Lawmakers will have a lot less taxpayer money to appropriate in the coming session. Comptroller Susan Combs projected a revenue drop in the first time since the dot-com bust of 2003, from $86.2 billion (current biennium) to $77.1 billion. It's a 10.5% drop in the state money that can be spent for Texas' needs. Read the full estimate here.

Comptroller Combs giving her 2010-2011 biennial revenue estimate, complete with charts.

Combs says job growth has already peaked in Texas. We're going from adding an average of more than 20K jobs a month to job losses. The housing sector has similarly slowed, with existing home sales down 16% and new home starts down 30%.

As for the state's sources of revenue, sales tax revenue is down "considerably", margins tax (in the first full year of collecting under the revised structure) came up way short, and oil and gas revenues are "much lower" -- down to $3.3 billion from $4.5 billion.

Words heard during her announcement included "down", "slowing economy", "worst national recession in decades", "cooling", and "gloomier".

"I really understand that people are worrying about the future, and that is reflected in reduced spending," Combs said. "But we are still innately optimistic in this state".

What hasn't been factored in here is the federal stimulus package that the leadership on the hill and the new president have said they "must" pass before the President's Day congressional recess in February. That is expected to send money to all the states for various budgetary needs, so the comptroller says she isn't ruling out a revised estimate in the spring.

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