Justice Prevails
The judge nails Texas again.
Who on the face of the earth has had more impact on state government than any other breathing human being? U.S. district judge William Wayne Justice, of course—he reformed the prison system, integrated the public schools, wrote redistricting plans, and required that Texas educate the children of illegal immigrants—and now he's done it again. On August 14, Justice issued a 175-page opinion sharply criticizing the state for creating bureaucratic barriers that prevent eligible poor children from getting Medicaid services. The ruling ended any expectations of an easy 2001 legislative session by adding to the budget angst that will face lawmakers in January. Justice's ruling puts additional stress on the anticipated $1.4 billion budget surplus that has already been whittled away by emergency-spending needs that are in the pipeline.
State officials have until mid-October to devise a remedy for the problems Justice found in the seven-year-old class-action lawsuit, filed by four former legal aid attorneys. Attorney General John Cornyn (bottom), who lost the recent case, vowed to appeal, citing a 1996 agreement under which the state has nearly doubled funding in many of the areas criticized by Justice. (Dental-care expenditures, for example, have risen from $87 million to $140 million; medical-transportation outlays have increased from $19 million to $39 million.)
How much would it take to fix the program to Justice's liking? Start with $60 million—the amount the Texas Department of Health asked for, but did not receive, for increased dental care for poor children in the last legislative session, during which taxes were cut by $2 billion—and go up from there. But there are some problems money can't solve. In the 1996 agreement the state had promised to provide better services to kids already covered by Medicaid. This requires contacting parents of poor children, who can be hard to find (they move frequently), about what is available. Another problem: In some areas no dentists are willing to take Medicaid patients, in part because they have to fill out a 45-page form to become a provider. Is there a fix? Efforts are underway to reduce the pages to 4.
Top legislative leaders were blindsided by Justice's ruling, learning about it in a politician's least-favorite manner—reading the newspapers. They are pointing fingers at Cornyn and Texas Department of Health commissioner Reyn Archer. (Health and Human Services commissioner Don Gilbert is also in the chain of command.) None of the lawmakers involved in budgeting knew that the case had been reactivated or that the state was vulnerable. Justice's order came in response to a motion filed in November 1998 asking him to find that the state had violated the 1996 agreement. This spring he held a hearing on the charge. What did Cornyn and Archer tell legislators? Nothing. Galveston Democrat Patricia Gray, the chair of the House Committee on Public Health, held oversight hearings as recently as July with the Department of Health, but no mention was made of the court case or its potential to wreck the budget. Mount Pleasant Republican Bill Ratliff, the chairman of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, says he never received a briefing on the lawsuit. The same goes for his House counterpart, Rob Junell, D-San Angelo. Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry read the story in the paper, then picked up the phone to grill a top aide: "You been keeping something from me?"
Why didn't Cornyn or Archer keep lawmakers in the loop? The attorney general's office did not respond to the question following a phone request, and health department spokesman Doug McBride said simply, "We've really got no inclination to get into a game of 'Did too, did not.'" Gray blames both officials. "I think it was deliberate," she said. But why keep something this important secret? "The glare of presidential politics," Gray speculated. "People are fearful of sharing information and then having someone make political hay." Republicans had a different take—suspicion about the timing of Justice's ruling, which came just as Al Gore was gearing up to attack George W. Bush's record in Texas.
Who on the face of the earth has had more impact on state government than any other breathing human being? U.S. district judge William Wayne Justice, of course—he reformed the prison system, integrated the public schools, wrote redistricting plans, and required that Texas educate the children of illegal immigrants—and now he's done it again. On August 14, Justice issued a 175-page opinion sharply criticizing the state for creating bureaucratic barriers that prevent eligible poor children from getting Medicaid services. The ruling ended any expectations of an easy 2001 legislative session by adding to the budget angst that will face lawmakers in January. Justice's ruling puts additional stress on the anticipated $1.4 billion budget surplus that has already been whittled away by emergency-spending needs that are in the pipeline.
State officials have until mid-October to devise a remedy for the problems Justice found in the seven-year-old class-action lawsuit, filed by four former legal aid attorneys. Attorney General John Cornyn (bottom), who lost the recent case, vowed to appeal, citing a 1996 agreement under which the state has nearly doubled funding in many of the areas criticized by Justice. (Dental-care expenditures, for example, have risen from $87 million to $140 million; medical-transportation outlays have increased from $19 million to $39 million.)
How much would it take to fix the program to Justice's liking? Start with $60 million—the amount the Texas Department of Health asked for, but did not receive, for increased dental care for poor children in the last legislative session, during which taxes were cut by $2 billion—and go up from there. But there are some problems money can't solve. In the 1996 agreement the state had promised to provide better services to kids already covered by Medicaid. This requires contacting parents of poor children, who can be hard to find (they move frequently), about what is available. Another problem: In some areas no dentists are willing to take Medicaid patients, in part because they have to fill out a 45-page form to become a provider. Is there a fix? Efforts are underway to reduce the pages to 4.
Top legislative leaders were blindsided by Justice's ruling, learning about it in a politician's least-favorite manner—reading the newspapers. They are pointing fingers at Cornyn and Texas Department of Health commissioner Reyn Archer. (Health and Human Services commissioner Don Gilbert is also in the chain of command.) None of the lawmakers involved in budgeting knew that the case had been reactivated or that the state was vulnerable. Justice's order came in response to a motion filed in November 1998 asking him to find that the state had violated the 1996 agreement. This spring he held a hearing on the charge. What did Cornyn and Archer tell legislators? Nothing. Galveston Democrat Patricia Gray, the chair of the House Committee on Public Health, held oversight hearings as recently as July with the Department of Health, but no mention was made of the court case or its potential to wreck the budget. Mount Pleasant Republican Bill Ratliff, the chairman of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, says he never received a briefing on the lawsuit. The same goes for his House counterpart, Rob Junell, D-San Angelo. Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry read the story in the paper, then picked up the phone to grill a top aide: "You been keeping something from me?"
Why didn't Cornyn or Archer keep lawmakers in the loop? The attorney general's office did not respond to the question following a phone request, and health department spokesman Doug McBride said simply, "We've really got no inclination to get into a game of 'Did too, did not.'" Gray blames both officials. "I think it was deliberate," she said. But why keep something this important secret? "The glare of presidential politics," Gray speculated. "People are fearful of sharing information and then having someone make political hay." Republicans had a different take—suspicion about the timing of Justice's ruling, which came just as Al Gore was gearing up to attack George W. Bush's record in Texas.
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