One Ticked-off Grandma
Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn says Governor Rick Perry is messing with her. Better him than us.
(Page 2 of 2)
Let me tell you a story. After the budget had balanced and we were into the first special session, the governor vetoed line items from the appropriations bill that put us $98 million to the good. Not only that, there were some federal dollars that suddenly became available. We had freed up a total of $700 million. So on July 11, I spoke at a health seminar. I said that I had been inundated with calls from people about severe health care cuts during the regular session, so I had had my staff add up what we could find in this administration's budget. And we could estimate more than $1 billion in cuts. These were things like a reduction in community services for 158,000 frail and elderly Texans who, as a result, may have had to go into nursing homes. You had 160,000 children who'd lost their health insurance under this administration. You had 175,000 adults on Medicaid who were not going to have eyeglasses or hearing aids over the next two years. So what I said was, "Fix it. The dollars are here. The Legislature is here. Heed the call." Seven hundred million dollars can't restore everything, but it can go a long way toward restoring the severe cuts that are impacting Texas lives and livelihoods.
What was the response?
Obviously it never got added to the agenda for the special session. It hasn't been addressed still. And we can talk about other things too, like fees. I was also inundated with calls and inquiries after the regular session had ended about new fees that would go into effect on September 1. So, again, this office put together a list of the $2.7 billion in new and higher fees just from the new laws that had been passed. Some of those fees I had recommended. For instance, I wanted a fee on drunk drivers, higher than what the Legislature adopted. They had a $100 fee. I wanted $500, and I wanted the proceeds to go not only to trauma centers but also to Texans with disabilities.
Had you been the governor or the lieutenant governor during the session, would you have approached the budget differently?
I'm not the governor. I'm not the lieutenant governor. I'm the comptroller. But I do care passionately about this state. When I was sworn in, in 1999, my number one goal for this century was developing an educated workforce. In the past decade, higher-education dollars in Texas [adjusted for state population growth and inflation] have dropped 1.6 percent while the budget has increased 39 percent. Let me give you a specific example. Two higher-education funds, the Texas Excellence Fund and the University Research Fund, were set up a couple of years ago. The Legislature appropriated a total of $68 million in the budget for these two funds for 2002-2003 and a total of $45 million for 2004-2005. The money was for research. We need more flagship universities in this state. California has ten, New York has eight, Massachusetts has five, and Texas has only two. The University of Houston and Texas Tech are ready to be flagship universities, so the higher-education funds were terribly important. Well, after the budget was balanced, the governor line-item vetoed those funds. He vetoed $45 million in higher-education funding.
That's not something you would have done.
Absolutely not. And I've said publicly that whether it's done by adding it to the special session on school finance or whether it's done under the budget execution authority of the governor, we need to restore those higher-education-excellence dollars.
Talk about redistricting. You were on the legislative redistricting board in 2001 but largely out of the issue this time. Would you have done as the governor did and called a series of special sessions to pass it?
I believe that the administration has been laboring up hills and the mountain is looming. The mountain is school-finance reform. We have got to give relief to homeowners on their property taxes. The state's got to pick up more of the share of education. Back in the time of Gilmer-Aikin [the state's first school-finance law, passed in 1949], the state was picking up 60 percent of education and local districts had the other 40 percent. Now local property taxes are picking up more than 60 percent and the state is picking up less than 40 percent. Fifteen billion dollars of local property taxes is going into elementary and secondary education each year. If you were going to replace that with sales taxes, you would have to double the sales tax. Fifteen billion a year is what I already take in in sales tax.
Am I remembering correctly that the lieutenant governor's plan required an increase in the sales tax?
Yeah. Now, I respect that somebody's trying to address school finance, but Senate Bill 2 was kind of a laundry list of sales tax increases. It was everything from a tax on higher-education tuition to a tax on haircuts to a tax on babysitters, for goodness' sake. You know, I can see me as comptroller going out to collect taxes from babysitters. I mean, they're a little bit old to put in time-out; I don't know if you'd ground them. Maybe I'd have a seizure of piggy banks.
The original question I asked you was about the hill, not the mountain. Should the Legislature have done redistricting this year?
Again, the administration has been laboring up hills and the mountain is looming.
I need to get you to tell me "I supported this," "I don't support it," or "I'm neutral." Did you support redistricting?
I have said repeatedly that we need to be addressing school finance.
I'm not going to get you to give me an answer, am I?
The mountain is looming. It's got to be addressed and it's got to be addressed now, in a bipartisan way.
Let's move to the end of the third special session, when there was a debate over a government reorganization bill that would have stripped two programs from the comptroller's office—what came to be known as the "Get Carole" bill.
"Get Carole" started long ago. It started in the governor's office and it ended in the governor's office.
Why do you think people thought of it as "Get Carole"?
Because that's what it was. And it was passed because I was telling the truth. A message was sent over here repeatedly—you know, "Be quiet. Be a good girl. Don't say anything. Don't tell the people of Texas what's going on and we won't mess with you." Well, I told them, and regrettably, this is what happened.
Did you call the governor or the lieutenant governor and tell them to lay off?
I repeatedly talked to the administration about this. And then I went directly to the state representatives, because this was a done deal in the Senate. Before the bill went to the floor of the House, I called Republicans and Democrats. And at one point, I had a large number of Republicans who were going to vote against the bill. But during the last few days of the special session, the governor's office added to the bill an amendment exempting school-board members from the financial disclosure rules in the ethics bill passed during the regular session. Then the governor's office called school-board members all over the state and told them that if they wanted to get rid of the ethics rules, they should call their state representatives and tell them to support the government reorganization bill. So a lot of representatives who knew it was wrong to take these programs away from me, who were going to vote no on the government reorganization bill, were all of a sudden told by folks back home, "Oh, you've got to vote for it." And these representatives were called into the governor's office and were lobbied on the floor by the governor's office. I had many calls from members telling me, "I know this is wrong, but this is what I have to do."
The perception around the Capitol was that this was about you and Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst—that he was driving this train.
It started and ended in the governor's office. I've been told by a number of sources that the governor went behind closed doors to meet with the House Republican Caucus and said—and I quote—"It is personal." My telling the truth is apparently what is personal to the governor. Well, I'll tell you what's personal to me. What's personal to me is that we've lost the dignity, the honor, the effectiveness, and most important, the spirit of bipartisanship championed by our former governor and now president, George W. Bush.
You sound like a candidate for governor. Frankly, you sound like a candidate for governor of a different party.
I'm the comptroller 24-7.
Right, but there's going to be an election in 2006.
Sam Houston is one of my heroes. Right before the Battle of San Jacinto, he said, "We are nerved for the contest and must conquer or perish." Well, I too am nerved for the contest. I really believe that Texas belongs to no special-interest group and no special political credo and no special individual, and I think Texas wants government that's free from back rooms and free from special-interest groups and free from good-ol'-boy, go-along-to-get-along politics. This administration can take every desk, every chair, and every table out of this office and I'm still going to tell the truth.
But you're not saying you're going to run.
I never say never.
You're not saying you're not going to run.
That's correct. I never say never.
Is there a scenario involving Senator [Kay Bailey] Hutchison's returning to run in a primary against Governor Perry that would cause you not to run? Will you say that you won't run if she does?
I never say never. I want to be where I can make the most difference in this state. Any decision I make will be based on where I can make the most difference, not on what anyone else is doing.
So Senator Hutchison's plans have no bearing on yours?
I have great respect for Senator Hutchison.
Do you have great respect for Governor Perry?
[Pauses] I like everybody. I like everybody. This is about how we can be leaner and not meaner—now we're leaner and meaner. Texas is great, but we can do better. We have the highest percentage of children without health insurance. We're forty-fifth in immunizations. I'd rather spend $500 immunizing a child for a lifetime than $6,700 hospitalizing that child one time, just as I'd rather spend $2,100 educating a young Texan for a year than $15,000 incarcerating him.
What about running against Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst? Would you like his job?
That's not even on my radar screen. I love what I'm doing. I want to be where I can make the most difference. Now let's go back to your first question. The first question was . . .
About the governor's race.
[Laughs] Today is not the time to make any announcements. But as I say, when the people of Texas ask me to serve, I never say never.
Pages: 1 2
My Library
