ustxtxb_obs_2005_04_15_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

EDITORIAL Oops. They Did It Again lir l almadge Heflin, Arlene Wohlgemuth, and Teel Bivins have all departed the Legislature, but their state budget is still very much with us. As you may recall, two years ago, the GOP leadershipled in part by Talmadge, Teel, and Arlene took Texas’ already austere budget and used a $10 billion shortfall as cover to hack away at state services for the poor and infirm like weed infestations. The 2003 budget dropped 171,000 from the rolls of the Children’s Health Insurance Program; swiped Medicaid services from tens of thousands of the poorest Texans; denied mental health care to 17,000 people; and reduced the amount that 12,000 nursing home residents get to keep from their Social Security checks. \(At one Waco nursing home, attendants must buy denture cream because the residents The budget reductions were also an economic drag. Economist Ray Perryman recently estimated that the 2003 cuts deprived Texas of as much as $16 billion in productivity, and slowed growth by 70,000 jobs. There was somewhat of a political price too. In last November’s election, Wohlgemuth lost her race for Congress, and voters bounced 21-year incumbent Heflin from office, at least in part because of the 2003 reductions. A week after the election, several legislators filed bills to fully restore the CHIP cutbacks. So when legislators returned in January, and with the comptroller estimating a tiny budget surplus, the conventional wisdom posited that lawmakers would restore many of the worst rollbacks. It just hasn’t worked out that way. The 2006-2007 budget that the House passed last week increases overall spending by nearly $11 billion. Don’t be fooled, though. Much of that increase simply goes to keep up with the state’s population growth. Even the several billion in new money for education barely keeps up with population increases. The closer you examine the initial budget, the worse it looks. The plan maintains many of the worst 2003 cuts. For CHIP? The initial House plan actually reduces state spending by nearly $25 million on the popular program for the working poor. A few CHIP services are refunded, but the biggest reductions remain. That means rather than rebound, CHIP enrollment will continue to plunge, according to House budget projections. For Medicaid? The very harshest 2003 reductions are still in place, including one that forces Medicaid recipients to re-enroll every six months instead of annually. \(Lawmakers know this bureaucratic maneuver kicks peo health? Forty percent of the 2003 cuts to an already strained public mental health system remain. What have House and Senate budget writers chosen to spend money on? Lawmakers allot $130 million for Gov. Rick Perry’s Enterprise Fund, which as Paul Sweeney explains in this issue, pays Fortune 500 companies to create jobs in Texas, for questionable value. Besides the Enterprise Fund, other cash streams are available to pay for undoing the 2003 cuts. For example, Texas has left unspent more than $300 million worth of federal emergency funding from 2003, according to the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities. That would easily make CHIP whole againa cost of $93 million in state spending. \(That would draw down more than $536 million in federal matching funds; it’s hard to find a betIt’s not too late to fix the budget. In the next six weeks, a conference committee will write the final spending plan. If the 2003 reductions aren’t restored this sessiondespite the political pressure to heal CHIP and other programsthis budget will entrench the 2003 cutbacks as the status quo, and institutionalize a level of spending that will permanently harm the state. DM THE TEXAS OBSERVER I VOLUME 97, NO. 8 I A Journal of Free Voices Since 1954 Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Executive Editor Jake Bernstein Editor Barbara Belejack Associate Editor Dave Mann Publisher Charlotte McCann Circulation Manager Lara George Art Direction Buds Design Kitchen Poetry Editor Naomi Shihab Nye Copy Editors Roxanne Bogucka, Laurie Baker Webmaster Adrian Ouesada Editorial Interns Kris Bronstad, Megan Giller, Star Silva, Forrest Wilder Lege Interns Elayne Mae Esterline, Monica Gutierrez, Chris Mahon, Lauren Reinlie, Jonathan York Contributing Writers Nate Blakeslee, Gabriela Bocagrande, Robert Bryce, Michael Erard, James K. Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, Steven G. Kellman, Lucius Lomax, James McWilliams, Char Miller, Debbie Nathan, Karen Olsson, John Ross, Andrew Wheat Staff Photographers Alan Pogue, Jana Birchum Contributing Artists Sam Hurt, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Gary Oliver, Doug Potter, Penny Van Horn Editorial Advisory Board David Anderson, Chandler Davidson, Dave Denison, Sissy Farenthold, John Kenneth Galbraith, Lawrence Goodwyn, Jim Hightower, Kaye Northcott, Susan Reid Texas Democracy Foundation Board Lou Dubose, Molly Ivins, D’Ann Johnson, Jim Marston, Gilberto Ocarias, Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, In Memoriam Bob Eckhardt, 1913-2001, Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 The Texas Observer \(ISSN 0040copyrighted 2005, is published biweekly except every three weeks during January and August \(24 issues dation, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, E-mail [email protected] World Wide Web DownHome page www.texasobserver.org . Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, Texas. Subscriptions One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time students $18 per year; add $13 per year for foreign subs. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Indexes The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. The Books & the Culture section is partially funded through grants from the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission and the Writer’s League of Texas, both in cooperation with the Texas Commission on the Arts. APRIL 15, 2005 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 A