Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Hi Guys:

Here’s a great piece by SAEN. All of these cuts will most massively affect—you guessed it—El Paso.

Massive cuts were predicted by your humble Senator when he called the Craddick//Perry tax scheme a “Giant Texas Tax Shift”. Swapping property taxes that fund schools, for risky business income taxes that have never been collected, resulted in exactly what we predicted—additional property tax burdens to El Paso homeowners mostly at schools struggling so hard to keep class size down---all because state leaders flunked the test of solving school finance in Austin.

Patient A

What about this town hall in Washington D.C.? How does health care work in El Paso, Texas? Let's take the case of Patient A.

Half a century ago, El Paso boasted several not-for-profit hospitals. In 1950, Hotel Dieu broke ground for a 270-bed hospital. In 1952, Providence Memorial Hospital opened its doors with 272 beds. In 1959, voters approved a 335-bed facility to be run by the hospital district (now known as University Medical Center).

Texas lawmakers are expecting to find a hole in the state budget — anywhere from $11 billion to $17 billion, maybe even more — when they return to Austin a year from now. That’s the worst forecast since 2003, when they responded to a $10 billion shortfall with cuts in major programs and hikes in various fees. “[They] had a very tough time, and they managed it," says Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs, the state's chief financial officer. [In 2011] I am expecting the Legislature, with 181 smart men and women, to come up with something.”

Here in Texas, tax cuts are king. Over the last few sessions, reforms to school finance focused on reducing property taxes—not better funding for public schools. In the end, school property tax rates were cut by 33 percent, the revenue base shifted to more regressive consumption taxes, and all new revenue was dedicated to more tax cuts—not schools. Now, built into the upcoming budget is a structural deficit of $5.8 billion by 2010-11.

HANDS down, the State of the Union’s big moment was Barack Obama’s direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold over a government they already regard as a partially owned onshore subsidiary. How satisfying it was to watch him provoke Alito into a “You lie!” snit. Here was a fight we could believe in.