Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Just as we support responsible efforts to provide secure our country from those who would do us harm, Texas Democrats support initiatives to ensure the security of our families.  More than one-third of working families in Texas are defined as “low income,” and nearly half of Texas children live in these households.  Every parent should be able to provide housing, nutrition, clothing, and health care for his or her family. No child should go hungry or without health care. We believe government should make sure appropriate supports are in place and accessible to families in need.  Reducing hunger and poverty is a priority of Texas Democrats.

Privatization of Social Services

Under Republican rule, Texas entered into an $899 million health and human services contract with a Bermuda-based private contractor, Accenture.  This privatization experiment disrupted the lives of vulnerable residents while padding the pockets of private contractors at taxpayer expense, dismantling the state social services infrastructure and failing miserably to save tax dollars or provide services more efficiently.

Low-income children, as well as elderly and disabled Texans, are going without proper nutrition because of delays in processing of food stamp applications due to the lack of a sufficient number of eligibility workers.  Low-to-moderate income children and families continue to experience difficulty accessing or maintaining health coverage through the CHIP or Medicaid programs since the system was privatized. Texas Democrats support hiring state workers at adequate levels to ensure timely and accurate processing of applications rather than wasting money on private contracts.  We believe privatization of social services has proven to be a poor use of tax dollars, with little or no accountability to voters and taxpayers.

Child Protection and Foster Care

We support a Children’s Bill of Rights. Texas children who have been removed from their homes due to alleged abuse or neglect and placed in the state foster care system should not be subjected to abuse or another privatization experiment.

Rick Perry and his appointees have allowed gross mismanagement in State Supported Living Centers and residential treatment centers that has resulted in children and vulnerable adults experiencing abuse while in state care.  We support greater oversight of facilities and institutions serving children and vulnerable adults.

We oppose discrimination in the state foster care system. We support child protection programs that provide safe, secure environments for our children.  We support funding Child Protective Services to reduce caseloads and to ensure compliance with federal requirements for caseworker meetings with clients. Texas Democrats oppose the privatization of the child protection system, including intake services.

Child Support and Child Care that Strengthens Texas Families

The economic security of many Texas families depends on strong child support enforcement coupled with available and affordable quality child care that is good for parents, good for children and vital for the Texas economy. Texas Democrats believe sufficient child support enforcement field staff is needed to ensure the timely and reliable collection and distribution of child support payments. We support policies to ensure that child support payments go to custodial parents rather than to private collection agencies. We believe parental counseling, mediation, job training and job placement should promote the beneficial involvement and support of both parents whenever possible and appropriate.

Texas families should not have to choose between the jobs they need and the children they love. Texas Democrats support child care initiatives that encourage both private and non-profit providers to expand the availability of quality child care services by using tax credits, investment grants, and pooling of local resources to maximize federal funding opportunities. Texas Democrats also believe expanded after school care ensures the safety of children and that early childhood education develops the strong educational foundation needed for future achievement.

Long Term Services and Supports

Texas Democrats believe elderly and disabled Texans of all ages should have access to long-term services and supports that promote independent living in the most-integrated setting possible. A robust continuum of long-term services and supports includes state supported living centers, home and community-based services, in-home health care, adult daycare, and hospice care. We believe the state must comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and strongly oppose the Republican claim to “sovereign immunity” from the ADA. We support:

• transitioning the long-term care system to focus on home and community-based services (HCBS);
• creating a national HCBS program where funding for services “follows the person”;
• fully funding all HCBS programs and ending all waiting lists for community services;
• protecting individual homesteads from repossession when recovering the costs of long-term care;
• providing elderly and disabled Texans with choices about where they want to live and receive support services;
• coordination of accessible, affordable, integrated housing and other support services including personal assistance and caregiver services, homemaker assistance, respite care, home-delivered meals, and transportation,
• establishing registry of direct service and  providers and developing a training and certification program that interfaces with other similar initiatives;
• access to non-medical services to contain cost and allow greater individual control;
• providing a living wage and health care benefits for all direct care workers.

Social Security

Texas Democrats believe we must keep the promise of Social Security strong and certain for those who have worked and contributed to the system. Social Security should continue to be the foundation of income security for working Americans. Social Security is an insurance program placed in the trust of the federal government and is not a public welfare cost of government. We believe all Americans should have access to the Social Security system, including public employees. Private savings accounts and other pension programs should be additions to the guaranteed Social Security benefit, not a substitute for any portion of it.

We oppose privatization of the Social Security program as fiscally irresponsible, and consider the use of our tax dollars as capital to invest in the stock market as a threat to the income security of working Americans. We oppose Republican federal budget plans to spend down and undermine the Social Security Trust Fund, including proposals to carve out private savings accounts, which would drain trillions of dollars from the Social Security system. We also oppose the closing of small town Social Security offices, which would force many beneficiaries to travel as far as 200 to 250 miles for a face to face meeting.

Retirement Security

Millions of workers have invested in public or private pensions to secure their retirement income. We believe a lifetime of honest work should be rewarded with adequate retirement income. We support measures to make corporate governance accountable to all stakeholders in the private pension system. We support providing strong and effective legal protections to secure the investments of workers in public or private pensions. We believe:

• a participant in a pension or retirement program should have legal protection for the full amount to which they are entitled if such accounts or corporate pensions lose their funding or are dismantled due to financial improprieties, insolvency or reorganization;
• companies filing for bankruptcy or encountering legal problems should have funds automatically frozen or set aside to fund the pension plan in place;
• time limits must be in place to allow the expedient transfer of pensioners’ funds to a new account or directly to the pensioner within the confines of IRS tax regulations;
• state Retirement Systems should be preserved as defined benefit systems, as established in the Texas Constitution; and
• federal employees who retired under the FERS system should be treated the same, for purposes of sick-leave credit, as federal Civil Service retirees.

Access to Affordable Insurance with Effective Regulation and Oversight

Texas Democrats support the strict enforcement of policies requiring insurance companies to roll back their rates to provide Texas homeowners, renters and drivers fair and affordable insurance. Governor Perry and his fellow Republicans have done nothing to reduce insurance costs that place an excessive financial burden on both individuals and businesses. Texans continue to pay some of the highest homeowner insurance rates in the nation, despite the fact that the American insurance industry makes billions in profits every year. We support providing the Insurance Commissioner the authority to deny or approve rates.

Democrats support measures to reduce and eliminate unfair underwriting and rate setting practices, such as the use of credit scoring, redlining and other discriminatory practices.  We support the enforcement of penalties when such practices are used. Texans must have access to affordable insurance to protect our homes and businesses from flood and windstorm damage. We also support more thorough oversight and regulation of homeowner’s insurance through greater consumer representation in the form of an official advisory committee or requirements that the Insurance Commission include consumer representatives.

Utility Regulation

Texans have seen their utility bills become some of the highest in the nation since the passage of a deregulation scheme that has failed to provide competition to drive down rates as promised. Texas Democrats support responsible regulation of utilities to provide a level playing field for regulated industry, through reasonable policy to prevent predatory pricing. Texans should not be expected to become experts on all the factors that determine energy costs in order to pay lower, reasonable prices for utility services.

Consumer Protection

Texas Democrats believe government has a responsibility to protect the people from dangerous products and fraudulent, unfair and discriminatory business practices. In the information age, vigorous efforts are necessary to protect the privacy of everything from financial records to DNA. Consumers should have a high degree of certainty and an understanding of their rights and protections under laws that are strongly and uniformly enforced.  Texas Democrats believe we must protect Texans from:

• laws and regulations that restrict redress for buyers of new homes who discover shoddy work after the purchase is completed;
• unscrupulous telemarketing, internet marketing and price fixing;
• services that prey on individuals, especially children, the poor, the elderly and persons with disabilities, including insurance fraud and nursing home abuse targeted at seniors;
• insurance companies, HMOs and drug companies that deny Texans coverage they need;
• unfair business practices by multinational corporations;
• laws and regulations that restrict the ability of communities to provide public utilities at their discretion, including “wi-fi” internet access;
• laws and regulation that would deny Texans free, non-discriminatory access to the internet.
• any interference with licensed public safety communication frequencies;
• identity theft, notary impersonation, “phishing” viruses and other forms of computer fraud;
• manipulation of the market caused by unscrupulous speculators;
• predatory lending practices, such as unscrupulous payday loans and sale/lease back transactions.

Housing

Texas Democrats believe all Texans have a right to housing that is safe, affordable, accessible, integrated, and available without discrimination. Such availability to housing, whether rented or owned, is essential to a strong sense of community, self-respect, and dignity.  Texas Democrats are committed to making the dream of home ownership and clean, safe rental housing a reality for more Texas families by:

• encouraging federal, state and local agencies to work together to increase access to housing opportunities, housing rehabilitation programs, financial education, and down payment assistance that fits the needs of both rural and urban Texans;
• eliminating all discrimination in the financing and insuring of homes, including lending practices that prey on the uneducated, the poor, the elderly, and colonia residents;
• establishing a state program to assist local nonprofit organizations develop and administer individual development account programs for low income individuals;
• increasing the availability of low-cost financing and other incentives to promote the development of new affordable rental housing that meets or exceeds state and federal requirements on accessibility for persons with disabilities; and
• increasing the number of Section 8 housing vouchers and the availability of low cost financing for new and affordable rental housing; and
• increasing programs and financial assistance for local communities relocating citizens who reside in the 100-year flood plain.

The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market and the housing finance system was a man-made disaster that has profoundly affected Texas and the nation.  This crisis is a direct consequence of an ideology of greed that allowed for lax regulation, abusive, predatory lending practices and the failure of those responsible for the banks and securities markets. To respond to this crisis, we must:

• protect and preserve neighborhoods by helping families stay in their homes;
• enact measures to allow for the refinancing of owner-occupied primary residences, but not second homes, high-end mansions, or speculative real estate investments; and
• provide rental assistance for those who must move.

Homelessness

Developing effective solutions to the problems related to homelessness requires a strong commitment to public-private partnerships and coordinated state, federal, and local efforts.  In addition to the acute problem of homelessness among the mentally ill and their families, runaways, veterans and other populations, the impact of Republican economic policy has left many families just one rent check or mortgage payment away from homelessness.  Texas Democrats are committed to ending homelessness by removing barriers and increasing access to services that support progress toward self-sufficiency in rural and urban communities.