Cleburne City Manager Rick Holden couldn’t ignore it any longer. Accrued sick pay consumes too much of the city’s general fund of $30.5 million for 2011-2012. The current amount of $9 million could climb to $12.3 million in five years, he said.
Texas has a growing problem with Medicaid costs in the state budget. The state and federal health care program for the poor consumes 20 percent to 30 percent of the budget in state general revenue and all funds. This percentage will increase in the future. Texas lawmakers left a $4.8 billion shortfall in Medicaid they must address in 2013. Another state health care program has also had its share of red ink in recent years. Correctional managed care, which is the health care program for 156,000 state prison inmates, costs about $1 billion this biennium.
The state of Texas couldn’t meet its long-term water needs before this historic drought and that has intensified with this one. Consider the town of Groesbeck, east of Waco, risks running out of water. Consider city leaders in Robert Lee, north of San Angelo, who learned Thursday they will get funding from the Texas Water Development Board for a 12-mile water pipeline from Bronte so the city doesn’t run out of water.
It’s one thing to watch the unfunded liabilities grow for the two largest state pension funds. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has an unfunded obligation of $24.1 billion. For the Employees Retirement System of Texas this number is more than $5 billion, and climbs to $5.2 billion with the pensions for law enforcement personnel and a pension for judges.
The Texas Water Development Board approved a funding package Thursday morning that will help the City of Robert Lee fix its depleting water supply. The city of 1,049 people north of San Angelo will run out of water early next year.
Word of the new Medicaid waiver at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission received a positive response from Seton Healthcare Family in Austin. “We really want to change the way we deliver healthcare,” said Greg Hartman, president and chief executive officer for communications, marketing and government relations at Seton’s Central Group
Tom Suehs should be breathing a little easier. After all, the Texas Legislature left a $4.8 billion hole in the funding for Medicaid in the 2012-13 biennium. Medicaid, the federal and state healthcare program for the poor, also has been the fastest growing area of the budget
Tom Suehs should be breathing a little easier. After all, the Texas Legislature left a $4.8 billion hole in the funding for Medicaid in the 2012-13 biennium. Medicaid, the federal and state healthcare program for the poor, also has been the fastest growing area of the budget.
McAllen Independent School District spent $20 million earlier this fall to purchase iPads for every student and teacher. That district is just the latest ISD using more technology. Irving ISD has provided laptops to all high school students for about a decade, the Dallas Morning News reports. Katy ISD installed WiFI on all campuses.
There’s much room for improvement, but it’s doing a lot better than most public pensions in the nation. TRS Board Chairman R. David Kelley equated the third quarter numbers to receiving all Ds on a school report card.
Holiday shopping vaulted out of the gate in Texas as the Texas Retailers Association reports that spending over Black Friday “exceeded our expectations significantly.” “We were concerned that with the mixed signals in the economy that consumers would be reluctant to come out and shop,” said Ronnie Volkening, Texas Retailers Association president and chief executive officer.
The good news is the Employees Retirement System of Texas beat its 5- and 10-year investment benchmarks after huge losses in 2008 and 2009. The bad news is ERS trustees learned late last week the system’s unfunded liability jumped by $270 million in fiscal year 2011, pushing total pension liabilities above the $5 billion mark.
