Unrest in the oil-rich Middle East could produce a windfall for the cash-strapped Texas budget.
The money for the state's Rainy Day Fund lawmakers voted to tap yesterday is coming from Texas oil and gas producers and royalty owners.
Oil prices spiked in mid-February when fighting between rebels
and Gaddafi loyalists in Libya squeezed off shipments that had
supplied nearly 2 percent of the world's oil.
Texas rig counts have risen in response, with the nation's top oil and gas producing state adding four this week.
A percentage of each Texas-produced barrel of oil - now priced
at about $104 per barrel - goes into the state's Economic
Stabilization Fund, better known as the Rainy Day Fund.
A tax on natural gas royalties also contributes to the fund.
Lawmakers voted Thursday to draw $3.1 billion from the fund to plug part of the state's biannual budget deficit.
