Industry warns about homes closing, double-dipping probe widens and Michael Williams plays the likability card.
(Happy birthday today to Brittany Eck, chief of staff to Rep. Van Taylor; On Saturday, to Rene Lara of the AFL-CIO; and on Sunday to Rob Orr. The staffer, not the lawmaker.)
The House and Senate are out today. Back Monday.
• From Bob Garrett at the Dallas Morning News: “Hundreds of nursing homes, including dozens in Dallas-Fort Worth, may close if lawmakers cut Medicaid as leaders propose, industry officials said Thursday. Since last week, GOP leaders have introduced budgets in both chambers that would reduce by one-third the state’s budget for its 56,000 nursing home residents on Medicaid. Two-year spending would sink to $2.8 billion, from $4.2 billion. ‘We are not crying wolf. Pieces of the sky are falling,’ said Tim Graves, head of the Texas Health Care Association, a trade group that represents 500 nursing homes, most of them for-profit operations. … Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, though, said he was ‘expecting that kind of input’ and it’s why he’s opening budget hearings next week with a look at social services. ‘The worst news is already out there,’ said Ogden, head of the Senate Finance Committee. ‘Over the next few months, we’re going to try to improve it so at the end of the day, these cuts are not fatal.’ In 2009, the elderly and disabled made up only 30 percent of the enrollment in Texas Medicaid, a state-federal health program for the poor. But they consumed nearly 60 percent of the $24.5 billion spent that year. Some advocates say Texas spends too much on institutional care of enfeebled Medicaid recipients, and should do more to keep them at home. Graves responded that Texas’ Medicaid payment levels for skilled nursing homes rank 49th in the nation.”
• So the Daily Show segment about the Texas speaker’s race, or whatever it’s about, did not air last night, as some in the Capitol community had been led to believe it would. But we’ve got other video fun on this Friday.
First, Womenonthewall.org, a conservative group that supported the defeat of Speaker Joe Straus earlier this month, has produced a video supporting the 15 House Republicans who cast a vote against Straus on the House floor on the opening day of the legislative session. A coworker spotted the video on the Twitter feed of one of the 15, Rep. Jim Landtroop, who wrote, “What a great way to say thank you. Because the House of Representatives is still the ‘People’s House.’”
Here is the video:
• Now this is interesting: Watch this TV commercial from Gov. Rick Perry from last year’s Republican primary, and pay attention to the giant Texas flag in the background and the music:
Now watch this online spot for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Williams, and, again, pay attention to the flag and the music:
The music sounds awfully similar. At this point, I’m not sure who used it first. Remember that the Perry ad ran in early 2010 and Williams began running for the Senate at the end of 2008. We’ll try to find out who used it first. Does it even matter? If one campaign uses a song in a campaign, should it be off-limits for another? I’m not sure that it should. I will note that the Williams ad was posted just this week, while the Perry ad has been on YouTube for nearly a year. Then again, the Williams footage doesn’t look like it was shot within the last couple of weeks.
The explanation is probably as simple as this: Williams and Perry both use media guru David Weeks.
• One other interesting video, this one from Evan Smith’s TribLive interview Thursday with Michael Williams. They were talking about the fact that many consider Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst the frontrunner in the race because he has a vast personal fortune that he can tap. Williams said one of the things voters will be looking for is someone they would like to spend time with, say, on a drive from Austin to Dallas. Then Smith asked the perfect followup.
Smith: “Are you suggesting Lt. Gov. Dewhurst is not likable?”
Williams: “I am suggesting that I am quite likable.”
Here’s the clip:
• The Texas Tribune’s Reeve Hamilton notes that San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro won’t be making any statewide runs just yet. Castro says he will seek re-election as mayor.
• From the Statesman’s Laylan Copelin: “State Reps. Tom Craddick and Eddie Rodriguez are a political odd couple united by their legislation that payday lenders say will put them out of business.”
• From the Statesman’s Mike Ward: “Texans 70 and older would not have to show a photo ID to vote. People without a driver’s license could get a free state photo ID card to vote. And people could use their concealed-handgun licenses to vote. Those are among the provisions of a voter ID bill the Texas Senate approved late Wednesday and sent to the House, where approval also is expected. But both supporters and opponents predicted Thursday that the proposal will be changed some more before it gains final approval.”
• From the AP’s Jay Root: “Prosecutors have expanded a criminal inquiry into Texas lawmakers’ double-dipping on expenses after one representative said he was auditing his spending practices and then repaid his campaign more than $15,000, an official told The Associated Press on Thursday. The official, who has knowledge of the investigation by the Travis County District Attorney’s office, spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid endangering the investigation. Prosecutors already have acknowledged a criminal investigation into state Rep. Joe Driver, but not Rep. Dan Flynn, the only other lawmaker identified by the AP to have possibly double-dipped.”
• And now for your daily sample of stories about disappearing jobs in Texas public education:
Houston Chronicle: “More than 170 educators in the Houston school district received notice on Thursday that their jobs may disappear in June with the end of federal stimulus funding. Hundreds of public school employees across Texas also face the prospect of layoffs as the two-year-old economic stimulus package runs dry. The 2011 expiration date is no surprise, but it comes as the state faces a multibillion-dollar funding shortfall that officials warn could cost even more jobs — up to 100,000, according to one estimate. The stimulus program, pushed by President Barack Obama, was a “mixed blessing,” said Ann Best, the chief human resources officer for the Houston Independent School District.”
San Antonio Express-News: “North East Independent School District administrators and board members discussed a last-resort option to cut expenses Thursday night — terminating about 500 ‘probationary’ teachers after this school year. Probationary teachers in general are those who are new to the profession or newly hired. If North East decides to notify them in April that they will not have a job next year, it would be done in the hopes of hiring them back after the education budget is finalized by the Texas Legislature, North East Superintendent Richard Middleton said.”
• New York Times: “The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.”
• @JohnCornyn: “Today is the 25th anniversary of Shuttle Challenger accident
