The story sounded so good until the news broke that the state had a $25 billion deficit. Even then few paid attention but maybe now people will start asking questions. Since Texas has been the conservatives Mecca for a while, it will be interesting to see how they work through this very serious problem. Maybe we will even see a 60 Minutes segment on this crisis and how it compares to the other states in trouble. But then they couldn't drool over Chris Christie, so I guess it won't happen.
More from Krugman:
How bad is the Texas deficit? Comparing budget crises among states is tricky, for technical reasons. Still, data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities suggest that the Texas budget gap is worse than New York’s, about as bad as California’s, but not quite up to New Jersey levels.
The point, however, is that just the other day Texas was being touted as a role model (and still is by commentators who haven’t been keeping up with the news). It was the state the recession supposedly passed by, thanks to its low taxes and business-friendly policies. Its governor boasted that its budget was in good shape thanks to his “tough conservative decisions.”
Oh, and at a time when there’s a full-court press on to demonize public-sector unions as the source of all our woes, Texas is nearly demon-free: less than 20 percent of public-sector workers there are covered by union contracts, compared with almost 75 percent in New York.
