Advocates for the poor will tell you that one of their biggest complaints with the Medicaid system in Texas is the sign-up process. Texas is one of only 12 states that still require a face-to-face interview with a caseworker before someone can receive benefits. It’s one of only five states that require both the interview and the so-called assets test that uses what someone owns in addition to their income level to determine whether they’re eligible for benefits. And the forms are complicated.
Politics, Money and Poor Kids
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Health care
Political Hopefuls Leave the Starting Gate
Most Texas politicos came out of the Labor Day weekend in seasonally optimistic moods. This is their moment and it begins with every entrant a potential winner. And the watching is promising, too: As the gates spring open and the races start, the Republicans and Democrats are planning or fearing or predicting anything from skirmish to war in nearly a dozen-and-a-half legislative seats.
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Health care
Budget Problems? What Budget Problems?
Don’t get all cocky just because there is no budget deficit. The cure for high financial hopes can be found in the newest files at the Legislative Budget Board or in any number of budgeteers’ offices at the Capitol. State agencies are presenting their boring old Legislative Appropriations Requests, detailing what they believe they’ll need during the next two-year budget cycle.
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Health care
A Federal Grand Jury Rocks the Senate
Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, is under investigation by a federal grand jury that has peppered Texas government with subpoenas over the last several weeks. The panel is apparently trying to find out whether Madla or a member of his family benefited from some action he took while in office, but none of the information that has so far become public appears to support any such claim.
Posted inState Government
Shuffling Inside the Senate Crab Bucket
Nobody has dropped out of the phantom race to be the next lieutenant governor of Texas — the race that would take place if the governor is elected president and the current Lite Guv becomes Guv. Few senators will say openly how they would cast their vote in a contest for that job, so no hard count is available. And none of the active and passive contestants have tried to declare victory.
Posted inState Government
Summer Games Collide with Autumn Games
A reader points out that the Olympics start on September 15 and run through October 1, and the public will probably tune in to track stars and gymnasts and swimmers and equestrians at the expense of presidential candidates. The Olympics four years ago in Atlanta ended in the first week of August, so this is new territory. It might be nothing, but it might put a pothole in the political road.
Posted inState Government
Hot Today, Tepid Tomorrow
If Gov. George W. Bush becomes president in November, the next two weeks could well prove to be the low spot in his campaign. At our deadline, he was on top of the world, the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, the happy recipient of a four-day bouquet of a convention and the surfer of the wave that historically carries candidates out of their national conventions.
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Health care
Making Bad News Out of a Budget Surplus
Sheesh, before you get all bothered about the grand mal disaster in the state budget, take a breath. There is no grand mal disaster in the state budget. What you’ve got — as we’ve noted in detail over the last couple of months — is a situation where the state has several agencies with budget messes of varying degrees of difficulty, and plenty of money to clean it all up. What you’ve also got is a presidential campaign and lots of people who’d like to put this in the worst light.
Posted inState Government
State Long-Distance Phone Codes Stolen
The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Capitol Police have started a criminal investigation of fraudulent use of the state’s long-distance phone network by college students who apparently got hold of agency calling card numbers. So far, that investigation involves four state agencies whose phone usage recently took unexpectedly large jumps. The investigators think college students across Texas have been using calling card codes to steal tens of thousands of dollars worth of phone time from the state’s Tex-an (pronounced Techs-ANN) phone system.
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Health care
Property Taxes Too Cheap to Meter
Lawmakers knew that letting new companies sell electricity in Texas would bring some financial drama to a staid industry, but they predicted it would take two years to get that far down the road. As you might have heard by now, they were wrong, and the price tag on the mistake is hovering in the $50 million range.
