By RICK CASEY
Copyright 2011, HOUSTON CHRONICLEFeb. 15, 2011, 9:27PM
In his State of the State speech last week, Rick Perry, aka Governor Sunshine, warned that the "mainstream media and big-government interest groups are doing their best to convince us that we’re facing a budget Armageddon."
Two days later the state’s executive commissioner of Health and Human Services told the House Appropriations Committee that the media were actually understating cuts to health care providers. The headline number was cuts of 10 percent for services under Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program. But cuts to nursing homes, Thomas Suehs said by way of example, would be about 30 percent.
But Suehs is the exception. As a Texas Tribune headline said Tuesday, "Facing budget cuts, Texas agency chiefs stay calm."
It’s not just agency chiefs, many of whom report directly to Gov. Sunshine. It’s the scores of university regents and members of boards of agencies ranging from state Parks and Wildlife to the Texas Historical Commission (which the governor proposes to "suspend"
. Regents of state universities and university systems have not spoken above the sort of whisper they might use in a campus library.
This may be partly because appointees to prestigious regencies all owe their positions to the governor, and the loyalty of many appointees can be measured to the dollar. Last August the Texas Tribune reported that half the regents donated more than $5.8 million to the governor in the past decade.
Perry’s appointees to other state boards and commissions have kicked in another $4 million-plus.
It’s no secret that the his camp expects the loyalty to continue after the appointment. During the Republican Primary, two Texas Tech University regents were pressured to quit after donating to challenger Kay Bailey Hutchison.
But the governor’s office doesn’t take chances. The same day Perry declared that a budget Armageddon was a media creation, his director of governmental appointments sent out an e-mail that appears calculated to restrain any regent or board member who finds the proposed cuts to his or her beloved institution entity too draconian to tolerate.
The e-mail from Teresa Spears carries the subject "Board Members and lobbying."
It begins by saying, "Obviously as private citizens of this state and nation, appointed board members have the right to speak to whomever they wish to speak on any topic whatsoever."
Then follow the "buts."
Testifying is OK, if …
The first warns that board members who travel to Austin for the purpose of lobbying the Legislature "may possibly be (violating) the Penal Code."
Then follows Sec. 39.02 of that code which says "A public servant commits an offense if, with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, he intentionally or knowingly … misuses government property, services, personnel or any other thing of value belonging to the government that has come into the public servant’s custody or possession by virtue of the public servant’s office or employment."
I tried to reach Ms. Spears to ask her why the governor’s office felt it needed to remind regents and such that they can’t use their offices to engage in fraud or graft.
She didn’t return my call.
The e-mail went on to say a board member can testify before a legislative committee if asked to do so, "but only as a resource/information witness if they are appearing as an appointed board member."
That may explain one exchange at a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week in which Sen. John Whitmire, having heard that one college’s budget would be cut 44 percent, asked a regent whether the state’s Rainy Day Fund should be tapped for relief.
The regent, apparently aware of the governor’s opposition to accessing the fund, allowed as how he had no opinion on the issue.
Rick Casey: E-mail warns regents against fraud or graft | Rick Casey | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle