AUSTIN, Texas — The $2 billion for a new state water fund that Gov. Rick Perry prioritized this session has finally reached his desk for approval.
The Texas House on Sunday cleared the two-thirds threshold required to take the money from the state's Rainy Day Fund. Republican House Speaker Joe Straus took the unusual and symbolic step of also casting a vote for the measure.
The water funding is included in a spending bill that settles the costs of fighting wildfires that scorched the state in 2011. Public schools are also repaid $1.75 billion owed to classrooms that lawmakers cut out of the budget two years ago.
Perry disproves of settling that debt with rainy day dollars.
The House later approved the main budget bill that spends roughly $100 billion in state dollars.
