Published: February 19, 2009 12:58 am      

Highlights Wednesday from the Legislature

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry will take the federal money, even if he has to pinch his nose with one hand while holding out the other.

Perry wrote President Barack Obama on Wednesday, telling him the state will accept its $17 billion portion of the federal economic stimulus plan, noting he always intended he would work to get Texans’ “fair share.”

But Perry’s letter also said he didn’t like much of the $787 billion stimulus bill signed into law on Tuesday.

A Republican, Perry said “we will accept the funds ... and use them to promote economic growth and create jobs.” The letter said he’s against using them to expand existing government programs. It did not detail how he wants to use the money.

“I believe there are better ways to reinvigorate our economy and I believe (the plan) will burden future generations with unprecedented levels of debt,” Perry wrote.

Even with its objections, the letter was a key step toward allowing Texas to get its share of cash to spend.

State leaders were just beginning Wednesday to learn exactly where that money is slated to go, including millions to educate homeless children and help poor families pay for child care.

Texas’ share of the package is divided between education, health and human services, transportation, labor, criminal justice, and housing and infrastructure. Education gets the largest share with more than $6 billion, closely followed by health and human services programs, which are slated to get about $5.8 billion, according to a state analysis.

Meeting federal requirements to receive the money is becoming its own quagmire.

For example, some transportation money must be spent within 120 days on projects ready to go. But $5.4 billion in money for Medicaid would be divvied up through the end of 2010. The Legislature must fit each puzzle piece into the 2010-2011 budget, which they’re now writing and starts later this year.

A special House committee is set to meet Thursday to pore over the details.

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LEGAL AID

Texas legal aid for the poor is in serious jeopardy and needs to be rescued by state lawmakers, the state’s legal aid foundation said Wednesday.

Falling interest rates have depleted the fund’s trust account to $1.5 million from $28 million in 2007.

Leaders of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation said they plan to ask the Legislature for a $40 million loan from the federal stimulus economic stimulus package.

“That is a real crisis. That is not fabricated, that is not manufactured, that’s reality,” said James B. Sales, chairman of the foundation’s policy making arm, the Texas Access to Justice Commission.

The foundation also expects legislation to be filed over the coming weeks which would direct other funds to the foundation for longterm support of legal aid services.

Texans who earn less than $11,075 annually are eligible to receive legal aid funds through the foundation. Sales said there are more than 5.2 million people who qualify.