The insurance plan for state employees will have a $140.4 million shortfall next year — and that’s the least of its problems. The projected shortfall for the two years after that is $880 million, and it will take another $476 million to replenish the legally required contingency fund. The Employee Retirement System and state leaders are surprisingly mellow about the red ink, saying growth in the cost of health benefits has actually stabilized at around 9 percent. But steady and large increases in costs threaten to erode the program, leaving policymakers to consider cuts in benefits, to negotiate lower prices or to find vast amounts of new money.
Benefits and Drawbacks
Posted in
State Government
Laura Bush on Midland
As part of a special report for KUT News, Texas Monthly editor Jake Silverstein talks to former first lady Laura Bush, whose memoir, “Spoken from the Heart,” hit bookstores this week.
Posted inState Government
Party Crashers
Two candidates hope to unseat Republican Party of Texas chair Cathie Adams at next month’s state convention in Dallas. The biggest issue isn’t their ideological differences — there are none. It’s the effectiveness of the party in organizing voter support, and, to a lesser degree, how willing the GOP should be to reach across the aisle and seek common ground.
Posted inState Government
The Blame Game
Lawsuits have already been filed over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, with a range of plaintiffs, from shrimpers to resort owners, seeking damages from BP and other companies. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on the legal battle ahead.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: Combs’ Open Data Center
Susan Combs’ new texastransparency.org includes an Open Data Center, where anyone can download dozens of raw data sets, much like the federal government’s data.gov.
Posted inState Government
TribBlog: Julián Castro in the Times Mag
The young mayor of San Antonio gets his global 15 minutes this weekend in a glowing 4,600-word New York Times Sunday Magazine profile.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: May 6, 2010
If Bill White’s ad buys are any indicator, we’ll have plenty of political TV to get through the summer.
Posted in
Immigration
The Party of “Whoa!”
How do the three candidates vying to be the state GOP’s next chair feel about the hot-potato issue of immigration? Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports that they believe their fellow Republicans shouldn’t rush to embrace the controversial new Arizona law.
Posted inState Government
A Conversation with Jerry Patterson and Hector Uribe
As part of the Tribune’s inaugural College Tour stop, the land commissioner of Texas and his Democratic opponent sat down side by side on the Texas Tech University campus to talk about the fate of the Christmas Mountains, coastal erosion, long-term care for veterans and the portfolio of issues that each of them wants to manage for the next four years.
