April 14, 2003
Proposed state budget would slash
services to poor children & seniors
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AUSTIN--Hundreds of thousands of poor children, pregnant women and senior adults in Texas could lose access to health care and human services under the state budget recommended by the House Appropriations Committee.
___By a 19-2 vote April 7 with eight lawmakers abstaining, the committee approved a $117.7 billion budget for the next two years.
___The proposed budget allocates $41 billion for health and human services, about $500 million less than the amount required to maintain current services.
___House Appropriations Committee Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, proposed taking half the balance in the state's "rainy day" fund to cover one-time overruns in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program in 2003.
___But Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn told lawmakers she would not certify the state budget if they relied on the reserve fund or accounting maneuvers to balance the ledger.
___While cuts in human services approved by the committee were not as deep as in an earlier plan, the proposed budget still would remove Medicaid coverage from more than 300,000 poor children, 17,000 pregnant women and about 10,000 sick and destitute adults.
___"More than 56,000 frail elderly would lose access to the health care services by visiting nurses that make it possible for them to stay at home. Normally, that would force them into nursing homes, but they can't afford that because they're losing the Medicaid funds that would make it possible," said Phil Strickland, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
___At the same time, up to 250,000 children would lose health care coverage under the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP. Every state dollar spent through CHIP is matched by $2.33 in federal funds.
___"If the state cuts CHIP, the burden is shifted from the state to the local level, but the locals don't qualify for the federal match," said Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship and public policy with the Christian Life Commission. "This is not theoretical. These are real lives being impacted and real communities that will have to pick up the cost."
___Paynter added: "Now is the time for Texas Baptists and other people of faith to tell lawmakers: 'We can do better than this. We can balance the state budget, and still have a heart for the most vulnerable people in our state. It's not an either/or choice.'"
___The proposed budget would allocate $7.8 million for public safety and criminal justice, cutting about $600 million from the current budget.
___An early proposal by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to the Appropriations Committee cut the prison chaplain budget by one-third, compared to 12 percent budget-cut recommendations in other areas. That means eliminating 50 of the 154 chaplains in the prison system.
___"This is a tremendous loss. The national standard is a ratio of one chaplain to 500 prisoners. Before any staff reductions, the Texas ratio is one chaplain to 1,000 prisoners," Paynter noted.
___She encouraged Texas Baptists and other concerned citizens to voice opposition to such drastic cuts in the budget for prison chaplains.
___"The faith community is the only voice that chaplains have," Paynter said.
___ Up to 250,000 children would lose health care coverage under the Children's Health Insurance Program.
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