Warning to the rest of you- here's how Texas is saving money(update)

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2011/01/20/news/doc4d387163617b7696722119.txt

• More than 9,000 full-time positions would be eliminated.

• Four community colleges would be shuttered.

• There’s just one area where budget-writers tried to avoid any cuts at all: border security.

• Medicaid providers would see 10-percent rate reductions.

• Up to two state-supported living centers would be shuttered.

• One state mental hospital would be privatized.

• Community mental health services would be reduced by 40 percent.

• Medicaid managed care would be expanded throughout Texas.

• Funding for the majority of Texas Education Agency discretionary grants would be eliminated, including funding for teacher incentive awards, Pre-K and high school completion.

• The Central Prison Unit in Sugar Land would be closed.

• The Texas Youth Commission would be directed to close three facilities.

The first run at the budget is $31.1 billion smaller than its predecessor — a 16.6 percent drop. The $156.4 billion proposal seeks to meet the state’s budget shortfall, estimated at between $15 billion and $27 billion, without increasing taxes or tapping into the $9.4 billion Rainy Day Fund.

In health care, it cuts the rates doctors and hospitals are paid for treating Medicaid patients by 10 percent and doesn’t include funding for population growth, rising costs or spiking utilization rates. The cuts represent a nearly 25 percent savings.

In public education, the cuts are so deep they fall $9.8 billion short of meeting current school finance formulas. The proposed budget does not include funding for the increased number of students or a decline in property values statewide. The cuts represent a $7 billion drop from current spending levels. Meanwhile, public safety and criminal justice spending would drop 12.7 percent, falling $1.5 billion from current levels.

Other cost-saving and efficiency measures recommended by the Legislative Budget Board, which revealed the budget on Tuesday night, include lifting the ban on Sunday liquor sales and tying the summer sales tax holiday to the state’s financial condition.



Does that tell you anything about my neighbors? They voted for this.

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. I remind my co-workers about this

I work in education, and probably three-fourths vote Republican. Just wait until all of this hits them personally, and it will.

[RKP5637]

2. That's usually what it takes for Americans to wake up - a direct smack rather than

"Oh, that doesn't affect me, it's the other guys problem."

[GaYellowDawg]

5. It's unreal, isn't it?

Anyone who is in education who votes Republican is voting against his/her profession and interests. I just don't understand it at all.

[Ishoutandscream2]

10. Dawg, it's maddening

[msongs]

3. here's a great idea, let's squander our national wealth on war profiteers and the military :-) nt

[Ilsa]

4. The biggest whiners will be Republicans, too. My husband heard it at work today.

His Teabagger boss tried to blame it on illegal aliens, but my dear liberal husband beat him down on it, reminding him that no one pays state income taxes in Texas, and everyone pays state sales taxes. They discussed property taxes, and to some degree, health care, including how difficult it is for many texans to acquire affordable health insurance.

They concluded that since the Texas Legislature is ruled by the GOP, as is the Executive Branch, the Republicans will be forced to take the blame for the misery the budget cuts will create.

[pacalo]

12. Your state sales & property taxes must be high in order to make up for no state income tax?

Is that right? What percentage is your state sales tax?

[w8liftinglady]

13. sales tax is.. I believe 8.25%

property taxes have accellerated tremendously... my partner's went up 4 times in 3 years.

[pacalo]

14. Your sales tax is actually lower than mine (9%), but Texas seems to really

stick it to property owners. That's awful, having it raised so often.

[Ilsa]

6. I believe they eliminated the Texas Engineering Extension Service's Emergency Preparedness

Department. They were tasked with training the rest of the state and local governments on how to respond to natural disasters and acts of terrorism. People will end up dead because of this budget cut.

[w8liftinglady]

8. especially because Texas will soon be a nuclear waste dump

http://lubbockonline.com/texas/2011-01-05/texas-commission-oks-nuclear-waste-dumping-36-states-site-near-andrews

A Texas commission approved rules Tuesday that will allow a company to greatly expand a remote landfill along the state border with New Mexico and to begin accepting low-level radioactive waste from 36 states.

The 5-2 vote by the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Commission came after last-minute legal maneuvering on Monday failed to delay the meeting, environmentalists warned the dump would pollute groundwater and more than 5,000 people commented on the plan. The expansion stoked the debate over where — and if — nuclear waste can be dumped in the United States, an argument that has taken on new importance since President Barack Obama vowed to decrease the country’s dependence on foreign oil, partly by building more nuclear power plants.

In the end, however, the site’s owner, Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists, convinced the commission the West Texas landfill was a secure solution to permanently dump radioactive waste. Until now, the site has only accepted waste from Texas, Vermont and the federal government.

[Ilsa]

7. They cut financial aid to college students in half, I believe, and cut

Education by 16%, I think. Texas is already at or near the bottom of all fifty states in education.

[w8liftinglady]

9. No kidding-just ask my partner

they have been stripped to the bone in DISD

[Kablooie]

11. Sounds like a dream come true! I'm moving to Tex-ass!

Or ... maybe I'll stay in California and see what the Democratic government does with things first.

I'm sure Ca. won't be pretty either, but something has to be done.

[Hannah Bell]

15. kr