Electricity is being worked on, as that press release indicates. On the hottest day or two of the year, the power might go out for a little bit. It's not a big deal.
Water is going to be the biggest issue this legislative session. California has similar water problems.
Schools... are complicated. That one might not get fixed, but performance is better correlated with household income than education spending.
Roads are easy. Tolls. The people who use the roads pay for them.
Texas is my home state as well. I went to California for a few years, then came back. I don't plan on leaving.
Considering TXU is still being "managed" quite well by its leveraged buyout partners, "no big deal" may very well become a big deal. Texans already pay some of the highest average per-kWh rates in the country though the falling price of natural gas has helped.
Unless Texas is going to take water from Oklahoma by force, I wasn't meaning a solution to the problem from the state government. Texas is in a long-term, structural drought. The Ogallala aquifer is a shadow of its former self and the next major underground aquifer in East Texas is in danger of being rendered unusable by the Keystone pipeline. Several surface lakes have simply gone...away (check out aerial maps near Bronte).
As for tolling, I suppose the city folk will just keep letting paid for highways like 121 or capacity expansions (basically anything; 820, 183, Westpark, 635) go toll because hey, poor people don't need to get around. Mass transit will take care of that. Oops, no it won't. Besides, developers in rural areas gotta have their pristine FM roads (which are paid for by the state).
I didn't leave Texas for California (heavens, no) and I had the chance to come back this year making more money than I do in the (higher cost of living) state where I now live. Couldn't do it. Until the Legislature gets its head out of its ass and realizes that government is expensive--both for needed things like roads and schools, and nice to have things like state parks--and that you just dishonestly[0] can't cut your way to perfection, my state is going to be set up more and more for long-term failure. Even the Comptroller, who is legally required to make an accurate assessment of the state's income, can't get it all to balance without slight of hand.
0 - Sure, the state government hasn't raised taxes or imposed new fees in years. They just leave that hatchet job for the local governments. Never mind the several billion dollars earning crap for interest in the "rainy day fund" that's never once seen an emergency worthy of tapping it.
My apologies for the extreme derail; I'll stop ranting now.
Born and raised in Austin, still live and work here. I suppose I should learn a bit more about my own state as I didn't know much of this or the above comments...
I did half of your roundtrip. Grew up in the Bay Area, moved to Texas. Swore I'd end up moving back but seven years later I have absolutely no intention of doing so.
Also left Texas for the Bay, but ... I just got off the phone with my parents, and they assure me Texas still has electricity, water, [public] schools, and roads.
The electricity problems are more or less self inflicted by the generators to loosen up wholesale rules. Texas has /plenty/ of energy.
Water is a problem...a BIG problem. But...we have a large coastline, salinated deep water tables etc, so if it comes down to it we could expensively desalinate. That would be brutal, though.
As far as schools -- the overall decline in public schools is counter-balanced by the rise of good charter schools. If you care about your kids' education there are options.
The road situation is kind-of a pain but here in Austin and Central Texas area at least, we have improving public transportation. And there is the toll option (of which I am not a fan).
But the tax policy is pretty nice. And Austin cannot be beat in terms of livability if you can stand the summer heat. I think we have a $20-25 billion surplus this year so we won't be going broke anytime soon.
I find it amusing that you described Austin, the one big area of Texas that leans dramatically against the rest of the state, as the most liveable and put together. Kind of proves my point relative to the Legislature at large.
For what it's worth, Texas has never had a $25bln surplus. In the 2011 biennium, the budget had to cover a $27bln shortfall. (Note that all Texas budgets are written to cover two years, as the Legislature meets for 140 days on every odd-numbered year.) This biennium's budget will start out with approximately $8bln in unspent revenue (mostly left over from dramatic cuts made in the 2011 two-year budget) and starting out with $5.3bln in "unpaid bills" around the Women's Health Insurance Program and natural disaster spending. (http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/texas-legislature/he...)
