Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

U.S. Judge William Wayne Justice (Photo by Mark Matson)

AUSTIN — One of the last persons state legislators expected to hear from during their biennial tour of duty at the Capitol may have been former Attorney General Dan Morales, now completing a four-year federal prison sentence at a halfway house in San Antonio.

And absolutely the last person the Republican leadership ever wants to hear from is William Wayne Justice, the 87-year-old federal judge who has made a long career of forcing state government to be responsible — at a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Morales and Justice may not have much in common, but within a few weeks the two may have combined efforts to wreak havoc on an already difficult budgetary process.

That's what some Republican lawmakers are warning. Some Democrats insist the cries of anguish are overdramatic, but there likely will be a significant financial impact should Justice order the state to finally honor an 11-year-old agreement to improve Medicaid health services for Texas' poorest children.

He has scheduled a hearing for April 9, at the height of the Legislature's budgetary deliberations.

Morales, a Democrat, signed the consent decree to end a class action lawsuit against the state in 1996. His two Republican successors repeatedly have tried to undo it, the latest effort failing Jan. 8, the day before the Legislature convened, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Attorney General Greg Abbott's latest attempt to take Texas off the hook.

Barring another maneuver by Abbott, it would seem to be payday, finally, for the low-income plaintiffs. And no one has been more accomplished at ordering payment from reluctant state officials than Justice.

Over the years, he has ordered the desegregation of Texas schools, compelled school districts to educate the children of illegal immigrants and prescribed standards for the treatment of juvenile criminals.

His most famous order came in a class action lawsuit filed by an inmate that resulted in a multibillion-dollar expansion and reform of an overcrowded and abusive prison system.

It is small wonder, then, that legislative leaders expect Justice to lower the boom on state government again.

House Speaker Tom Craddick and others have warned that the expected order could cost the state as much as $5 billion during the upcoming budget period. A hit that big, Craddick said, would require lawmakers to "look at (budget) cuts across the board in everything."

Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, believes that estimate is way too high and designed to justify GOP efforts to limit funding for other key services, such as the Children's Health Insurance Program, a much smaller program but vital to low-income families that don't qualify for Medicaid.

Coleman acknowledged, however, that the Medicaid suit is likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

With the GOP leadership committed to spending $14.2 billion to subsidize school property tax cuts, there isn't much room for extras.

Plaintiffs attorney Susan F. Zinn of San Antonio hasn't said what she expects the price tag to be. But she is seeking, among other things, higher reimbursements for doctors and other health care providers, more outreach to families whose children are eligible for Medicaid, and more medical and dental checkups for children.

Predictably, some disgruntled Republicans have attacked Morales, not only over his judgment in signing the Medicaid agreement but also over the more serious character lapses that put him in prison on charges stemming from his otherwise successful lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

Coleman recalled that one assistant to former Attorney General John Cornyn, who also tried to overturn the Medicaid order, once said Cornyn was "defending the Legislature."

"I told him, 'We don't need defending. The children do,'" Coleman said.

Some 5 million Texans, including 1.4 million children, still don't have health insurance, the lawmaker added.