Uresti supports Senate budget but calls for more child protection funding

AUSTIN — Sen. Carlos Uresti on Wednesday voted for the Senate’s $195 billion spending plan for the 2014-15 biennium, but expressed disappointment that it did not provide more money for child abuse prevention.

Uresti noted that the bill gave an overall 11 percent increase to Child Protective Services to reduce caseloads and address the agency’s high turnover rate, but the amount for prevention represents only 3.5 percent of the agency’s entire budget.

“We can never get our arms around the problems at CPS and protect our children from harm if we don’t start putting more money where our mouth is,” Uresti said. “As we move forward we must look at putting more money into these programs.”

He added that because of program cuts in the 2011 session, the amount provided for abuse prevention in the new budget “takes us back to four years ago.”

Uresti also urged his Senate colleagues to support SB 313, which would raise the smoking age in Texas from 18 to 21. While the bill would cost the state an estimated $42 million over the biennium because fewer young people would purchase cigarettes, Uresti said it would save “hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of lives” in the long run.

Senate Finance Chairman Tommy Williams said he supported raising the smoking age but was concerned about the $42 million fiscal note. However, he pledged to work with Sen. Uresti to get those numbers down.

The budget, which passed on a vote of 29-2, gives public schools an additional $2 billion, and adds funding to higher education, financial aid for college students, and public health, including women’s health, family planning, and mental health programs.

It begins to reverse some of the unfortunate cuts made during the last session, when public education was shortchanged by more than $5 billion. It restores about $1.5 billion of that amount, provides $50 million for a previously cut grant program, and puts back $40 million into a prekindergarten grant program.

Sen. Uresti represents Senate District 19, which covers more than 35,000 square miles and contains all or part of 17 counties, two international ports of entry, ten state parks, 51 school districts, almost 9,000 miles of highways and county roads, and more than 29,000 producing oil and gas wells. The district is larger than 11 states and 124 Nations, and contains almost 400 miles of the Texas-Mexico border.