80th Legislature: Medicaid Tango
Vince Leibowitz | Apr 03, 2007 | Comments 0
With rumors whirling that the state could settle an ongoing Medicaid lawsuit any day this week, the Senate Finance Committee decided to play with Medicaid funds in anticipation of a settlement.
The committee voted yesterday to shift money from elsewhere in the Medicaid budget to pay for a potential settlement.
“We’re taking from the needy to pay for the needy,” said Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen,. “We’re going to end up in another lawsuit.”
Ya think? Texas seems to never learn its lessons. There’s more:
The provision says “if the decision requires additional spending when the Legislature is not in session, we’re going to stay within the four corners of the appropriations bill, and we’re not going to the rainy day fund to pay for it,” said Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, the committee chairman.
Besides leaving more than $4 billion in the rainy day fund, legislative leaders want to leave several billion more dollars largely to ensure they can meet the future cost of subsidizing property tax relief.
Ugh. To think that the bogus concept of property tax relief has a bill so big that we’re having to leave money on the table that should go to service immediate, human needs is disgusting. It shows that the priority of the Republicans is “property tax cuts over all.”
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Filed Under: 80th Legislature
