Monday, February 28, 2011

The New State Budget May Cut 189,000+ Public Education Jobs

The Center for Public Policy Priorities today released some devastating county-by-county analysis of the state budget cuts proposed by Gov. Perry and the Republican controlled legislature:
Impact By School District
ISD Funding
change in
2012($)
Job loss Private
sector
job loss
Total
job
loss
Allen (13,949,745) (347) (485) (832)
Anna (2,339,745) (58) (81) (140)
Celina (1,402,810) (35) (49) (84)
Farmersville (478,114) (12) (17) (29)
Frisco (87,276,087) (2,171) (3,035) (5,206)
McKinney (25,950,220) (646) (903) (1,548)
Melissa (1,431,237) (36) (50) (85)
Plano (62,715,776) (1,560) (2,181) (3,741)
Princeton (1,421,577) (35) (49) (85)
Prosper (15,206,604) (378) (529) (907)
Wylie (5,947,427) (148) (207) (355)
Community (749,628) (19) (26) (45)
Lovejoy (14,484,554) (360) (504) (864)
Totals (233,353,524) (5,805) (8,116) (13,921)
The public education analysis projects that as many as 189,000+ public education jobs will be eliminated in Texas. Almost 14,000 public education jobs may be eliminated in Collin Co.

The state is short $27 billion, more than one-quarter of the state’s discretionary budget, of which about 91 percent is consumed by public schools, higher education, and health and human services.
Texas already spends less per capita than almost any other state, but Senate Finance Chair Steve Ogden -- a Republican who Rick Perry has described as the smartest budget man he knows, and someone he implicitly trusts with the budget -- warned today the proposed budge cuts will “decimate public education."
Texas Republicans would rather put our children's future at risk than allow corporations to pay their fair share to help build the well educated workforce Texas businesses need to prosper in the future.

Texas Observer: Gov. Rick Perry has repeatedly said Texas’ deficit is “reflective of the national recession’s lingering impact on state revenue.”
In fact, the recession has little to do with the $27 billion budget shortfall. Back in 2006 the Republican controlled Legislature concocted a Rube Goldberg-style [school funding and business tax reform] measure that simultaneously cut property taxes, implemented a new “margins” tax on business and rejiggered the way public schools are financed.
Problem was, as the state Legislative Budget Board pointed out at the time, the plan’s math didn’t wash because the margins tax wouldn’t bring in as much as the Legislature thought. In fact, the board said, it would leave a $5 billion hole in the state budget every year.

The upshot: Perry, who pushed the swap, knew full well he was helping to create today’s “crisis.”
Star-Telegram: A 68-page report released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs on Monday reveals that Texas will give business $32.2 billion worth of tax exemptions for sales, franchise, and gasoline and motor vehicle sales taxes for the 2011 fiscal year that ends on Aug. 31, 2011.
Exemptions to the state sales tax, the state's biggest source of revenue, will total $30.8 billion for the current fiscal year, Combs said, although some items exempted from the sales tax are taxed from other sources. Gasoline tax exemptions will amount to $113 million. Motor vehicle sales tax exemptions will total $125 million.

"While sales and use tax collections totaled $19.6 billion in fiscal 2010," Combs said, "the tax is limited in scope when compared with the total number and kind of transactions in the economy, because of various exemptions and exclusions," Combs said.

A number of lawmakers are calling for the elimination of at least some exemptions to boost revenue and help offset deep service reductions proposed in preliminary draft budgets. Others say canceling the breaks amounts to a tax increase, which Gov. Rick Perry and Republican legislative leaders have vowed to oppose.

Read more at the Star-Telegram
NYTimes OpEd "Leaving Children Behind" by Paul Krugman:
Consider, as a case in point, what’s happening in Texas, which more and more seems to be where America’s political future happens first.

Texas likes to portray itself as a model of small government, and indeed it is. Taxes are low, at least if you’re in the upper part of the income distribution (taxes on the bottom 40 percent of the population are actually above the national average). Government spending is also low. And to be fair, low taxes may be one reason for the state’s rapid population growth, although low housing prices are surely much more important.

But here’s the thing: While low spending may sound good in the abstract, what it amounts to in practice is low spending on children, who account directly or indirectly for a large part of government outlays at the state and local level.

And in low-tax, low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right. The high school graduation rate, at just 61.3 percent, puts Texas 43rd out of 50 in state rankings. Nationally, the state ranks fifth in child poverty; it leads in the percentage of children without health insurance. And only 78 percent of Texas children are in excellent or very good health, significantly below the national average.

But wait — how can graduation rates be so low when Texas had that education miracle back when former President Bush was governor? Well, a couple of years into his presidency the truth about that miracle came out: Texas school administrators achieved low reported dropout rates the old-fashioned way — they, ahem, got the numbers wrong.

It’s not a pretty picture; compassion aside, you have to wonder — and many business people in Texas do — how the state can prosper in the long run with a future work force blighted by childhood poverty, poor health and lack of education.

But things are about to get much worse.

A few months ago another Texas miracle went the way of that education miracle of the 1990s. For months, Gov. Rick Perry had boasted that his “tough conservative decisions” had kept the budget in surplus while allowing the state to weather the recession unscathed. But after Mr. Perry’s re-election, reality intruded — funny how that happens — and the state is now scrambling to close a huge budget gap. (By the way, given the current efforts to blame public-sector unions for state fiscal problems, it’s worth noting that the mess in Texas was achieved with an overwhelmingly nonunion work force.)

So how will that gap be closed? Given the already dire condition of Texas children, you might have expected the state’s leaders to focus the pain elsewhere. In particular, you might have expected high-income Texans, who pay much less in state and local taxes than the national average, to be asked to bear at least some of the burden.

But you’d be wrong. Tax increases have been ruled out of consideration; the gap will be closed solely through spending cuts. Medicaid, a program that is crucial to many of the state’s children, will take the biggest hit, with the Legislature proposing a funding cut of no less than 29 percent, including a reduction in the state’s already low payments to providers — raising fears that doctors will start refusing to see Medicaid patients. And education will also face steep cuts, with school administrators talking about as many as 100,000 layoffs.

The really striking thing about all this isn’t the cruelty — at this point you expect that — but the shortsightedness. What’s supposed to happen when today’s neglected children become tomorrow’s work force?

Anyway, the next time some self-proclaimed deficit hawk tells you how much he worries about the debt we’re leaving our children, remember what’s happening in Texas, a state whose slogan right now might as well be “Lose the future.”

Gov. Walker's Wisconsin 'Union Busting' Exposes 'Tea Party' Scam, Duped Americans

Time for those [Tea Partiers] formerly hoaxed by duplicitous corporate schemes to wake-up and smell what billionaire sociopaths are shoveling...

Guest editorial at BradBlog by Ernest A. Canning
This is not a budget issue," the policeman speaking to the cheering protesters jammed inside of the capital rotunda in Madison, WI, shouted this weekend, "This is a civil rights issue!"

"Mr. Walker, if you are listening to me, let me tell you something," he continued through the bullhorn as the crowd rallied, "We know pretty well now who you work for. Let me tell you who we work for. We work for all of these people!"

"We're not here, Mr. Walker, to do your bidding. We're here to do their bidding!" he told the crowd in a remarkable video-taped moment posted by RAW STORY on Sunday.

While a wide swath of Wisconsin society, entailing not only both public and private union members, but students, doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers (like the one mentioned above), and fire fighters have swarmed the streets and public buildings of Madison as part of a mass movement rivaling those we've recently seen on the streets of Cairo, there is one sector of our society who should be especially angry with the Wisconsin branch of Corporate America's wholly-owned, public subsidiary, GOP, Inc.

It is the uninformed and misinformed working class stiffs, aka "Tea Partiers," who should be most disturbed by the scam they've been subjected to over the past two years (and many more). It is they who were taken in by the lies and deceptions of billionaire sociopaths, like oil-baron David Koch of the infamous Koch Industries. Koch's aim is not liberty, freedom, and jobs but American fascism, corporatocracy, and the "eternal subjugation of the common man"...

Read the rest of the story at BradBlog

Murphy / Walker call - Part 1

Murphy / Walker call - part 2
Thanks to a citizen journalist blogger named Murphy, we know how much Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is in bed with the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers, who are one of the main funding sources for the national Tea Party movement.

It was Murphy who, by impersonating the billionaire and Americans for Prosperity money man David Koch, punked Gov. Walker into a 20 minute phone call where Walker revealed his real union busting political motives.

The transcript of the call is unbelievable.

In one key exchange the Koch impersonator says, "What we were thinking about the crowds was, planting some troublemakers." To which Walker replies, "We thought about that. My only gut reaction to that would be, right now, the lawmakers I talk to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this.The teachers union did some polling and focus groups..."

A watchdog group is actively investigating whether Walker admitted to breaking any campaign finance or ethics laws in the conversation.

Click to Murphy's blog.

Many other citizen journalists are at work in Wisconsin and across the nation make sure the full factual story about the national Republican strategy to bust employee unions is told.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

What Is The Real Agenda Of The Budget-Cutters?

Campaign for America's Future: What is the real agenda of the budget-cutters? Are they really trying to bring the country back from the edge of financial ruin? Or did they bring about the appearance of a borrowing crisis to create a public panic that enables them to impose "solutions" that change the very nature of our country -- while doing little about the borrowing?
In the news this week, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker "ginned up" a budget crisis, then introduced legislation that removes collective bargaining rights from public employees, and over time effectively destroys their unions. Similar measures have been introduced by Republican governors or legislatures in several other states.

This legislative attack on public employees follows more than a year of "preparing the ground" with a coordinated campaign from conservative organizations to convince the public that public employees are overpaid and that their pensions are "bankrupting" state governments -- not the effects of the recession.

In the news soon, the coming strategic "shutdown" of the federal government by Republicans. After decades of forcing through tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, again and again -- most recently just a few weeks ago -- Republicans and corporate conservatives are engaged in a national campaign promoting the belief that there is a "deficit crisis." Their solutions involve gutting the things government does for We, the People like consumer, health, safety, labor and financial, retirement and income protections, while keeping things the government does for corporations and the wealthy "off the table."

We see variations of the same formula over and over. Here is how it works:
  1. Cut taxes for the rich and corporations (corporate stock is mostly owned by the top 1%); big deficits result.
  2. Claim a deficit emergency and use their domination of corporate-owned media to whip the public into a panic, creating the appearance of demand for corporate-approved "solutions." Manipulate the appearance of consensus.
  3. With taxes and military “off the table” push through cuts in the things government does for We, the People.
Repeat as often as needed to create a plutocracy.

Read the rest of the story at the Campaign for America's Future.
Texas Observer: For many Texas legislators and conservative activists, the budget crisis is a thing of wonder—a once-in-a-generation chance to drown government in the bathtub, to use anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist’s infamous phrase.
In the mid 1980's conservative activist Grover Norquist famously said, "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

"Starving the beast" so it is small enough to "drown in the bathtub" is a fiscal-political strategy adopted by American conservatives in the 1970's to create and greatly increase budget deficits via tax cuts so that it forces ever increasing reductions to government.

The term "beast" refers to the government and the programs it funds, particularly social programs such as welfare, Social Security, Medicare and Public Schools. [see Forbes]

As Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst succinctly put it in his inaugural speech: “We pronounce the word ‘C-R-I-S-I-S’ as ‘opportunity.’” [Texas Observer]

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Why Budget Cuts Don't Bring Prosperity

The Democratic Strategist: New York Times economic columnist David Leonhardt wrote a piece yesterday that every Democratic activist and elected official should read and then try to put into as plain a form of English as possible.
Its title is plain enough: "Why Budget Cuts Don't Bring Prosperity." And its content wouldn't have seemed that striking until very recently, when one of America's two major political parties suddenly embraced the belief that government spending had somehow caused a private-sector housing and financial crisis and then a demand-side recession, and that radical cuts in government spending would put the economy on the right track via "business confidence" or some such magical term.

The simplest term for this delusion is probably Hooverism, since many Americans are aware, however dimly, that the Great Depression was significantly worsened by the policies of a president who was ideologically opposed to any major stimulation of the economy by the public sector.

Read the full story at the The Democratic Strategist.
Starving the government beast [see Forbes] in Texas Governor Perry and the Republican-controlled Texas legislature propose to cut up to $31 billion more from the next state budget, without using any money from the $9 billion rainy day fund, to cut government spending by firing tens of thousands of teachers, closing K-12 schools, closing of community colleges, eliminating tuition support for 60,000 college students, closing correctional facilities and drastic reducing state services for the poor, elderly, and young and for those with mental health problems.

Texas Republicans would rather put our children's future at risk than ask corporations to pay their fair share to help build the well educated workforce Texas businesses need to prosper in the future.

Off the Kuff:
Giving Texas Corporations Taxpayer Money: Apparently, the idea is that the [Corporate Welfare] slush funds Gov. Perry controls are good for job growth. How you can believe that while pushing budgets that would result in the firing of 100,000 teachers, among other things, is a special talent on loan to our Governor. Here’s more about this, with Sen. John Whitmire playing the “you’ve gotta be kidding me” role.

More Enterprise Fund failures - Gov. Rick Perry’s office has rewritten contracts for companies that are struggling to create the promised number of jobs after getting millions of taxpayer dollars from the Texas Enterprise Fund
Texas Observer: For many Texas legislators and conservative activists, the budget crisis is a thing of wonder—a once-in-a-generation chance to drown government in the bathtub, to use anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist’s infamous phrase.
As Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst succinctly put it in his inaugural speech: “We pronounce the word ‘C-R-I-S-I-S’ as ‘opportunity.’”

The state is short $27 billion, more than one-quarter of the state’s $100 billion discretionary budget. About 91 percent is consumed by public schools, higher education, and health and human services. Texas already spends less per capita than almost any other state, but even more “devastating” cuts are all but certain.

In case anybody’s looking for a culprit, Gov. Rick Perry said Texas’ deficit was “reflective of the national recession’s lingering impact on state revenue.” In fact, the recession has little to do with the $27 billion shortfall.

Back in 2006 the Legislature concocted a Rube Goldberg-style [school funding and business tax reform] measure that simultaneously cut property taxes, imposed a new “margins” tax on business and rejiggered the way public schools are financed. Wowee zowee—three birds with only one stone!
Problem was, as the state Legislative Budget Board pointed out at the time, the plan’s math didn’t wash because the margins tax wouldn’t bring in as much as the Legislature thought. In fact, the board said, it would leave a $5 billion hole in the state budget every year.

The upshot: Perry, who pushed the swap, knew full well he was helping to create today’s “crisis.”
The budget shortfall is not the cause of the pain. It’s the justification. For 30 years, anti-government forces have been in the ascendancy with a platform of free markets, deregulation, privatization, the evisceration of social programs and the systematic debasement of the greater good.

In Texas, where Republicans control more than two-thirds of the state House and a little less than two-thirds of the state Senate, this ideology now has its moment in the sun.

“The bottom line is there are no excuses now,” Republican Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, the right-wing radio talk-show host and founder of the Tea Party Caucus, told the Associated Press in January. “It’s a perfect storm, in a positive way, for conservatism.”
John Heleman, chief revenue estimator for Comptroller Susan Combs, in testimony before state senators in early February 2011 said Texas' budget problems will not go away when legislators eventually sign a balanced budget later this year. The school funding and business tax reform legislation passed in 2006 generates at least a $10 billion budget short fall every year. [Texas' Finances Not As Rosy As They Seemed and Budgeting with smoke and mirrors]

That means Texas parents should expect even deeper cuts to K-12 and college education spending when the next Texas legislative session convenes two years from now in 2013. Soon the conservative dream to fully privatize public education will be a reality.

As conservatives continue their ideological push to privatize all government services they will soon cut government funding for public eduction so deeply that parents will be forced to send their children to private for profit schools.

Soon, education and the better live it brings will be within the reach of only the wealthiest children. Is that really the American Dream we want?

I’m Still Looking For The Union Label

By Lynn Wolfe

While growing up in New York City, I remember a television commercial that supported labor unions. Many years later, I can still hear those women singing, “Look for the Union Label . . . .,” in TV Ads like the one posted at the bottom of this article.

However, somewhere along the years, these valuable jobs were exported to China and Viet Nam because Americans wanted inexpensive merchandise that came in a store with “Mart” in its name.

We had a President in the 80s (shockingly, a one-time Union President himself) who had very little respect for the type of American workers who showered after work, not before, and the anti-union movement started gathering steam.

Fast -forward to our current news cycle and the war against organized labor continues. So I decided to take a little stroll down memory lane and revisit some of the everyday-things that unions are responsible for.
  • Weekends
  • 40-hour work week
  • Unemployment insurance
  • Safe working conditions
  • Medical benefits
  • Sick days
Quite frankly, these are a few of my favorite – and necessary - things. Therefore, I’m going to make an attempt to look for the union label during my shopping excursions. I’m also going to hug a teacher and thank the next Teamster I come across.

Clasaic Union Ad


Firefighter Mike DeGarmo, criticizing
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for
refusing to drop his assault on public
employee bargaining rights.

Editorial note: Americans decisively support laws ensuring the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions by a nearly two-to-one margin, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll.

Sixty-one percent said they oppose legislation stripping those rights in their states, as compared to only thirty-three percent who said they favor such laws, a striking discrepancy that shows public opinion firmly on one side of a growing national fight. The wide poll margin undercuts Republican claims that the American people want to outlaw labor unions.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Poor, Middle Class To Pay For Tax Breaks For Rich, Corporations

Think Progress: State budgets across the country are in disarray as a weak economy, the end of tens of billions in Recovery Act funds, and a GOP-led House that is pushing for deep cuts to many programs that benefit state and local governments set the stage for massive in shortfalls over the next two years.

These misplaced priorities mean that the poor and middle class will shoulder the burden of fiscal austerity, even as the rich and corporations are asked to contribute even less. Here’s a detailed look at how the GOP’s war on the poor and middle class is playing out at the state level:
Texas: As ThinkProgress has reported, Gov. Perry spent the last two years traveling around the country attacking the stimulus and other Obama administration initiatives, all while touting the “Texas Miracle” (low taxes, low services, and low regulations). However, as Matt Yglesias noted, “It looks like the secret behind Texas’ ability to avoid the kind of budget woes that afflicted so many states last year was two-year budgeting rather than the miracle of low-tax, low-service, lax-regulation policies.” Moreover, Perry relied more on the stimulus than any other state to fill his 2010 budget gap, with stimulus funds plugging a full 97 percent of the gap.

In facing down a $25 billion budget crisis on par with that of California, Perry categorically rejected any tax increases. Texas, as Paul Krugman said, already takes a “hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens,” as indicated by its poor educational performance and sky-high 25 percent child poverty rate. Still, Perry also refuses to use any of the $9.4 billion in the state’s rainy day fund (some of which, ironically, comes from stimulus funds intended to help states stave off draconian cuts that Perry instead squirreled away) and is instead contemplating deep cuts to child services programs and education, among other things. Perry even floated a plan to drop Medicaid entirely. Perry’s proposed education cuts are so deep that they prompted an unlikely source to take to the pages of the Houston Chronicle to write in opposition to them — none other than former First Lady Laura Bush. Bond ratings agency Standard & Poors has also weighed in, saying Texas’ cuts-only approach “won’t solve the state’s long-term fiscal problems” and that revenue increases need to be considered alongside the deep cuts being proposed.

Wisconsin
: Gov. Scott Walker first gained national headlines for joining Ohio’s Kasich in a future-losing decision to cancel an $800 million investment — fully paid for the by the federal government — in high-speed rail. This decision prompted train manufacturer Talgo to announce it was leaving the state and will likely cost the state thousands of jobs.

Walker is of course now famous for his high-stakes war against Wisconsin’s workers. Walker has used a very small short-term shortfall and larger shortfall to come (which is still smaller than shortfalls the state has faced in recent years) to move forward with an unpopular plan to destroy the state’s public employee unions. As Ezra Klein and many others have noted, Wisconsin’s unions aren’t to blame for the state’s budget problems and taking away their collective bargaining rights will have no impact on the state’s fiscal situation.

Indeed, the unions offered to concede to all of Walker’s financial demands, so long as they could retain their collective bargaining rights. Walker balked at this offer, betraying his true motive: busting unions. Walker is also late in offering his budget, but it is believed that in spite of the supposed “crisis” and being “broke,” as Walker himself has said, his budget plans will include “a LOT more tax breaks” for the rich and corporations that will have to be balanced on the backs of workers or with painful cuts to state services and the state’s Medicaid programs, BadgerCare. It’s also worth noting that the last time Scott Walker went union busting, it turned into a massive boondoggle when he was overruled by an arbiter, wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars in the process. When Republican governors speak of “shared sacrifice,” it seems that the only thing they mean is sacrifices by the poor and middle class in order to fund massive tax breaks for the rich and corporations.
Read the complete story @ Think Progress

Monday, February 21, 2011

Voters Say Slash The Budget, But Not Anything In It

Texas Tribune insiders took on school finance this week, and they're not optimistic that there will be a happy ending:
Lawmakers have proposed spending $10.4 billion less than the Texas Education Agency says it needs to keep things running like they're running now. Is that current level of services sufficient for public education? Two-thirds of our panel said no, it's not.

On the question; Should lawmakers free local schools to raise their property taxes to make up for money lost to state cuts? Most of our insiders — 70 percent — said yes, while 27 percent said no.

More @ Texas Tribune.
The Texas Tribune this week also looked at the Mixed Signals on Budget Cuts that Texans are sending in a UT/Texas Tribune Poll:
By a margin of more than 2 to 1, Texas voters believe that lawmakers should solve the state's massive shortfall by cutting the budget, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, but their enthusiasm dissipates when asked if they support specific cuts.

"We [Texans] really want to slash the budget, but not anything in it," says pollster Daron Shaw, a professor of government at UT.

Given a list of things that could be cut to balance the budget and asked to check each that they'd consider, the voters were protective of state programs, and overwhelmingly so.

They oppose cuts to public education, 82 percent; pre-kindergarten, 62 percent; state grants to college students, 73 percent; state contributions to teacher and state employee retirement programs, 69 percent; the Children's Health Insurance Program, 87 percent; to state environmental regulation that could be picked up by the federal government, 65 percent; cuts to Medicaid providers like doctors and hospitals, 86 percent; state funding for nursing home care, 90 percent; prisons for adults or for juveniles, both 67 percent; new highway construction, 63 percent; border security, 85 percent; or for closing four community colleges, 77 percent.

Many of the items on that list are among the prime cuts made in proposed budgets from the House, the Senate and the governor. "Frankly, if you're assuming the results of the last election mean you should cut and that people meant government should completely go away, you're overreaching," says pollster Jim Henson, who teaches government and runs the Texas Politics Project at UT.

More @ Texas Tribune
This is, to me, a very Pavlovian thing. Pavlov conducted an experiment where for a period of time he rang a bell every time he set food down for his dogs. The dogs soon associated the bell with food and soon began to salivate as soon as they heard the bell, even when food was nowhere in sight.

It’s very easy to compare the techniques Pavlov used with his dogs to what the conservative noise machine has done to condition voters to the sound of "government spending."

When voters hear "government spending" their immediate conditioned response is "cut spending" without thinking that means their children will not receive a good education, their grandparents can't go to the doctor, potholes in roads (built by government spending) will go unfilled, there will be no prisons to hold the criminals who rob and kill, and on, and on, and on... When voters do stop to think about the GOP Price Tag attached to perpetual rounds of spending cuts they start to growl.

What Americans Really Want

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros.

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Mother Jones: Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers.

Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations.

Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.

According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election.

That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits.

The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.

The Kochs also assisted Walker's current GOP allies in the fight against the public-sector unions. Last year, Republicans took control of the both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature, which has made Walker's assault on these unions possible. And according to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Koch Industries PAC spent $6,500 in support of 16 Wisconsin Republican state legislative candidates, who each won his or her election.

Read the rest of the story at Mother Jones
Starving the [Government] Beast

"Starving the beast" is a fiscal-political strategy adopted by American conservatives in the 1970's to create or increase existing budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government. The term "beast" refers to the government and the programs it funds, particularly social programs such as welfare, Social Security, Medicare and public schools. [see Forbes]

The term "starving the beast" to refer to the political-fiscal strategy was in a Wall Street Journal article in 1985 where the reporter quoted an unnamed Reagan staffer.

The tax cuts of former US President George W. Bush's administration, still in place, are an example. He said in 2001 "so we have the tax relief plan that now provides a new kind -- a fiscal straight jacket for Congress. And that's good for the taxpayers, and it's incredibly positive news if you're worried about a federal government that has been growing at a dramatic pace over the past eight years and it has been."

Former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin expressly advocates the policy: "please Congress, starve the beast, don't perpetuate the problem, don't fund the largess, we need to cut taxes." U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, states "you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans." Another well-known proponent of the strategy is activist Grover Norquist who famously said "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Starving the beast in Texas includes Governor Perry and the Republican-controlled Texas legislature proposing to cut up to $31 billion in spending from the next budget, without using any money from the $9 billion rainy day fund, to reduce government by firing tens of thousands of teachers, closing K-12 schools, closing of community colleges, eliminating tuition support for 60,000 college students, closing correctional facilities and drastic reducing state services for the poor, elderly, and young and for those with mental health problems.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Redistricting: U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2010 County Level Counts

The U.S. Census Bureau this month started releasing 2010 Census details, including data on race, Hispanic origin and voting age data for multiple geographies within each state.

The U.S. Census bureau today delivered Texas' 2010 census details, including first look at race and Hispanic origin data for legislative redistricting.

Texas is a majority-minority state for the first time in a redistricting period, according to the just-released census data, a fact that could complicate Republicans’ hopes for a partisan gerrymander—and make the state competitive for Democrats in future years.

Anglos now account for just 45 percent of the state's population, down from 52 percent a decade ago. The Hispanic population is now 38 percent of the total population—growing by 42 percent—while the African-American population grew slightly and is now 12 percent of the total population. The voting age population is a little different: 49.6 percent Anglo, 33.6 percent Hispanic, 11.4 percent black and 3.9 percent Asian.

The decennial census for Texas totaled 25,145,561 people living in the state in the first half of 2010 for a 20.6% increase over the number of people living in the state in 2000, courtesy of the burgeoning Texas Hispanic and black populations. Almost 90 percent of the state's growth was from minorities.

The local level data released today will serve as the starting point for a lengthy political and legal battle over how to redraw the political boundaries around Texas. (Census data release | Texas redistricting information | View proposed redistricted maps at the Texas Legislative Council's district viewer | Brown's Census Viewer)

The Texas Legislative Council, which handles the mechanics of redistricting for the Legislature, will make the detailed census data available for download to Texas lawmakers’ computers in the coming days. Lawmakers can than begin to draw new district lines using redistricting software applications already provide by the legislative council. In recent weeks, lawmakers and their staff have been learning how to use the software using old census data.

A fair redrawing of new district lines must allow the minority groups, who accounted for 90% of the population increase, the opportunity to share in the four additional U.S. House Texas earned by Texas' overall population increase. When the legislature completes its redistricting task Texas will have 36 rather than 32 seats in the reconfigured 435-member U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans under former Rep. Tom DeLay re-redistricted the state in 2003, gerrymandering and tearing apart districts held by Democrats to create new districts favoring non-minority Republicans. The plan was a big success for Republicans: The U.S. House delegation from Texas went from 17-15 Democrat earlier in the decade to 21-11 Republican in 2004. Republicans now hold 23 of the 32 House seats after picking up three districts in the 2010 election.

Republicans performed relatively well among Texas Hispanics in the 2010 elections. Gov. Rick Perry took 38 percent of the Hispanic vote last year, better than other Republicans in recent years, and the GOP picked up two majority-Hispanic House seats. While whites made up about 45 percent of the population in 2010, they accounted for about 68 percent of the turnout; Hispanics, with 38 percent of the population, accounted for only about 20 percent of the vote

State Sen. Kel Seliger, one of the Republicans in charge of the redistricting process, has suggested there would be one additional Hispanic district in the Rio Grande Valley. Democratic State Rep. Garnet Coleman predicts Republicans will draw two new Republican districts, one near Dallas and one near Houston, and "pack" heavily minority Democratic districts in the Rio Grande Valley and Houston.

Texas Democratic strategist and Lone Star Project Director Matt Angle believes the new congressional districts should clearly represent minorities. Angle believes one Hispanics district can be drawn in north Texas in the Dallas area, a second Hispanics district should be drawn in the San Antonio to Austin corridor, and the remaining two districts should be drawn elsewhere to represent the voting strength of minorities.

Now that the still growing Hispanic population makes up 38 percent of Texas residents Republicans must increasingly compete for the Hispanic vote in the future to win statewide as well as local elections. The Hispanic population is very young and trends progressive, and as more Latinos turn 18, become citizens, and register to vote, Texas could become a swing state sooner rather than later, if Republicans do not make strong inroads with the Hispanic electorate.

Based on the 2010 census count of 25,145,561 people now living in Texas, the ideal population count for each of the 36 Texas congressional districts is 701,901, the ideal Senate district is 811,147, the ideal state House district is 167,637, and the ideal State Board of Education district is 1,676,371.

Should the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature gerrymander the new districts to disenfranchise the larger minority populations, the gerrymandered congressional map would likely be challenged by the Obama Administration Justice Department, which under the Voting Rights Act must approve any changes affecting minority representation. The George W. Bush Justice Department all but ignored enforcement of the Voting Rights Act after Republicans gerrymandered the state in 2003. According to Matt Angle, "Texas redistricting plans will be reviewed by the Justice Department, and partisan Republicans will no longer be able to count on partisan operatives within DOJ to subvert the law. . . This puts harshly partisan Republicans on notice that they must respect and abide by the Voting Rights Act or face objection from the Justice Department."

Given Collin County's 60 percent population growth from 491,675 residents in 2000 to 782,341 residents in 2010, it seem likely the county will see some adjustment to some or all of the various district lines, including for the Congressional, Texas House, Texas Senate and State Board of Education districts.

It is, however, unlikely that Collin County will see a new congressional district or other major changes in the various district lines that crisscross over the county.

Collin Co. ranks seventh in population size after Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis and El Paso Counties. The county also has a substantial percentage of residents with Hispanic, Asian, and African American heritage. (U.S. Census Bureau 2010 Custom tables Excel)

Hispanics now make up the majority of Texas public school students. About 50 percent of the state's 4.9 million students are Latino, up from 40 percent a decade ago.

A little more than 20 percent of Plano ISD students currently are Hispanic, up from 10 percent a decade ago. Nearly 18 percent of Plano students are Asian students up from 13 percent in the 2000-2001 school year. The percentage of black Plano students has gone from 3 percent to almost 10 percent over the last decade while the percentage of white students has dropped from 91percent to 50 percent. The notion of "white flight" from Dallas to Collin Co. suburbs is no more.

Collin County currently holds most of Texas Congressional District 3, represented by Republican Sam Johnson since he first won election in 1991. The 3rd congressional district includes the county's densely populated southwest quadrant and a small corner of northern Dallas county.

The remaining three quarters of Collin County's more sparsely populated geographic area is included in Texas Congressional District 4, currently represented by Republican Ralph Hall. Hall's District 4 geographic area includes all or parts of Bowie, Camp, Cass, Collin, Delta, Fannin, Farnklin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Lamar, Morris, Rains, Red River and Rockwall counties.

Other districts in Collin Co. include State Senate Districts 8 and 30, State House Districts 66, 67, 70 and 89, and State Board of Education Districts 9 and 12.
County 2000 2010 Change
Harris County 3,400,578 4,092,459 20.3%
Dallas County 2,218,899 2,368,139 6.7%
Tarrant County 1,446,219 1,809,034 25.1%
Bexar County 1,392,931 1,714,773 23.1%
Travis County 812,280 1,024,266 26.1%
El Paso County 679,622 800,647 17.8%
Collin County 491,675 782,341 59.1%
Hidalgo County 569,463 774,769 36.1%
Denton County 432,976 662,614 53.0%
Fort Bend County 354,452 585,375 65.1%
Most of the state's other largest counties kept pace with the statewide population growth rate of 20.6 percent, but Dallas County's population only increased by 6 percent, from 2.21 million to 2.36 million residents. The city of Dallas' population increased less than 1 percent, a fact that's likely to cause Dallas to lose two of its 16 House seats during redistricting.

Suburban areas around Dallas County had strong growth throughout the last decade. Denton counties grew by more than 53 percent, and Rockwall County lead all counties in growth at a rate of 81 percent. Seventy-nine of the state's 254 counties lost population during the decade, most of them clustered in West Texas.

Another 97 counties grew less than 10 percent, and another 41 grew between 10 and 20 percent. The fastest growing 37 counties were clustered in the Hill Country, the Metroplex, the Valley and around Houston with growth rates that range between 20 and 82 percent for the decade.

  1. Communities of color are driving population growth in Texas. Texas is one of five states in the country where people of color make up the majority of the population. Between 2000 and 2009 Hispanic population growth accounted for 63.1 percent of all growth in the state. Texas’s black and Asian populations—2.8 million people and 850,000 people, respectively—were the third largest in the country in 2010.
  2. The majority of children in Texas are children of color. For children under age 5 in the state, children of color outnumbered non-Hispanic white children 2.2-to-1 in 2011. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, in 2009, 64 percent of the state’s children were of color.
  3. Houston is the most racially and ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the country. According to a report from Rice University, the percentage of Latinos in the region increased dramatically from 20.8 percent in 1990 to more than one-third at 35.5 percent in 2010. This thriving racial and ethnic diversity places Houston at the head of the state’s rapid demographic changes.
  4. Nearly a third of immigrants in Texas are naturalized—meaning they are eligible to vote. In 2010 immigrants comprised 16.4 percent of the state’s total population. That year there were 1.3 million naturalized U.S. citizens in Texas, approximately 32 percent of immigrants in the state.
  5. Voters of color make up a growing portion of the Texas electorate. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos accounted for 20.1 percent of Texas voters in the 2008 elections. African Americans and Asians comprised 14.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, of the state’s voters that same year.
  6. Even more Latinos are eligible to vote but are currently unregistered. According to the political opinion research group Latino Decisions, there are 2.1 million unregistered Latino voters in Texas in 2012. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that there are an additional 880,000 legal permanent residents (green card holders) in Texas who are eligible to naturalize and vote for the first time. Put together, this means Texas has close to an extra 3 million potential voters this fall.
  7. The Department of Justice blocked a Texas voter ID law that threatened to disenfranchise Hispanics. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, far fewer non-Hispanic voters—4.3 percent, compared with 6.3 percent of Latino voters—lack a proper photo ID, which voters would have been required to show under the law. Texas’s own state data listed 174,866 registered Latino voters without an ID.
  8. Communities of color add billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to Texas’s economy through entrepreneurship and spending. The purchasing power of Latinos in Texas increased more than 400 percent from 1990 to 2010, reaching a total of $176.3 billion. Asian buying power increased by more than 650 percent in the same period to a total of $34.4 billion. And in 2007 Texas’s nearly 450,000 Latino-owned businesses had close to 400,000 employees, and sales and receipts of $61.9 billion.
  9. Immigrants are essential to the economy as workers. In 2010 immigrants comprised 20.9 percent of Texas’s workforce. As of 2007, 21 percent of Houston’s total economic output and 16 percent of Dallas’s economic output was derived from immigrants.
  10. Immigrants contribute to the state economy through state and local taxes. In 2010, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants in Texas paid $1.6 billion in state and local taxes.

Mouse over the state counties in the map tool below to view county level Census data.


2010 Interactive State and County Census Map

Additional Data: To access data from multiple geographies within the state, such as census blocks, tracts, voting districts, cities, counties and school districts, visit American Factfinder: http://factfinder2.census.gov.

The Census Bureau will deliver state data on a rolling basis through March. See what states are coming next.


Collin County Census Redistricting Data by Election Precinct
note: VAP = Voting Age Population

Voting
District
Precinct
Area
Land
in
Sq
Miles
Ave
Age
of
Reg
Voter
Housing
Units
TL
Pop
TL
VAP
VAP
Reg
to
vote
White
alone
Hispanic
Latino alone
Black
or
Af/Am
alone
Asian
alone
Am
Indian
or
Alaskan
Native
alone
Two
or
More
Races
1 1.0 51 1,549 3,521 2,661 1,526 1,609 764 221 20 8 35
2 2.3 44 2,949 6,409 4,635 2,719 2,568 1,250 592 126 31 54
3 5.5 47 1,771 5,991 3,887 1,815 567 2,434 807 21 9 37
4 23.2 51 469 1,068 836 743 725 75 10 8 9 8
5 1.8 53 577 1,450 1,119 958 925 110 52 8 14 9
6 1.6 42 2,702 8,866 5,623 4,400 3,452 612 580 874 10 80
7 0.5 44 807 2,051 1,543 1,521 1,054 227 143 96 8 14
8 16.1 48 1,881 4,977 3,613 2,394 2,744 736 40 29 25 34
9 25.2 47 2,609 6,954 4,922 3,370 3,771 771 223 54 34 65
10 10.8 50 231 635 489 393 416 59 0 0 3 8
11 54.6 49 2,570 6,632 4,841 3,575 3,660 816 260 28 23 50
12 1.3 48 2,274 6,025 4,181 4,043 3,624 248 141 99 20 42
13 19.4 46 1,445 4,006 2,756 2,228 2,153 276 216 63 19 26
14 1.4 42 2,634 5,662 4,163 1,768 1,950 330 412 1,351 1 118
15 0.5 51 1,545 3,659 2,762 1,434 1,373 782 204 351 6 45
16 20.6 46 2,140 6,061 4,077 3,394 3,294 501 161 28 34 54
17 16.7 43 1,764 5,284 3,512 2,432 2,555 586 265 26 27 48
18 26.7 51 613 1,516 1,118 757 947 138 13 1 7 12
19 0.4 50 782 1,981 1,575 1,608 1,311 76 50 108 6 24
20 28.6 49 550 1,345 1,040 966 925 91 11 1 2 9
21 1.5 50 2,138 5,405 4,277 3,641 3,101 343 246 499 9 66
22 57.7 47 1,936 5,514 3,830 3,146 2,918 700 127 16 23 39
23 3.5 44 1,462 4,120 2,781 917 696 1,263 615 170 1 30
24 0.4 41 2,565 4,119 3,546 2,097 2,002 560 618 250 16 75
25 2.8 45 2,641 9,429 5,797 4,709 3,339 422 542 1,346 22 113
26 1.2 49 1,162 3,129 2,249 1,397 1,220 711 170 108 9 28
27 1.7 43 1,572 5,062 3,306 2,611 2,308 452 342 139 15 43
28 0.8 47 1,824 3,842 3,067 2,292 1,993 267 256 494 7 44
29 19.0 45 1,517 4,656 3,030 2,454 2,435 422 88 30 18 36
30 9.8 45 2,718 7,680 5,101 4,111 3,610 839 344 211 23 54
31 0.6 51 977 2,607 2,044 2,012 1,732 109 61 120 4 15
32 0.7 50 1,258 3,071 2,383 2,395 1,966 169 97 113 15 22
33 23.4 47 1,532 4,254 3,047 2,279 2,490 360 118 29 28 17
34 1.1 45 1,988 6,679 4,208 3,380 2,068 156 114 1,791 7 64
35 41.6 48 1,896 5,023 3,711 2,748 3,134 427 50 26 35 35
36 0.7 49 829 2,294 1,761 1,957 1,464 66 50 164 1 13
37 79.7 49 1,454 3,504 2,624 2,028 2,340 210 9 2 18 36
38 6.3 42 4,442 10,302 6,985 4,274 4,780 721 738 599 36 97
39 0.8 46 1,885 4,871 3,564 2,641 2,253 655 370 210 10 63
40 1.0 48 1,521 4,094 3,138 3,099 2,624 248 142 67 23 26
41 7.7 49 894 2,792 1,878 1,869 1,646 142 23 39 11 11
42 10.8 45 555 1,722 1,140 697 777 281 53 9 9 10
43 10.1 42 2,768 9,392 6,339 4,075 3,772 1,199 1,016 218 34 90
44 0.8 49 1,507 4,096 2,925 1,730 1,580 1,177 108 20 9 27
45 2.8 49 973 1,885 1,422 1,045 1,007 156 117 122 4 16
46 1.1 49 2,639 6,515 4,850 2,396 2,034 2,217 372 140 15 47
47 0.9 48 1,387 3,643 2,783 2,358 1,887 517 217 103 14 40
48 1.4 51 2,101 4,504 3,524 2,867 2,718 227 191 310 16 54
49 0.9 55 1,364 2,672 2,177 2,029 1,884 148 43 76 7 17
50 2.7 42 2,392 6,304 4,610 2,202 1,591 1,359 619 894 13 115
51 0.8 46 1,291 4,167 2,842 1,305 893 1,557 272 87 13 19
52 1.8 43 2,049 6,281 4,266 2,773 1,554 782 533 1,275 21 98
53 0.7 51 1,056 2,767 2,155 2,076 1,784 161 72 94 11 33
54 1.8 45 2,187 4,921 3,750 2,608 2,078 613 503 466 9 74
55 1.9 47 2,333 5,389 4,748 2,106 2,919 407 249 1,055 17 90
56 5.3 45 3,135 8,735 6,061 4,240 4,204 1,041 457 260 24 64
57 2.8 46 2,685 6,945 4,844 3,735 3,142 962 520 140 32 46
58 1.4 47 2,409 5,346 4,205 3,167 2,706 296 380 729 10 76
59 1.1 43 1,892 5,946 3,956 3,325 2,817 400 253 403 33 45
60 5.3 49 809 2,484 1,710 1,555 1,328 206 48 102 9 16
61 1.0 50 797 2,142 1,658 1,564 1,266 162 112 89 7 22
62 0.7 49 1,404 3,637 2,785 2,422 2,073 387 172 103 15 32
63 0.6 50 920 2,398 1,909 2,006 1,642 87 40 111 7 19
64 0.8 47 1,877 4,207 3,205 2,641 2,244 259 188 452 9 45
65 0.4 50 795 1,996 1,499 1,146 1,000 259 107 96 15 20
66 0.6 49 1,324 3,505 2,564 1,966 1,651 549 153 153 13 43
67 1.3 54 892 2,046 1,676 1,587 1,379 86 43 143 4 18
68 0.6 52 1,263 3,524 2,591 1,888 1,510 757 196 73 17 35
69 0.9 50 2,066 4,884 3,853 3,596 2,875 244 172 501 14 42
70 0.5 51 923 2,380 1,856 1,739 1,481 154 56 124 9 24
71 0.6 51 1,000 2,246 1,835 1,602 1,417 152 77 159 9 20
72 0.7 49 1,204 2,786 2,166 1,446 1,193 583 98 260 8 21
73 0.3 44 1,922 3,074 2,630 1,538 1,502 269 367 443 6 38
74 0.7 48 1,299 2,802 2,159 1,646 1,486 227 189 192 8 52
75 1.1 54 1,018 2,184 1,777 1,799 1,500 83 20 147 5 21
76 0.9 49 1,948 4,894 3,753 2,982 2,784 244 253 408 12 41
77 0.8 45 2,003 5,164 3,835 3,312 2,339 406 382 617 11 69
78 1.9 50 1,004 2,373 1,912 1,721 1,425 112 69 256 0 43
79 0.7 46 3,597 6,580 5,283 2,542 2,239 1,292 693 933 13 97
80 0.9 44 1,751 5,065 3,530 3,200 2,496 351 329 285 21 47
81 0.7 46 2,134 4,472 3,472 2,539 2,330 371 251 433 12 66
82 0.7 47 1,734 4,573 3,290 2,524 2,139 693 255 144 15 41
83 4.5 45 2,498 7,241 4,950 3,912 3,795 656 314 74 37 64
84 0.6 47 2,126 3,825 3,139 2,215 2,069 402 397 216 11 35
85 0.7 46 1,711 4,532 3,456 2,867 2,188 400 240 546 6 65
86 0.9 48 1,667 4,175 3,097 2,564 2,054 212 265 493 9 53
87 4.6 43 1,400 4,923 2,906 2,447 1,980 163 124 570 13 46
88 0.5 39 3,044 4,161 3,463 1,720 1,584 516 1,062 213 9 65
89 1.3 46 2,687 7,334 5,345 4,375 3,009 274 306 1,611 16 116
90 1.3 48 1,432 4,053 2,841 2,696 2,136 168 97 393 6 35
91 0.7 47 1,432 3,704 2,706 2,151 1,996 271 174 201 17 43
92 2.0 46 2,115 4,869 3,527 2,264 1,939 1,124 292 103 6 54
93 9.6 49 180 449 346 281 314 29 0 0 0 2
94 2.2 47 1,779 5,767 3,766 3,207 2,024 195 193 1,276 9 65
95 0.7 44 1,441 4,420 2,959 2,617 1,911 244 327 402 8 53
96 4.5 38 592 2,487 1,803 935 821 438 481 32 4 19
97 0.7 53 582 1,549 1,182 1,244 1,099 35 13 15 7 12
98 3.1 70 930 2,135 1,591 800 847 690 31 5 4 9
99 0.3 49 610 1,610 1,171 655 615 468 77 1 2 8
100 1.4 54 20 48 40 26 34 5 0 0 0 1
101 1.8 44 1,521 4,476 2,958 2,615 2,196 226 134 339 12 44
102 1.1 49 1,085 3,207 2,227 2,277 2,004 98 24 69 12 16
103 0.4 48 912 2,810 1,966 1,179 921 800 159 44 16 25
104 0.4 40 3,112 4,839 4,021 2,296 1,875 659 1,028 338 14 84
105 1.6 49 889 1,918 1,583 1,020 1,110 135 112 188 9 20
106 0.4 44 1,016 2,912 2,039 1,785 1,505 200 180 124 8 22
107 0.8 47 1,611 4,633 3,343 3,040 2,276 167 128 698 7 61
108 1.1 46 1,989 4,788 3,555 2,551 1,896 332 266 939 12 102
109 2.7 46 1,749 4,697 3,210 2,813 2,235 221 210 473 10 53
110 0.8 51 1,558 3,550 2,995 2,521 2,000 163 168 624 5 32
111 2.4 45 2,512 6,665 4,605 3,410 3,156 794 293 283 30 41
112 0.7 48 1,349 3,971 2,809 2,335 1,785 131 54 781 9 43
113 0.8 44 1,992 5,626 3,932 2,505 2,583 694 402 167 12 64
114 13.2 47 1,702 4,620 3,261 2,213 2,419 703 54 35 20 26
115 0.8 49 1,825 3,585 2,924 2,589 2,138 268 189 274 2 48
116 2.4 46 1,984 5,598 3,800 3,502 2,683 184 142 728 7 53
117 1.5 43 2,848 6,624 4,732 3,360 3,106 581 425 511 20 74
118 1.1 45 2,237 6,130 4,150 3,839 3,314 316 139 300 25 53
119 1.2 47 2,256 6,952 4,889 4,632 3,178 197 203 1,211 11 79
120 2.7 46 2,727 8,142 5,300 4,584 3,747 319 244 881 19 85
121 1.1 45 2,109 6,626 4,333 3,169 1,971 214 183 1,849 11 100
122 1.6 47 1,886 5,663 3,696 3,557 3,112 221 148 153 14 44
123 1.0 46 1,454 3,038 2,273 1,974 1,594 169 186 286 5 29
124 0.9 47 2,787 5,505 4,288 2,656 2,302 296 318 1,267 22 77
125 2.0 46 2,528 7,178 4,899 3,666 2,525 316 497 1,445 18 86
126 1.0 43 2,176 6,932 4,429 3,835 3,072 463 516 287 23 59
127 1.1 44 2,082 5,554 3,963 3,089 2,747 428 279 428 17 59
128 15.3 48 1,607 5,009 3,366 3,281 2,947 157 119 86 21 33
129 1.3 46 1,674 3,637 2,646 2,105 1,994 248 268 77 9 43
130 3.5 45 2,844 8,093 5,391 4,260 3,565 365 239 1,119 14 80
131 2.1 46 2,770 7,467 5,078 4,553 4,139 349 272 215 32 61
132 0.6 47 2,022 3,914 3,195 2,588 2,276 260 292 307 9 49
133 2.4 44 1,644 4,416 3,036 1,941 1,958 500 366 141 22 48
134 13.9 42 4,324 13,151 8,423 5,539 4,749 967 1,147 1,339 19 171
135 1.1 44 2,369 6,057 4,218 2,970 2,442 359 360 958 10 78
136 0.6 52 1,504 2,719 2,275 1,762 1,574 280 275 103 12 27
137 0.9 47 1,250 2,827 2,116 1,787 1,410 135 118 395 6 52
138 0.4 52 558 1,467 1,174 1,166 1,049 55 11 36 9 13
139 1.5 45 3,462 7,693 5,568 3,436 3,457 494 612 866 22 109
140 2.6 46 3,668 10,338 6,723 3,820 5,464 446 418 270 29 91
141 1.6 48 1,284 3,801 2,793 2,519 1,914 226 233 370 8 36
142 0.9 47 2,232 4,504 3,634 2,525 2,256 205 280 814 11 63
143 1.5 48 988 2,282 1,766 1,672 1,389 86 68 183 4 33
144 1.7 47 1,236 3,881 2,676 2,326 1,734 133 299 462 13 35
145 0.5 42 701 2,207 1,481 1,223 928 154 181 186 6 21
146 1.5 43 2,441 6,978 4,766 3,870 3,130 553 480 470 18 100
147 1.5 45 1,227 2,950 2,036 1,346 1,222 237 238 299 13 25
148 0.1 49 34 97 77 66 59 2 3 9 0 4
149 2.5 44 1,236 3,805 2,467 1,989 1,665 299 296 145 15 35
150 16.7 52 217 539 412 345 379 26 3 0 2 0
151 0.4 42 677 2,232 1,448 990 755 143 231 276 6 26
152 0.2 43 339 1,174 889 62 35 834 9 6 2 1
153 2.5 44 1,271 3,814 2,621 1,961 1,629 251 294 407 3 32
154 0.0 37 126 434 213 133 51 33 114 8 0 7
155 1.2 45 1,528 3,367 2,205 3,622 1,756 177 160 80 8 22
156 1.6 44 2,257 6,651 4,469 3,784 3,185 529 447 228 21 53
157 3.5 45 1,848 6,145 3,832 3,028 2,342 223 243 922 15 81
158 1.9 46 852 2,654 1,869 1,310 823 144 245 615 7 33
159 2.0 43 2,602 8,349 5,376 3,496 2,762 1,027 839 644 12 82
160 0.2 57 7 12 10 14 10 0 0 0 0 0
161 0.2 0 4 10 9 6 9 0 0 0 0 0
162 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
163 4.5 41 3,923 10,764 7,142 4,954 4,608 1,034 897 446 24 116
164 0.6 81 450 467 466 444 448 4 0 8 2 3
165 3.7 50 324 936 676 653 536 29 23 65 3 20
166 1.5 44 1,378 4,606 2,992 2,044 1,467 255 344 866 7 47
167 1.4 45 2,507 7,146 4,882 3,718 2,508 308 295 1,645 7 116
168 0.9 45 668 2,329 1,433 1,390 1,150 70 59 127 11 13
169 1.0 41 1,387 3,837 2,571 1,860 1,619 335 299 264 14 37
170 0.6 44 975 2,466 1,713 1,355 1,259 165 147 112 5 20
171 4.2 44 2,748 7,062 4,854 3,181 3,420 308 296 737 21 63
172 22.4 45 1,628 4,570 3,144 2,395 2,404 523 110 28 31 45
173 0.9 46 944 2,964 2,004 1,761 1,626 149 101 103 6 16
174 6.4 44 2,125 6,280 4,204 3,055 2,893 602 418 194 21 66
175 2.3 44 1,145 3,792 2,527 1,928 1,746 256 271 208 8 33
176 3.2 39 3,717 5,136 4,655 2,129 3,056 455 451 550 13 111
177 4.3 45 3,200 5,528 4,527 2,343 3,121 424 476 381 28 80
178 8.8 46 2,316 6,137 3,920 2,987 3,280 262 211 96 21 45
179 7.7 58 2,100 4,940 4,003 3,910 3,685 152 31 67 29 33
Totals 841.2 46 300,960 782,341 557,664 421,386 368,136 72,370 44,429 61,146 2,320 8,164

Explanation of census/redistricting tables' headings and terms - PDF
2010 Census - Texas Redistricting Data