|
Wed May 10, 2006 at 06:00 PM CDT
|
| More than a few newspapers around the state last week covered the story of Patricia King, a prison guard who won a $250,000 sexual harassment suit in 1999 against the state. It's nearly seven years later, and the legislature is just finally getting around to taking care of her claim.
[King's] judgment, which with six years of interest, court costs and fees totals more than $640,000 because the state never paid the original jury award after it withstood appeal. [. . .]On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee passed a measure to pay the judgment.
Her claim still needs to pass the full House and Senate, and King isn't alone in having an outstanding payment owed to her by the state. The City of Bryan is still owed for some utility work it did in the late 90s and a nursing home in Killeen is still waiting on "$117,000 worth of services for Medicaid patients from 1999 and 2000." Altogether, the state has $13.2 million in outstanding claims like King's that it has yet to appropriate. So why haven't these folks been paid yet? |
|
|
| Normally all of this money would be paid in one miscellaneous claims bill, but the Legislature hasn't passed one of those since 2001. According to Jim Pitts, House Appropriations Chair:
"We haven't had the miscellaneous claims bill go anywhere in the past two sessions," said Pitts[. . .]. "It was one of those things. The priority has been to balance our budget. Then it was education. So it hasn't been one of our high priorities."
Reading these stories is a bit reminiscent of last year's Kelo v. New London decision. People of totally differing political ideologies approaching this story (Rep. Hegar and Rep. Jones McClendon in the Chron story, in this case) could come to exactly the same conclusion: not paying people what you owe them is wrong. And as Vince points out over at Capitol Annex, it's pretty hypocritical for those in charge in Austin to complain about businesses using LLPs to squirm out of paying taxes when the state itself isn't living up to its own obligations.
These stories don't reflect well on Rep. Pitts either. Pitts says he's looking to take up a miscellaneous claims bill in the next legislative session, but when it's rumored you're considering running for speaker, I'd imagine the last thing you'd want would be stories about shirking your responsibilities hanging around your neck. |
|
|
