Closing the Shortfall (February 2011)

Respondents were asked, "As you may know, Texas faces a budget shortfall of between $16 billion and $27 billion over the next two-year budget period. We will now ask you a short series of questions about how lawmakers should deal with this shortfall. In attempting to deal with the budget shortfall, state lawmakers have two basic options at their disposal: cutting spending and increasing revenue. Please choose your preference for how state lawmakers should close the budget gap on a 0-10 scale, where 10 indicates that you prefer that state lawmakers close the gap entirely through revenue increases, and 0 indicates that you prefer that state lawmakers close the gap entirely through spending cuts." Gender is calculated according to the GENDER variable.