Back to News Archives
By Lisa Sandberg
San Antonio Express-News Austin Bureau
May 17, 2005
Budget short for kid care reform
AUSTIN — State budget writers agreed Monday to fund emergency reforms at the protection agencies that serve the most vulnerable Texans — at levels that fell millions of dollars short of the requests sought last year by Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders.
While the governor had called for $250 million in additional funding for Child Protective Services, budget writers on a House-Senate conference committee approved $175 million in new state funding for the beleaguered agency, prompting some displeasure from Perry and others.
"Given the size of the budget, the governor would hope they would find at least $200 million," Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was optimistic additional funds still would be found for a supplemental bill, said his spokeswoman, Kate Linkous, adding that "people should not despair yet."
"We're not in the home stretch," she said.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Laredo Democrat who sits on the conference committee, also expressed hope more money would be allocated to the agency.
"I would not call (the funding approved Monday) inadequate, but we're still looking for additional dollars," she said.
The compromise hammered out Monday now must go back to both the House and Senate for an up or down vote. If approved by both chambers, it would land on the governor's desk.
The plan addresses many of the biggest problems the child protection service agency faced, including the unmanageable caseloads of its workers. It calls for an additional 2,488 child protection services investigators and support staff to be hired over two years.
Hiring that many new employees would drop current caseloads about 40 percent, to an average of 33 cases per worker by 2007.
Addressing the agency's high turnover rate, the plan also would provide $25 million in employee benefits to be added to the $175 million in state funds to hire the new workers.
The panel allocated $21 million in additional money for Adult Protective Services to hire new workers, but members did not agree to fund an adult guardianship program that would address some of the problems that have plagued the agency.
Over the past year, that agency has been dogged by news reports of agency caseworkers failing to protect scores of elderly residents living in filthy and unsafe conditions.
Instead, the committee placed the $9 million it would cost to establish a guardianship program on its "wish list."
Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, faulted members for not doing more.
"Helping abused and neglected Texans should not be on a 'wish list.' No one wants to see the headlines that we saw last year of 80-year-old Texans living in trash," he said. "We have a historic opportunity to reform (the adult care agency) while the eyes of Texas are watching."
Monday's vote also would restore many of the services the Legislature cut in 2003 when Texas faced a $10 billion budget shortfall, including a restoration in mental health, podiatry and vision services to Medicaid recipients.
Those enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program, which serves the working poor, would see a restoration in vision, dental and mental health services.