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Norma Archer <normapacm@...>

Subject: House budget cutters rethink slashing of services Date: Fri, 21

Mar 2003 10:57:07 -0600

House budget cutters rethink slashing of services

Some fiscal conservatives raise concerns about how cuts would affect

neediest

Austin American Statesman

Friday, March 21, 2003

Many of the Legislature's reform-minded freshmen and limited-government

conservatives who have vowed to slash spending are now saying proposed

cuts to health and human services go too far and would hurt too many of

the state's neediest residents.

The concerns are being raised by some of the most influential members

who have a large say in whether the cuts would be made.

And House leaders are now searching for $3 billion in nontax revenue to

minimize cuts to Medicaid, nursing home and community care for elderly

Texans, and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Until now, services for tens of thousands of frail, elderly Texans and

500,000 children in poor families have been on the House's chopping

block.

" They're getting lots of calls from their districts, " House Speaker Tom

Craddick said of the House members who have raised concerns about the

depth of the proposed cuts.

Already, Senate leaders are working toward a budget that incorporates

more money than the House had been planning for its spending plan.

With both chambers now looking for more money, the likelihood of such

deep social service cuts is dampened, but some cuts remain likely.

Among the unexpected lawmakers who said Thursday the proposed cuts would

be too severe was Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, an influential

member of the Texas Conservative Coalition who has tried to scale back

the state's social service network. Also raising concerns is Rep. Jack

Stick, R-Austin, who was elected to his first term in November on a

promise to cut spending.

" When I campaigned and we thought it was a $5 billion budget shortfall,

I told my constituents we can do this without raising taxes, and we

could, " Stick said Thursday. " But when it's $10 billion and going north

from there, we're cutting into some fundamental programs that the state

offers that I think most people are concerned about cutting. "

Stick said many of the 12.5 percent budget cuts laid out by state

agencies and House budget writers over the past month would simply shift

the cost of services to local governments or force the state to pay more

down the line when sick Texans become very sick Texans.

State leaders directed all state agencies to propose budget cuts to deal

with a $9.9 billion gap between projected state income and the money

needed to maintain current services.

Among the cuts being considered are reducing Medicaid payments to

doctors and hospitals by 33 percent, scrapping home care for frail,

elderly Texans and eliminating the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Wohlgemuth, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health

and Human Services, said she's comfortable cutting state spending in

those areas by about $2.5 billion. But going beyond that would devastate

Medicaid recipients and the frail elderly.

" None of us are going to throw people out of nursing homes or any of

those sorts of Draconian measures, so those have got to be restored, "

she said.

Wohlgemuth said she's also searching for money to maintain the

Children's Health Insurance Program for families who earn less than 150

percent of the federal poverty level. It currently covers children whose

parents earn up to 200 percent, or $36,200 for a family of four.

Part of the $3 billion for which she's searching could come from

streamlining government, including her plan to consolidate 11 health and

human services agencies into three.

And the rest may come from new sources of revenue.

Senate leaders are already looking at such sources, including tapping

into the state's $1 billion rainy day fund and selling rights to future

settlement money from the state's lawsuit against tobacco companies.

Anticipating that new revenue, the Senate is reportedly trying to write

a budget that uses $60 billion of all-purpose, general revenue dollars.

That's $6 billion less than general revenue in the current state budget

but $6 billion more than what the House was expecting to write before

it, too, started looking for new sources of money this week.

Some House members privately said Thursday that voting for deeper social

service cuts than their colleagues in the Senate would be politically

dangerous.

" We have to look at all that. It's a factor, " House Appropriations

Committee Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, said of the Senate's

plans.

Despite their willingness to re-examine some budget cut proposals, House

Republicans continued to draw fire on Thursday from Democrats who say

that any cut would devastate a social service system that already lags

behind most other states'.

In particular, they pointed to a series of GOP bills that would allow

the Legislature to permanently dismantle many state programs to balance

the budget this year.

Republicans stuck to their belief that the health and human services

budget - which represents one-third of state spending - still needs to

be scrubbed, just not as much as originally proposed.

" What you've got to do is figure out how we can make it cost less

without hurting people too much, and that's hard, " Stick said. " It's a

lot tougher than I thought it would be.

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