AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Legislature's main budget writer has proposed reversing two of the gimmicks used to balance the budget in 2011.

House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts said Monday he wants to reverse a delay in payments to schools and stop a speedup in collecting business taxes.

In 2011, Texas lawmakers faced a shortfall of $27 billion to pay for government services. As part of balancing the budget, they delayed a payment to public schools by two weeks, pushing a $1.75 billion check into the next fiscal year. Some businesses also agreed to pay $864 million early.

Texas collected more taxes than expected, and now Pitts wants to reverse those accounting tricks and add $2.6 billion to the current budget. Last week the House approved adding $4 billion to the budget.

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