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From child protection to school finance, CPPP policy staff know the issues affecting low- and moderate-income Texans.
If you are a member of the media, e-mail CPPP Communications Director Brian Stephens at stephens@cppp.org or call 512-320-0222 x 112. After hours, please call Brian's cell phone at 512-565-0506.
Please see our Staff Page for additional e-mail addresses.
Press Releases, Statements, & Op-Eds: 2006
CPPP Statement on HHSC's New Strategy for Enrollment in Public Benefits (Press Release)
Release Date: 12/21/2006
Austin, TX—Today, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission announced a new strategy for enrolling needy Texans in public benefits, including Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP), Food Stamps, and temporary cash assistance (TANF). Over four million low-income Texans rely on these services to meet their basic needs. F. Scott McCown, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said: “We applaud this new strategy. HHSC is moving in the right direction. Commissioner Hawkins and his team worked hard to learn from the pilot and make needed changes. We are particularly encouraged that HHSC will increase the number of permanent state staff and resume the integrated-eligibility pilot only when the necessary technology is in place. Still, the workload is growing, and the legislature needs to add more state staff.”
More Texas Children Eating Breakfast at School, but State Could Do More to Increase Participation and Federal Funds (Press Release)
Release Date: 12/7/2006
According to a report released today by the national Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), 33,140 more Texas students have participated in the federally-funded school breakfast program since 2004. Yet despite these gains, millions of Texas school children still don’t take advantage of the program.
Advocates Want to Know: Why Were 3,800 Texas Medicaid Applicants Denied Benefits in First 3 Months of New Federal Policy? (Press Release)
Release Date: 12/1/2006
Since July 2006, the federal government requires that states make U.S. citizens prove their status in order to receive Medicaid. Three months later, Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) data reveal that nearly 3,800 applicants—two-thirds of them children—have been denied Texas Medicaid strictly for lack of citizenship documentation.
New Report: Teens Doing Better in Texas; Compared to Nation, Texas Teens Engaging in More Risky Behaviors (Press Release)
Release Date: 11/17/2006
While conditions for teens have improved in Texas, teens statewide are significantly more likely to have sex, drink alcohol, drive drunk, or ride with a drunk driver than teens in other states, according to data compiled in The State of Texas Children 2006. The report, released today by the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), examines the status of children across all of Texas’ 254 counties. To learn how kids in your county are doing, visit http://www.cppp.org/factbook06/.
New Report on Texas' Troubled Outsourcing Experiment Tells Cautionary Tale for Sister States (Press Release)
Release Date: 11/13/2006
A report released today on Texas’ experiment with outsourcing enrollment in key health and human services tells a cautionary tale about the state’s attempt to modernize the system that determines eligibility for health care, food, and cash assistance benefits. Over four million low-income Texans rely on these services to meet their basic needs.
Texas Doing Right by its Kids on School Lunch: Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 10/12/2006
This week marks National School Lunch Week, a time to commemorate a program that makes it possible for every child in America to have a school lunch. It is also a time to celebrate the fact that Texas leads the nation in providing these healthy meals.
Welfare Reform Statements Miss the Mark: Austin Business Journal (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 09/22/2006
Diane Rath, chair of the Texas Workforce Commission, is misguided in her statement that welfare reform has been “one of the most successful social reforms of the last 50 years” (Austin Business Journal, Sept. 8-14). We agree that it is preferable for families to work—especially since families on welfare receive an average of less than $150 a month in cash assistance. However, in Texas, work alone is rarely enough to pull a former welfare family out of poverty.
Poverty Continues to Plague Texas (Press Release)
Release Date: 08/29/2006
Today the U.S. Census released its latest numbers which find that for another year, Texas ranks towards the bottom in overall poverty, child poverty, elderly poverty, uninsured Texans, and the percent of people who receive cash assistance.
Now Texas Must Begin to Beat off its Poverty: Galveston County Daily News (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 08/28/2006
Nearly one year ago, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, wreaking havoc while exposing the vast poverty that pervades our nation. It lent a human face to a story of widespread economic hardship that is usually told by numbers and data, not images of human suffering. Hundreds of thousands of our Louisiana neighbors fled to Texas for dry land and a chance at a better life. According to a recent statewide survey, about 250,000 of these evacuees still live in Texas.
This Weekend’s Sales-Tax Holiday – Fool’s Gold?, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 08/4/2006
Beginning Friday and continuing throughout the weekend, you won’t be charged sales tax when you buy clothes or shoes that cost less than $100. Dazzled by the opportunity to avoid paying taxes, long lines of people will converge on malls across Texas. But will you really save any money this weekend?
Want Welfare? Don't Count on Texas' New, Inadequately Staffed System for Help: Dallas Morning News (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 08/4/2006
Most of us have never had to think about how families in need sign up for public help such as health care and food stamps. Right now, however, an important debate is brewing in the Capitol over the question—how should we sign people up for help?
Let's Share America's Blessings: Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 07/4/2006
The Fourth of July is a time to celebrate the freedom and liberties we enjoy as Americans. But these blessings do not flow to all of us equally, especially in Texas.
National Report: Poverty on the Rise in Texas (Press Release)
Release Date: 06/27/2006
The percentage of kids living in poverty in Texas has increased by 5 percent since 2000. With this increase in poverty comes an increase in infant mortality, low-birthweight babies, and the percentage of babies who are not immunized, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Book, a national report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This national report is a precursor to the fall release of the Texas KIDS COUNT report that will provide data on child well-being for every county in the state.
Outsourcing Hurts the Poor: Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 06/26/2006
The state's attempt to change the way Texans in need get health care, food, and temporary cash assistance has been a disaster.
CPPP Statement on 10% Budget Cut Instructions (Statement)
Release Date: 06/7/2006
Some may be shocked that in less than a month’s time, Texas has gone from having an $8 billion “surplus” to considering 10 percent almost-across-the-board cuts—about $3 billion in General Revenue. The reason is the huge gap between the spending side of what the Legislature approved in the special session ($23 billion more in state funds for K-12 from 2007 to 2009, most of it to pay for local property tax cuts) and what it raised in new revenue ($8.8 billion from 2007 to 2009). Filling the $14 billion hole dug in the special session entirely wipes out the so-called surplus and still requires finding another $6 billion.
Today is Hunger Awareness Day (Statement)
Release Date: 06/6/2006
Today is National Hunger Awareness Day, the grassroots movement to raise awareness about the hunger crisis in America. In Texas, it is a solemn reminder that we suffer the highest rate of “food insecurity” in the nation, with 16.4% of households at risk for hunger and 4.9% of households experiencing hunger – well above the national average of 11.4% (food insecure) and 3.6% (hungry).
Statement on HHSC’s Decision to Put Social Service Call Centers on Hold (Statement)
Release Date: 04/7/2006
The Center for Public Policy Priorities supports the difficult decision the Texas Health and Human Services Commission made Wednesday to delay for at least 30 days the next phase of a new system that uses privately run call centers to help people apply for food stamps, Medicaid, and TANF. Since the January launch of pilots in Travis and Hays counties, the new system has been marked by technical difficulties, staffing shortages, and inadequate training of private call center staff. These problems have delayed services to clients, caused thousands of children to lose their health insurance, and frustrated both clients and staff.
McCown: Plan Won't Meet Texas' Needs: Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 04/1/2006
Memento is a great film noir about a man who has lost his short-term memory from a blow to the head while struggling to protect his wife. As he investigates her murder, he must rely on Polaroid photos to remember who his friends are and who his enemies are. Something similar has happened to Texans during our struggles to protect public education and other essential state services. Texans have taken so many blows to the head, it is hard to keep things straight.
CPPP Statement on the Report of the Texas Tax Reform Commission (Statement)
Release Date: 03/29/2006
Today, the Texas Tax Reform Commission released its Final Report. We appreciate the commission members who undertook this public service and the leadership of the chair, Mr. John Sharp. Please read on for our statement concerning this report.
CHIP is Not Alone: Children's Medicaid Numbers Also Dropped Statewide (Press Release)
Release Date: 03/7/2006
A CPPP analysis of new official Medicaid enrollment figures shows that problems with Texas' new partially-privatized benefit eligibility system are not limited to CHIP. Statewide, the number of children insured by Medicaid dropped for an unprecedented three consecutive months from November to February. The magnitude of the drop is also unprecedented, with nearly 79,000 fewer children enrolled in February 2006 than in November 2005. The state’s new benefit eligibility contractor assumed responsibility for processing new children’s Medicaid applications, along with CHIP, in November 2005.
Texas Left Nearly $1.2 Billion in Tax Credits on the Table Last Year: Now’s the Time for Low-Income Families to Claim EITC (Press Release)
Release Date: 02/7/2006
In Texas, approximately $1.2 billon dollars of tax credits went unclaimed last year in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). EITC is one of the nation’s most successful anti-poverty programs, helping low-income workers and families earning up to $38,000 receive a rebate of federal income taxes. In 2003, EITC lifted 440,000 Texans, including 240,000 children, out of poverty while pumping billions of dollars into the economy.
For Texas, the President's 2007 Federal Budget Proposal Would Cut Even Deeper, Compounding $40 Billion in Budget Cuts Approved Last Week (Press Release)
Release Date: 02/6/2006
Federal funding for major programs such as Medicaid, highways, housing, education, and nutrition will be cut if President Bush’s 2007 budget proposal goes into effect, according to a preliminary analysis by the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.
Study: Texas Leads U.S. in Income Inequality Between Wealthiest and Middle-Income Families (Press Release)
Release Date: 01/26/2006
For years, there have been reports about the widening gaps between the rich and the poor, but few include a detailed look at income inequality trends in Texas. The study, Pulling Apart, put out by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, finds that Texas leads the nation in the income inequality between its richest and middle-income families, and has the second widest gap between its wealthiest and poorest.
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