Texas is facing a serious budget crisis at the moment, and unfortunately, Texas is not alone. Nationwide, most states are struggling with the budget shortfall. And at the same time, this ridiculous heat is all over the states. Of course, Texas has been always hot during summer sessions but not this bad.
This insane weather reminds me of the time back in Germany. I am not so sure when it was but probably around the freshman year in high school. During that summer, there was only blazing sun up and absolutely no rain for a while. This ended up with around 40,000 people dying due to the heat wave. This is not a different story in Texas at the moment. The only relief is that Texas does have a decent A/C system overall. The problem comes where there are some people who cannot use the A/C system as the others. Texas is holding on to 130 million dollars to help elderly and low-income families for their electricity bills. The government used only $28 million so far, and the lawmakers locked away the money in order to do something with the current budget shortfall.
I do understand that the government needs to cut down their spending and figure out a way to deal with the budget crisis, but I am afraid that holding on to that money would result a similar consequence to 2003 European heat wave. Saving $100 million to risk people’s lives does not seem to be an ideal choice.
It’s very unfortunate that Texas is facing one of the worst budget crisis and droughts at the same time. This crazy weather is drying up our lakes, rivers, and water reservoirs all over the state. At the same time, the Texas government doesn’t currently have the financial resources to face the blazing drought due to the budget deficit the state is currently in. The author of OneStar has an interesting idea stating that Texas government needs to produce an adequate ‘A/C system’ for all Texans. However, an adequate ‘A/C system’ is not the answer to reducing the number of heat waves incidents in Texas. Heat waves isn’t even this biggest problems caused by the heat. The recent stroke of heat has caused a large decrease in the water supply of Texas. As a fellow Texan, I’ve taken this precious resource for granted and forgot how limited it can be. If this drought continues and become cyclical, then Texas should be focusing legislation on conserving water. Unfortunately, Texas cannot achieve this right now because the government is cutting spending from almost every program across the state. All we can do is hope that the budget crisis is only temporary and we can focus some attention to water conservation. Having a ‘decent A/C’ system is not the right course for legislation. Conserving our waters is the right course of action because it will keep people cool and most importantly, dehydrated.
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