David Guenthner From Texas Public Policy Foundation Says Water Plans, School Finance Hot Topics In State Legislature This Week [AUDIO]

On the Tuesday edition of The Chad Hasty Show, David Guenthner from the Texas Public Policy Foundation talked with Chad Hasty about the latest coming out of the Texas legislative session.

One of the big decisions coming up in the legislature this week is a funding mechanism for the state water plan. Guenthner said that one of the possible solutions would be a "infrastructure bank," which would require a one-time $2 billion from the state's rainy day fund to fund water projects for the next 50 years.

"The planning process has been going pretty good, it's just the question of how you actually finance these projects. And so, the idea that has now come forth is to develop some sort of an infrastructure bank where the state seeds it with a little bit of start up money, and the local communities can obtain low interest loans...and then they can get the initial funding for these projects and as they pay it back, it creates kind of more capacity to issue more loans."

Guenthner also discussed school finance, which is still a popular topic after last week's school finance decision. He said that some Democrats aren't' willing to wait for the Texas Supreme Court's final decision and want to put money into the school right away. He added that there is a lot of confusion surrounding the whole issue, and that hopefully things will become clearer as the Supreme Court starts looking at the case. Guenthner also talked about the ongoing "battle" between Texas and California, and how a small radio ad made by Governor Rick Perry turned into a national story.

Throughout the Texas legislative session, you can listen to David Guenthner Tuesdays at 9:05 during The Chad Hasty Show on NewsTalk 790 KFYO. For more information on the Texas Public Policy Foundation, visit their website at texaspolicy.com.