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AUSTIN – House members virtually wiped out Gov. Rick Perry's office budget Friday in order to help veterans and the mentally ill.

With little debate, the House on a voice vote approved erasing 96 percent of the nearly $24 million that budget writers had recommended for Perry's office operation over the next two years.

Some Democrats cast the House's move as a rebuke of the governor's recent comments about Texas seceding from the Union.

"That's the headline: 'Two days after governor says we ought to secede, House zeroes out the governor's budget,' " said Appropriations Committee vice chairman Richard Raymond, D-Laredo.

However, most Republicans said they went along simply to speed debate of the state budget – a debate that could last into Saturday.

"At the end of the day, the governor will be fully funded," said House GOP caucus chairman Larry Taylor of Friendswood.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said, "I think they're just playing silly games."

The raid on the governor's money came as the House debated a two-year, $178.4 billion budget that includes $11 billion of federal stimulus money but protects a state "rainy-day fund" expected to swell in two years to $9.1 billion.

On teacher merit pay, the House voted overwhelmingly to break a requirement that teachers be judged by their students' performance on standardized tests.

Instead, all decisions on incentive pay would be made by local school districts. Through their state formula funding, districts would get all $343 million that budget writers had recommended for merit pay. Texas has the nation's largest experiment with teacher merit pay, though teacher groups oppose it.

"It's probably how we should've done it in the first place," said Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, author of the plan. It passed, 146-0.

Cuts to Perry's budget were proposed by House Democratic caucus chairwoman Jessica Farrar of Houston, who siphoned $4 million away for veterans' programs, and Rep. John Davis, R-Houston. He took $18.7 million more, for community mental health "crisis services" that try to keep the mentally ill out of jail and emergency rooms.

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, noted that Farrar had seven floor amendments that would sweep funds from Perry's office or the state-federal office in Washington that he controls.

When asked why Republicans didn't object to zeroing out the GOP governor's budget, King said, "We were just trying to avert any unnecessary gamesmanship."

Taylor said Democrats were "trying to make the other side make bad votes that they can use in the campaign or PR."

Farrar denied trying to put GOP members on record rejecting money for deserving Texans such as veterans and the needy.

"I was looking to do something for people in hard economic times," she said.

Davis said he wasn't mad at Perry but simply wanted to continue a two-year state push that House budget writers underfunded.

Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, the House's chief budget writer, played down the reductions of Perry's office budget. Pitts said the move "doesn't have anything to do with the mood on the governor." He described it as driven by members' desire to avoid spending "about two hours" talking about Perry's office.

Meanwhile, the Senate squabbled along partisan lines about whether budget writers violated the federal economic recovery law's intent.

All 12 Democrats except Sen. Royce West of Dallas, a key budget writer, wrote Education Secretary Arne Duncan complaining that a couple of billion dollars of stimulus money aimed at education is being held back by Texas budget writers "for use as future property tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy."

In a response sent to congressional Democrats from Texas, Perry and the Legislature's top Republicans, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Joe Straus, denied any misuse of stimulus funds. The rainy day fund that is being protected, to pay for state needs next session, gets money automatically, they wrote.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said, "I think they're just playing silly games."