AUSTIN — Rep. Allan Ritter has spent years trying to find the money to build the water pipelines, reservoirs and conservation systems Texas’ rapidly growing population needs, and this was supposed to be the year it finally happened.
Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Speaker Joe Straus and the state’s business community all threw their support behind Ritter’s plan to take $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund and leverage it to raise $27 billion over the next 50 years. But their support wasn’t enough.