Statement on State Budget by Representative Nevárez

(Press Release) Austin – On May 27th, both the House and Senate passed the final version of the 2018/2019 state budget. The budget prioritizes border security, foster care and mental health services.

Some of the positive highlights include a $25 million grant program for law enforcement bullet proof vests, a $500 million increase in funding for CPS case workers and foster care reimbursements, $236 million for high quality Pre-K programs, an additional $208.8 million to ensure solvency of the TRS fund which pays for teacher retirement, $3.6 billion for behavioral health services, and $97.1 million for graduate medical education. Some of the aspects especially important to House District 74 include $7.2 million for Cattle Tick Fever Mitigation, $23.5 million on water projects, and restoring the $9 million cut that the Texas Parks received last biennium.

One of the biggest mistakes of the last biennium was cutting pediatric care therapy services through Medicaid and democrat lawmakers fought hard to restore those cuts. The House planned to have a 75% restoration of these services with an additional $25.1 million of General Revenue (GR) to begin restoring the services for the rest of fiscal year 2017. The Senate version of the budget had to plans to restore services, and the final version of the budget includes only a 25% restoration for the next biennium.

Representative Nevárez issued the following statement:

“The state budget for the 2018-2019 biennium does a lot of good, but is not good enough for Texas. I know that both chambers worked long hours negotiating, but ultimately we left education and Medicaid underfunded with 11 billion dollars left in the rainy day fund. The cuts to children’s therapy from Medicaid are unacceptable.”

Representative Alfonso “Poncho” Nevárez is currently serving his third term as the State Representative for House District 74, which includes the counties of Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Loving, Maverick, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, Terrell, and Val Verde. He serves as the Vice-Chair of the Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. He is also a member of the Natural Resources Committee, General Investigating and Ethics Committee, and the House Calendars Committee.