Elderly, Disabled Protest Proposed Cuts,
Activists Suggest More Businesses Should Pay Taxes
Houston
Chronicle
April 28, 2003
AUSTIN -- Borrowing a phrase from President Bush, advocacy groups for
senior and disabled Texans called on lawmakers Monday to practice
"compassionate conservatism" and restore funding for services
for the disabled and elderly in the next state budget, in part by forcing
more businesses to pay taxes.
The AARP, the Texas Senior Advocacy Coalition, ADAPT and other groups
said they would present 5,000 signatures to Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov.
David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick supporting the groups' call
to fund services at the current level over the next two years.
The spending plans in the House and Senate would "balance the
budget on the backs of the most vulnerable," said Gus Cardenas, state
president of AARP Texas, which has more than 2 million members.
Tightening the state's business taxes to force more companies to pay
would find much of the money needed to fund the threatened programs, the
groups said. Business groups have vigorously opposed tightening the
so-called "franchise tax" and a bill to get more companies to
pay the tax has not moved in the House.
"We in Texas have never been wild spenders," said Bruce
Bower, chairman of the Texas Senior Advocacy Coalition. "If we fail
to restore services ... we may as well take the compassionate out of
compassionate conservatism."
The groups also have targeted the $295 million the House would give to
Perry's office to help the state attract economic development. Perry
spokeswoman Kathy Walt said the governor supports closing loopholes that
allow companies to avoid paying the franchise tax. She said the governor's
office needs the economic development fund to keep the state competitive
in trying to draw new jobs to Texas.
"The state must address the long-term economic development efforts
if its hopes to keep pace," Walt said.
Both the House and Senate budgets slash services for tens of thousands
of disabled and frail elderly Texans, with the House cutting much deeper.
Lawmakers have been grappling with a $9.9 billion shortfall in writing a
2004-05 spending plan.
"We're gouging into the bone, not just tightening the belt,"
with the proposed cuts, said Bob Kafka, an organizer for the
disabled-rights group ADAPT. Kafka's group has conducted protests over the
budget outside Perry's office and the Governor's Mansion.
The House budget would cut about 56,000 disabled and elderly people off
of services, including in-home attendant care and medication. The Senate
cuts would be much less but still painful, the groups said.
Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, the chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, said he thinks the state should fund those services for the
frail and elderly but that the state must live within its means. Tax bills
must come from the House and he said he doesn't expect to see one this
session.
"We're in a historic time with a record revenue shortfall,"
he said. "To try to come up with a document that could meet the core
needs of Texas while living within our means is proving to be extremely
difficult."
Kafka said he hopes the addition of the AARP and senior citizens groups
will add political muscle to the call to keep funding at current levels.
"These people want those services," Kafka said. "And
they vote."
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