Lawmakers weigh cutting youth agency budget up to 40%

Four options proposed seem to catch executive commissioner off guard.

Citing a need to cut operations costs at the Texas Youth Commission, whose incarcerated population has dropped by almost half in two years, a Senate budget subcommittee moved Wednesday to possibly trim the agency's proposed budget by nearly 40 percent.

A youth lockup in Corsicana and half of a juvenile correctional complex in Brownwood could be shuttered under one of four budget-cutting options proposed. An agency proposal to build three new lockups in urban areas would be scuttled.

Such a move by a legislative body to so drastically alter an agency's budget request is rare at the Capitol, where agencies submit their spending requests and then negotiate a final amount with legislative budget writers over a period of weeks or months.

The move appeared to catch agency Executive Commissioner Cherie Townsend by surprise. She sat quietly at the hearing, answering just a few questions, and then left without comment. She could not be reached later.

"When they have half the (youth offenders) in their custody that they did two years ago, I don't know why you would give them anywhere near the same budget as they've had — which is essentially what they're asking for," said state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, chairman of the work group developing the Youth Commission's budget.

"I, for one, can't approve their request with a straight face," Eltife said.

The Youth Commission budget dropped from $314.9 million in 2008 to $237 million in 2009, according to Legislative Budget Board figures.

The agency's initial budget request was $249.1 million for 2010 and $253.8 million for 2011.

At a budget hearing two weeks ago, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, ordered Townsend to submit a much-reduced budget proposal. Working group members said the revised version she submitted Wednesday changed little, although Townsend insisted it contained "major changes." Her revisions did not approach the same level of cuts as the options presented to the senators Wednesday.

On a request by Ogden, the Legislative Budget Board had developed its own budget options for the Youth Commission. Those options included reductions in spending of $29.8 million because of the agency's reduced youth population, $26.3 million by reducing administrative costs and $40.9 million in cuts from closing the additional centers.

More than 800 jobs would also be cut in all four options.

The Youth Commission has seen a substantial drop in its incarcerated youth population. In 2007, the agency had about 4,600 employees and about 4,100 incarcerated youths. In February 2008, the agency had about 4,100 employees and about 2,400 incarcerated youths.

There was no immediate indication which, if any, of the proposed options the working group might agree to by Sunday, when it is slated to report back to Ogden and the Finance Committee.

During Wednesday's meeting, state Sens. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and John Whitmire, D-Houston, an outspoken critic of the agency's costs and operations, questioned whether additional savings could be found by expanding community programs, as proposed by a growing list of Texas counties.

"This is a new model that the communities want us to move toward — Dallas, Austin and others — and one we're actively looking at," Whitmire said.

mward@statesman.com; 445-1712