Paul Burka summarizes the opening day speeches in the Legislature:
Today’s Senate session cast in stark relief two different leadership styles: those of Governor Rick Perry and of Senator Steve Ogden, who was elected Senate president pro tempore today. Perry expressed his belief that the Legislature could produce a balanced budget with no additional revenues, noting that the public had spoken loudly on Election Day in favor of a conservative budget. “I am confident we are going to heed their message.” Then, he announced he was giving emergency designation to two items of legislation, one regarding eminent domain and one abolishing sanctuary cities in Texas. The latter earned Perry applause from the Senate gallery.
Then, Ogden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, laid out in direct and unvarnished terms the perilous condition of the state’s fiscal house. Medicaid, the program for providing health care to the poor, will cost the state billions more this biennium because the federal match will drop from 70/30 to 60/40. In real dollars, that will bring in $4.5 billion fewer dollars than the more generous previous match. He decried the complicated formulas used by the federal government for reimbursing hospitals for various procedures and said that a managed care system could save the state $4 billion. “Our first job is to figure out how to save Medicaid. We have got to reform it,” he said.
