Silly You. The Texas Legislature gets some stuff passed, with a bone thrown in that the fees for whatever are going to be given for a good purpose... and then they don't send any of the money there.

Here are some examples.

But large amounts of fees will remain unspent in other areas: $199 million in the trauma care fund, financed by driver fines; $561 million in the System Benefit Fund; $522 million in the emissions reduction program, financed by commercial vehicle and other fees; and $111 million in the clean air fund, which gets money from the motor vehicle inspection fee and air pollution fees.

Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers didn't divert the dedicated funds to other programs. In some cases, the fees raise more money than is appropriate to spend, he said.

No. The monies are all sitting in the general fund, getting spent on OTHER things, so that having the money is just a bookkeeping trick. Chisum must really like shifting all that money around, and making excuses for it.

While lawmakers can spend an amount equal to the unspent balances, Chisum said, "The fund still has the money. We put the money back. It's just a bookkeeping deal."

How about the money gets spent NOW like it's supposed to????? Instead of bieng a *bookkeeping deal*?

John Hawkins of the Texas Hospital Association said hospitals could use money collected for trauma care immediately.

Parks supporters and clean-air advocates also have said their programs would benefit from dedicated funds that weren't allocated by the Legislature.