09.08.08
Enough!
Three items today that put the Texas GOP’s inability to govern in the spotlight.
Financial mismanagement of epic proportions, Texas Department of Transportation deficient in competency, transparency.
A state auditor’s report takes the Texas Department of Transportation to task for a huge $1.07 billion bookkeeping blunder that the agency kept largely under wraps for about four months before finally making it public.
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TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said the agency delayed the disclosure because “we really wanted to make sure we got our explanation right.” Or perhaps the agency really wanted to avoid a major embarrassment.
One of the Texas GOP’s first and worst privatization schemes is still taking its toll on taxpayers, State audit of health and human service agencies shows continuing management problems.
The drive to hire private contractors to take over duties performed by state employees in agencies under the oversight of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission — mandated by the Legislature five years ago — has been a slow-motion disaster. The commission was forced to terminate a major contract with Accenture last year after the attempt to privatize eligibility screening for social service programs caused chaos and erroneously denied services to thousands of qualified Texans.
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The chairman of the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, called the audit results unacceptable and demanded an immediate response from agency officials. According to Nelson, “It is unimaginable that a terminated employee would continue to receive a paycheck or that someone could be placed on ’emergency leave’ for a year while investigations of criminal background checks are taking place.”
Tax schemes that never work as designed, Legislature can’t avoid school funding.
What’s about to happen in Austin next year will look awfully familiar to many Texans. Legislators again must figure out how to adequately fund the state’s public schools.
Yes, that tired, old saw of school finance rears its head. Texas’ struggle to fund its schools is like the cousin who keeps showing up for the family reunions with the same old tales told every two years or so. Except legislators can’t avoid this by saying, “Oops, gotta run, pal.”
Here’s why.
The new business tax created in the 2006 special session is coming up short. Early estimates suggest its revenues could be $1.5 billion behind projections when the 2009 Legislature begins work.
It’s way past time for a change. Horrible fiscal management, privatizations schemes, and tax schemes, highlight the immorality of the Texas GOP’s governing philosophy in our state. Returning them to power will only lead them to believe Texans approve. We won’t get more of the same, we will get even worse. Accountability comes in November.