires that
Texas maintain a balanced budget, meaning that spending from the General Revenue Fund cannot exceed projected available revenue.
Responding to the Supreme Court decision on national health care legislation of 2010, Governor Perry announced that
Texas would refuse to participate in the expanded Medicaid program.
________ is a nondedicated revenue account and is the state's primary operating fund.
The General Revenue Funds budget
________ calls for wealthy districts to transfer funds to poorer districts in order to equalize funds available to all public schools across the state.
The Robin Hood plan
When the federal government reimburses Texas for monies spent in program such as Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, these reimbursements go into which fund?
Federal Funds
The ________ budget is comprised of funds for dedicated revenues that target money for specific purposes.
General Revenue-Dedicated Funds
In 1949 which legislation increased state funding and established the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which carries out the state's educational program?
Gilmer-Aikin Laws
Universities that are not eligible to receive funding from the Permanent University Fund (PUF), are eligible for funding from the
Higher Education Fund (HEF)
Which statement about the Texas budget is true?
It covers a two-year period.
What is the significance of the 1967 Water Rights Adjudication Act?
It created a unified permit system related to surface water and well-defined underground streams.
Why must the Texas legislature maintain a balanced budget?
It is required by the Texas Constitution.
When we use the term "sanctuary cities" what are we talking about?
Localities where sheriffs do not notify federal immigration authorities when undocumented immigrants are arrested.
In 2018 the Trump administration announced a "zero tolerance" policy designed to deter people from crossing the southern border illegally. Which of the following was a consequence of this policy?
Many minor children were separated from their parents for extended periods of time.
As of 2020 what was the status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program?
The Supreme Court stopped the Trump plan to end DACA, but it did not rule out other plans that could end DACA later.
Who is responsible for determining eligibility, coordinating policy, and administering the major welfare and antipoverty programs in Texas?
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHS)
Which of the following is the best definition of public policy?
The expressed goals of a governmental body backed by incentives or sanctions.
What happens if money needs to be transferred from one agency to another and the legislature is not in session to authorize this transfer?
The governor can propose the transfer and the LBB can approve the proposal.
Authorized by voters in 1991, the Texas state lottery generates a sizeable sum for the state budget. Which of the following statements regarding the Texas lottery is true?
The lottery is played by large numbers of people from all social classes.
Which of the following statements about testing in Texas public schools is accurate?
The number of tests students have to take has decreased over time, but testing has not been eliminated.
Which of the following statements about poverty in Texas is accurate?
The poverty rate in Texas is above the national average.
What is the process for setting the tuition and fees paid by students enrolled at public universities in Texas?
The university system's Board of Regents sets the tuition and fee schedules based on requests submitted by the president of the university.
In 2013 voters in Texas approved a constitutional amendment that dealt with water policy. What was included in this amendment?
The voters approved the creation of a dedicated water fund, known as the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT), through a transfer of $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund.
Why did Texas build reservoirs through the state?
They are used help control flooding and to better distribute water during droughts.
What happens if members of the Texas National Guard who are deployed at the border see someone illegally crossing the border?
They have to notify the Border Patrol to make the arrest. The Texas National Guard is part of the military, and members of the military cannot generally arrest anyone.
Which agency is responsible for monitoring land crossings between Texas and Mexico?
U.S. Border Patrol
The generally accepted standard by which poverty is measured in the United States is the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty index.
Which of the following make it unlikely that Texas will enact a personal income tax in the near future?
Voters approved constitutional amendments in 1993 and 2019 that would make it extremely difficult to create a personal income tax in Texas.
Which of the following arguments would a supporter of school vouchers for private school tuition make?
Vouchers allow parents more choice for their children.
Water policy in Texas is based on
a complicated system of private property rights.
The purpose of the Biennial Revenue Estimate is to provide
a detailed forecast of total revenues that the state is expected to take in over the next biennium.
The 2012 State Water Plan discussed strategies to address both the short- and long-term water needs in Texas including
a focus on conservation and expanding and developing available surface water.
In 1978, the Texas Constitution was amended (Article 8, Section 22), so that if the economy of the state shrinks,
appropriations have to shrink as well.
Under the separate but equal doctrine in the 1920s and 1930s, the amount of money Texas spent on Black students was ________ the amount spent on White students in public schools.
lower than
The Select Committee on Public Education (SCOPE) presented 140 recommendations to the legislature in 1984, including one known as "No Pass, No Play" which stated that
students who did not pass a class with a grade of 70 could not participate in extracurricular activities for the next six-week grading period.
Under the Gilmer-Aikin Laws,
the State Board of Education was established to supervise public education in Texas.
Who is responsible for developing the state water plan?
the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB)
Who is responsible for developing independent audits for state agencies to ensure that they are complying with the state budget?
the state auditor's office
Overall, the tax system in Texas is generally considered to be regressive, which means that
the tax burden consumes a greater percentage of income received by lower-income individuals.
Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), a 2017 law that enacted penalties for sanctuary cities, was opposed by many sheriffs because
they feared it would cause people to under report crimes.
The majority of individuals on Medicaid in Texas are
under the age of 20.
According to the Texas Dream Act,
undocumented immigrants living in Texas have the ability to pay in-state tuition at public universities in Texas.
Which universities are eligible to receive monies from the Permanent University Fund (PUF)?
universities that are part of the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was program that
used federal and state funds to assist children who met certain qualification standards and was replaced by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in 1996.
Which of the following is used as an estimate of overall road usage?
vehicle miles traveled
During the 1980s a growing number of critics alleged that welfare programs
were helping to create a dysfunctional underclass of people who depended upon them for survival.
The key issue at stake in Edgewood ISD v. Kirby was
whether the phrase "an efficient system of free public schools" from the Texas Constitution could be fulfilled through funding by local property taxes.
If there is a budget deficit during the biennium, then money can be used from the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF)
with the approval of three-fifths of the members of both the Texas House and Texas Senate.
The first publicly supported junior college in Texas was established in
1922.
Texas determines which children are eligible for reduced-price or free lunch at school based on
federal poverty guidelines.
When we talk about a progressive tax, we are talking about a type of tax where
individuals with a lower income pay less in taxes because of a lower tax rate than those with a higher income.
If you want to get the overall picture of revenue for the State of Texas, then you should look at which of the following?
All Funds
Welfare reforms are measured along which two dimensions?
the number of people on welfare and the success of getting people into the workforce
Texas has a reputation of being a ________ state.
"low service, low tax"
According to Texas Constitution (Article 3, Section 51a), Texas cannot spend more than _________ of the state budget in any two-year period to help needy dependent children or their caretakers.
1 percent
In 2019 approximately what percentage of Texans lived below the poverty line?
13.6
Which of the following was among the goals included in the 2015 Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's "60x30TX" strategic plan?
All graduates by 2030 will have completed programs with identified marketable skills.
Which of the following allowed for the creation of the Permanent University Fund in the Constitution of 1876?
the sale of certain public lands
It is through what process that the legislature legally authorizes a government agency or body to spend up to a particular amount of money?
Appropriations
More than one-half of the water used in Texas comes from
Aquifers
Which U.S. Supreme Court case overturned Plessy v. Ferguson,ruling that state-imposed segregation in schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Brown v. Board of Education
Which program provides coverage for children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid?
Children's Health Insurance Program
When it was originally established, which institutions in Texas could receive funding from the Higher Education Fund (HEF)?
Colleges, universities, and health-related institutions that are not eligible for or included in PUF funding could get funding from the HEF.
The term "dreamers" refers to individuals protected under which of the following?
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
In the 2017 legislative session,
legislation was passed that would grade schools on three dimensions: student progress, student achievement, and a "closing the gaps" measure.
Taken together, the sprawling cities and ________________ make it difficult to develop public transportation in most areas in Texas.
car-centric culture
The total length of a road or a segment of a road is measured using
centerline miles
One of the consequences of cars and trucks becoming more fuel efficient is that
drivers are buying less gasoline, thereby reducing the amount of money collected by the state in fuel taxes.
Unless legally exempt, in order to receive benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, recipients must
make sure their children go to school, participate in an employment services program, attend parenting classes, get their children vaccinated, and agree not to use drugs or alcohol.
Federal money is an important part of the Texas budget, but monies that Texas receives from the federal government
often come with strings attached
The Permanent School Fund (PSF) was established to provide funds for ___________________ on the basis of _________________.
primary and secondary schools in Texas; student attendance
Public education in Texas gets the majority of its funding from which two sources?
property taxes and general revenue funding from the state
In 1965, Congress created the Medicaid program, a state-federal program, to
provide health care for the poor.
Compared to other states, Texas tends to spend a relatively small amount of money on programs that are jointly funded by the state and federal governments. Because of this,
the amount of money that Texas receives in matching funds and grants from the federal government is relatively low as compared to other states.
One significant component of the budget process that is relatively unique to Texas is
the constitutional mandate that Texas legislators write a budget every two years.
While the Texas Constitution does require that the state maintains a balanced budget, the state is allowed to carry debt as long as
the debt payments are not more than 5 percent of the state's revenue.
Efforts to expand the civil rights of women, African Americans, and other groups within Texas and the United States have been rooted in which part of the U.S. Constitution?
the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment
According to the law of capture,
the first person to capture the water by pumping it out of the ground owns it.
When thinking about the system of public financing through these various budgets and funds, it is important to remember that
the legislature does not have direct control of most of the money in the state budget.
In theory, Texas has a dual-budget system, meaning the budget authority is shared by the governor and the legislature; however, in practice, the primary player(s) in the budget is/are
the legislature.
