October 2, 2015 5:36 PM

SB: Gov. Abbott AWOL on Medicaid fix despite both a moral obligation and legal authority

Abbott’s office insists he is helpless to alter the budget even after he rewrote portions of it in his disputed line-item vetoes

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick this week joined Texas House Speaker Joe Straus in defending the position of his chamber’s chief appropriator on severe cuts in Medicaid services for thousands of disabled children across the state. Speaker Straus nearly a month ago voiced his concerns that the Health and Human Services Commission was not fully honoring legislative intent as it moved aggressively to implement $100 million in cuts to Medicaid.

It took Gov. Patrick weeks to make his case and, unlike Straus, the Senate’s presiding officer delivered a stern message to HHSC Commissioner Chris Traylor. Despite his tone, many were relieved because Patrick’s statement seemed to table the cuts for now, though we still have our antennae up about it at Buzz Central.

Speaker Straus and Patrick have both led in this instance – even if Patrick’s leadership came after the courts halted the cuts for many of the same reasons Straus cited weeks before.

But Gov. Greg Abbott is publicly missing in action. Only after he appealed a straightforward Public Information Act request for emails between his office and HHSC – and after a public dustup with Quorum Report –Abbott’s communications team finally issue a terse statement: “HHSC is simply complying with the budget directive enacted by the legislature,” said John Wittman, Abbott’s Deputy Press Secretary.

If the new governor’s brief history in the Central Office were in line with that statement, it would be easy to agree that the The Legislature is primarily if not solely in charge of the state’s two-year spending plan.

Abbott’s record, however, is not that simple.

By Scott Braddock