The Texas Legislative Budget Board is hemorrhaging staff and has been without an executive director for a year.
Edgar Walters
Edgar Walters worked at the Tribune from 2013 to 2020, most recently covering health and human services. Before that, he had a political reporting fellowship with the Berliner Zeitung, a daily newspaper in Berlin. He is a graduate of the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked as an editor for The Daily Texan. When not in the newsroom or at the Capitol, he could be found on the volleyball court, standing 6 feet, 7 inches tall.
Posted in
Health care
Anti-abortion activists take their fight to small-town East Texas
Five towns have passed ordinances aiming to outlaw abortion. Critics say a legal challenge is likely.
Posted in
Health care
Texas almost mandated an HPV vaccine before politics got in the way. Now, the state has one of the country’s highest rates of cervical cancer.
The state’s approach stands in stark contrast to that of Australia, where leaders have successfully pushed a nationwide program that has made a sizable dent in cervical cancer rates.
Posted in
Health care
Texas doubled funding for an anti-abortion program. Now lawmakers want to award the money without competitive bidding.
The Texas Pregnancy Care Network, the largest recipient of funding under the state’s controversial Alternatives to Abortion program, is poised to receive millions more under the proposal.
Posted in
Families Divided
More than 4,900 migrant kids are living in Texas shelters, but that number is dropping
As of July 18, Texas’ 35 state-licensed shelters had permission to accommodate up to 6,286 children, according to the state health commission. With 4,937 kids living in them, that means they’re at 78% capacity.
Posted in
Health care
Texas is going to court to end Obamacare. It hasn’t produced a plan to replace it.
During a legislative session focused on schools and taxes, Texas lawmakers did little to prepare for the possibility that Obamacare will be struck down in its entirety — even as the state leads the charge to have the law declared unconstitutional.
Posted in
Guides
Are the billions Texas lawmakers committed for schools and lower property taxes sustainable?
An attempt to raise the sales tax to pay for state leaders’ ambitious goals failed, raising questions about long-term effects of the property tax limitations in the school finance bill.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
From property taxes to teacher pay, here’s how the Texas Legislature handled spending priorities
Take a look at how Texas lawmakers reconciled major differences in their proposed two-year budgets, including funding for public schools, teacher salaries, women’s health, prison guard salaries and more.
Posted inState Government
Texas child welfare chief Hank Whitman announces retirement
He championed staff pay raises in the three years he spent at the helm of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2019
Texas House, Senate approve budget deal with agreements on school finance, property taxes, Hurricane Harvey recovery
Completing negotiations that have taken place over the last few months, Texas House and Senate lawmakers accepted a compromise on a state spending plan for 2020-21.
