 As the chair of the Senate Committee on Finance in 2001, Ellis authored the $113.8 billion budget bill.The population of Texas had grown 25 percent in the prior ten years and the pressure of that continued growth was reflected in a budget that raised funding $11.8 billion, or 11.6 percent over the previous biennium.As chair of the Finance Committee, "Ellis managed in spite of the tight budget to fund four priority items