By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn today continued her call for a short special session of the Texas Legislature so that the $1.2 billion in surplus state funds from FY 2005 can be appropriated to help the state deal with increased expenses related to aid and support for nearly a quarter million hurricane evacuees being housed in the state.
Last week, when Strayhorn certified the final figures for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, she announced the surplus and pleaded with Gov. Rick Perry to call a special session. Today, she took her case to members of the Texas Legislature, sending each of them a letter making her recommendation.
"Our local communities have done a magnificent job of stepping to the front to assist our sister states in dealing with this tragedy," said Strayhorn in her letter, "but the short-term and long-term challenges that we all now face will require additional resources.
"The need is here. The resources are here. We need to act."
Strayhorn noted that the influx of evacuees means the state will be called on to provide additional education, health and security in Texas communities where evacuees are sheltered. While the state has been granted a federal disaster declaration that allows Texas to qualify for some of the $10.5 billion in emergency funding provided by the U.S. Congress to meet the needs of evacuees, Strayhorn said the federal government is "not going to hire more police; they are not going to bring in more teachers to educate the thousands of new children enrolling in our already stretched local schools."
Saying the state's hospitals and medical community are dealing with increasing numbers of evacuees needing medical attention, thousands more are being added to the state Medicaid and Food Stamp programs. "Our communities have an ongoing obligation to provide food, medical and other assistance to those in need," said the Comptroller. "Many of the people displaced by the storm will return home. Many will not."
Strayhorn said Texas communities should not have to bear these additional expenses alone, citing numerous options for distributing disaster relief funds - the Disaster Emergency Fund; the Legislative Budget Board; the Texas Department of Public Safety; and the Governor's Division of Emergency Management. However, Strayhorn pointed out that the funds must first be distributed by the Legislature, which would have to be in session to make that appropriation.
Strayhorn repeated her estimate from last week that a three-day special session would costs Texans approximately $168,000, a far cry from the estimated $1.5 million each of the last two failed special sessions on public school reform and property tax relief cost.
She urged lawmakers to ask the governor to call an "immediate" special session. "We have the resources we need to meet any foreseeable contingency. Let's act now to help those in need. We have the need. We have the cash. We need to act now to provide relief to our Texas communities."
More news links and relief effort resources from KERA
More coverage of the health care crisis in Texas on KERA's Life in the Balance page