Gov. Rick Perry criticized for vetoing bills to help low-income families

By ROBERT T. GARRETT/ The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN — A children’s advocacy group today criticized Gov. Rick Perry for vetoing bills it said would have helped struggling families and called for a concerted push to reduce child poverty.

Texans Care for Children said the recession may have already made another 250,000 of the state’s youngsters poor.

The group, begun by the late Phil Strickland of Dallas, a long-time Capitol lobbyist for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, cited a Census Bureau estimate that some 1.6 million Texas children, or nearly 1 out of every 4, lived in households below the federal poverty line. To be considered poor, a family of four can make no more than $22,050.

High unemployment could drive the state’s child poverty rate to 27 percent this year, although federal and state lawmakers’ actions may mitigate the surge, said Eileen Garcia-Matthews, the group’s executive director.

“Texas children are disproportionately harmed during economic downturns like the one we’re experiencing now,” she said.

A report the group issued shows that Texas is on the bottom rung of rankings of what share of its needy, eligible children actually receive health and welfare benefits. The state has 337,000 homeless children. More than half of its school-age youngsters, some 2.7 million, qualify for federal free and reduced price lunches, the report said.

“Too frequently, Texas leaders look the other way when families are in need, or even seek to win political points” with policies punitive to the poor, it said.

The group criticized Perry’s recent vetoes of bills to provide tax-filing help to low-income families and foster more college savings and affordable housing.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle, though, responded, “The best long-term solution is providing an environment where students are educated in accountable public schools that graduate students who are college and career-ready and have jobs available to them.”

Perry, a Republican seeking re-election, has more work to do, she said.

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