One-Time Funding and Ongoing Costs
What to know: Bexar County (home to San Antonio) has spent millions of dollars of federal COVID-19 relief funds on expenses that don’t go away—like the pandemic funds did.
The TPPF take: County officials lament that they used $10 million they got during COVID-19 to create permanent programs—and now they don’t have the funding anymore.
“Who believed trillions in COVID-19 funding would go away?” asks TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “Now, as if it was just another random bad thing that has happened to them, Bexar County officials are wailing and gnashing their teeth because they must eliminate 28 staff positions, and such anti-COVID-19 programs as ending domestic violence and elder abuse are on the chopping block.”
Healthcare Costs
What to know: U.S. workers are paying more for healthcare, and next year will be worse, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The TPPF take: TPPF has released a new report on those rising costs.
“Our current healthcare system isn’t serving patients or physicians as well as it should,” says TPPF’s Brooke Garner. “Patients and employers need clear disclosure of actual prices, fees, commissions, conflicts of interest, and facility charges.”
That’s Not a Glitch
What to know: New Jersey’s “glitch” that allowed thousands of noncitizens to register to vote is just more evidence of an election integrity crisis, the Daily Signal reports.
The TPPF take: Liberal strongholds have developed a habit of treating election administration failures as isolated technical problems instead of examining the process that allowed them to happen.
“A well-run election process is supposed to prevent predictable errors, detect others quickly, and leave an auditable record when errors occur,” says TPPF’s Josh Findlay. “While these liberal strongholds explain failures after they happen, states like Florida and Texas have focused on building verification into the process itself.”