Facts can be so overrated sometimes. The previous reports were obviously all wrong and the politicians are correct. Let’s take a guess and see who is going to get clobbered (again) by GOP budget cuts.

That is no comfort to Texas state agencies, or those who depend on them for employment or services. The state comptroller says Pitts has $72.2 billion in state money to spend, which is about $15 billion less than he had when he drafted the last budget in 2009.

These agencies generally expect the same amount of money every two years. If they are lucky, they get a slight boost to make up for inflation and increases in the population. They don’t have the luxury of starting from a blank slate every two years the way state lawmakers do. Outsiders say the last budget was already bare bones, and these cuts will be devastating.

“Texas is short $27 billion to keep doing what we’re doing,” said F. Scott McCown, the executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an organization that advocates for the poor. “If you won’t want to educate all of our kids, if you don’t want to provide financial aid to worthy students in higher education, if you don’t want to meet the critical needs of Texas families struggling to deal with the recession, then we’re not short $27 billion.”