You can cut services, but you cant reduce the demand for them

Rep. Warren Chisum wants Republicans alone to choose next Texas House speaker
Rep. Warren Chisum wants Republicans alone to choose next Texas House Speaker 10:24 PM CST on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News [email protected] Austin - Eleven Texas House Republicans said Tuesday that they'll demand a party Caucus meeting early next month to try to force selection of the next speaker by Republicans alone. Also Online Blog: Politics Get more politics news Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa announced that he and 10 colleagu...

No ‘dramatic’ spending cuts in the offing, says Flaherty
Any Spending Cuts in the next federal Budget will be smaller than the ones already announced last year, says Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in a year-end interview. For weeks, the minister has been stating that there won’t be any major new spending in the 2011 budget. Now he’s saying there won’t be major new cuts either. Economic confidence? A narrow, stay-the-course Budget would leave the opposition with little new to attack as the three opposition parties decide whether to ...

A salve for California's financial woes — if voters will buy it
The spending lobby, the tax haters and a ticked electorate all fouled up in 2009. But Gov.-elect Jerry Brown may give everyone a chance to redeem themselves next year. The spenders and the anti-taxers acted out of knee-jerk ideology. The voters were confused and distrustful of Sacramento. For many, it was a "cut off your nose to spite your face" moment. Remember: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature compromised on a Budget-balancing package that included a four-year Tax Increase. Part...

Kevin Riordan: Merchantville-Cherry Hill merger more 'Twist' than waltz
The most recent municipal Merger in New Jersey - between Vineland Borough and Landis Township in 1952 - was so long ago that even this columnist wasn't born yet. Budget crises have renewed Bipartisan talk about consolidation, but courtship is always trickiest in the early stages. It's sort of like dancing with someone for the first time. Consider the procedural potshot Trenton took last week at the fledgling Merchantville-Cherry Hill merger, which seeks to save money by combining the compact bor...

Governor-elect's team says move helps reform Medicaid
Consolidate health agencies, team tells Scott Tallahassee -- Gov.-elect Rick Scott should arrive in the state capital with a wrecking ball to tear down a dozen state agencies and merge them together to save money and streamline services, advisors to the new Governor say in a series of transition reports delivered to him this week. Scott, who has promised to cut 6,000 state jobs on his way to creating 700,000 private-sector positions, could be the consolidation king if he adopts the proposals o...

Rendell: Little relief in Medicaid tightening
A U.S. report showing a low error rate, he says, refutes critics' forecast of big gains for Budget. HARRISBURG - A federal report shows that tightening supervision of Pennsylvania's Medicaid program is unlikely to produce the huge savings predicted by some critics, Gov. Rendell said Monday. The estimated error rate in Pennsylvania's program was 4 percent in fiscal 2009, the November analysis by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed. That was less than half the 9 percent nation...

Census: Texas to Get 4 More House Seats
AUSTIN - Texas will get four new seats in the U.S. Congress, more than any other state, according to figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The release of population numbers, announced at the National Press Club in Washington, begins what figures to be a politically divisive process in the nation's second-largest state on how to divvy up the seats. "Texas gained the most seats this decade, a total of four, and indeed that state has gained seats for seven consecutive decades," said C...

Texas wins big in 2010 Census
Texas was the big winner when the early results from the 2010 Census were announced Tuesday, growing more than twice as fast as the nation as a whole over the past decade and gaining four new Congressional Seats as a result. Florida gained two seats, and six other states gained one. All of the growth was in the South and western United States, continuing a decades-long shift that is slowly draining political clout from the Northeast and Midwest. “Typically, we think of political power in t...

Will Texas population surge mean another Dallas Democrat in Congress?
As Todd J. Gillman, our Washington bureau chief, reported this morning, Texas' unrivaled Population Growth over the past decade means the state will have four additional seats in Congress after the next reapportionment. Where those seats will be -- and which party will control them -- depends on how the Texas Legislature decides to redraw the boundary lines for the state's Congressional Districts. Even though the Republicans control both houses of the Legislature, early predictions are that re...

Now the Fun Begins, by Ben Philpott
Republican Gov. Rick Perry leads his Democratic challenger, Bill White by 10 points — 50 percent to 40 percent — in the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, which was conducted in the days leading up to early voting. Libertarian Kathie Glass has the support of 8 percent of respondents; Deb Shafto of the Green Party gets 2 percent. In the last UT/TT poll, conducted in early September, Perry led by 6 points, 39 percent to 33 percent. That poll also found 22 percent Undecided;...

Scott Transition Team Gets Health Care Recommendations
Some of the work of the state’s Health Care agencies should be consolidated, the state should push for Repeal of the federal Health Care law, and shifting of Medicaid patients to managed care should continue, Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s Health Care transition team recommended. The recommendations of Alan Levine, who was secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration under Gov. Jeb Bush, and his team, were made public by the Scott transition office on Monday evening. The first iss...

Scott advised to slash and merge - Florida - MiamiHerald.com
Tallahassee -- Governor-elect Rick Scott should arrive in the state capital with a wrecking ball to tear down a dozen state agencies and merge them together to save money and streamline services, advisors to the new governor say in a series of transition reports delivered to him this week. Scott, who has promised to cut 6,000 state jobs on his way to creating 700,000 private-sector positions, could be the consolidation king if he adopts the proposals offered to him by his transition committee...

'Horrible things' on list of cuts proposed by state agencies, Oceguera says
Carson City -- State agencies have proposed cutting their Budgets by $819 million in the coming two-year budget period, according to Assembly Speaker-elect John Oceguera. The reductions include cutting basic support for public schools and full-day kindergarten programs, ending a popular Senior Citizen Property Tax rebate program, reducing funding for Mental Health services, and no longer providing dentures for people receiving Medicaid, the free health care for the poor, blind and disabled. ...

Rep. Warren Chisum wants Republicans alone to choose next Texas House speaker
Rep. Warren Chisum wants Republicans alone to choose next Texas House Speaker 12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News [email protected] Austin - Eleven Texas House Republicans said Tuesday that they'll demand a party Caucus meeting early next month to try to force selection of the next speaker by Republicans alone. Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa announced that he and 10 colleagues will call for a meeting of the chamber's GOP cauc...

Totenburg backpedals
Nina Totenberg does not hate Christmas!  The NPR legal correspondent created a web frenzy with a seemingly dismissive reference to the holiday on "Inside Washington" last weekend. During a debate about Tax Cuts and the Omnibus Bill, Totenberg threw in an off-hand anecdote: "I was at -- forgive the expression - a Christmas Party at the Department of Justice," she said, going on to explain how guests there were worried about the impact of Spending Cuts. "Forgive the...

Totenburg backpedals
Now she says she was defending Christmas: Nina Totenberg does not hate Christmas! The NPR legal correspondent created a web frenzy with a seemingly dismissive reference to the holiday on "Inside Washington" last weekend. During a debate about Tax Cuts and the Omnibus Bill, Totenberg threw in an off-hand anecdote: "I was at -- forgive the expression - a Christmas Party at the Department of Justice," she said, going on to explain how guests there were worried about the impact of Spending Cuts. ...

Senate inaction kills Diamond nomination to Fed board
WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:36am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nomination of Nobel Prize-winning Economist Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve's Board was scuttled on Wednesday when the Senate failed to vote on it before adjourning for the year. A Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Diamond had a strong expertise on Budget and tax issues. This research focus prompted criticism from some Republicans who argued he lacked the proper experience on Monetary Policy. The U....

President signs repeal of ‘don’t ask’ policy
WASHINGTON — President Obama signed into law yesterday a policy that will allow gays to serve openly in America’s Military. Framing the issue as a matter of Civil Rights long denied, Obama said that “we are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot . . . a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal.’’ Repealing the 17-year-old policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ in a ceremony that was alternately emoti...

Butkovitz: Increase state oversight on Phila. schools because of pending deficit
City Controller Alan Butkovitz on Wednesday called for increased state Oversight of the Philadelphia School District following revelations that it faces a Deficit of more than $400 million next year. Butkovitz said in an interview that the state should make the district responsible to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), the agency that has effectively supervised the City of Philadelphia's finances after helping to pull the city from the brink of Bankruptcy in 1990. U...

Montgomery County commissioners approve $403 million budget
Montgomery County's battling Board of Commissioners approved a 2011 Budget of $403 million on Wednesday, averting a looming stalemate over how to balance the books. The Compromise holds the line on property taxes, cuts spending for the third year in a row, and could eliminate up to 15 jobs. It also dips drastically into reserve funds already receiving scrutiny from municipal bond-rating agencies. "I'm not as proud of the resulting government-service ability as I could be," Commissioner...

Lewis public transit to take on Medicaid patients
LOWVILLE — Lewis County has implemented the second phase of its 11/2-year-old public transit service — coordinated transportation of non-emergency Medicaid patients — in hopes of cutting costs and adding bus routes. "This is a real step in the right direction for Lewis County," said Stacy L. Alvord, the county's Department of Social Services commissioner. The county DSS office recently sent letters to nearly 5,000 eligible participants in the county's non-emergency Me...

The Lesson of the Lame Duck Congress
And so the 111th Congress goes home, after a flurry of actually quite huge last-minute Legislation. The Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Extension of Unemployment Benefits. The START Treaty. The Zadroga bill (albeit a scaled-back one). Is this what 11-dimensional Chess looks like? If so, then what we are left with is an appalling reality amidst all the accomplishments: that all we need do in order to get worthy legislation that costs either nothing or comparatively little through the legislativ...

State's growth a boon -- and a challenge
The U.S. Census figures released Tuesday show Florida to be a definite winner in the never-ending battle for political clout in Washington -- as well as for getting more federal dollars for education, services for the elderly and infrastructure. The Census is a constitutional mandate that triggers states' congressional redistricting every 10 years to ensure accurate representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. It provides a revealing snapshot of the United States every decade. For instan...

Corbett's pick for chief of staff backs out
HARRISBURG - Even as he was announcing his pick for a top job in his administration, Gov.-elect Tom Corbett on Wednesday also found himself in the awkward position of explaining why another appointee backed out of a job. Brian Nutt, Corbett's pick for Chief of Staff, announced that he had changed his mind and would join a political-consulting firm. Corbett had tapped Nutt, 39, this month to be his right-hand man when he takes office Jan. 18, citing Nutt's long service. Nutt ran Corbett's campaig...

Correction director: Prisons would have to close to meet 15-percent budget cut
Visitors in the high-security unit in Cranston have to communicate through glass and a phone in the visitors’ room. Closing the unit would save money but pose problems. CRANSTON — If the state wants the Department of Corrections to cut 15 percent from its $182-million Budget, Director A.T. Wall said he can, but the result would be a smaller Prison system that would force the state to relax its standards for who goes to Prison and for how long. “If you are talking about a 15-per...