Houston Democrats

State Government Spending and Per Capita Tax Rankings (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Tax Revenue Raised - 49th


• Sales Tax Dependency - 2nd


• Total General Expenditures - 50th


• Public Health - 45th


• Mental Health - 47th


• Education - 37th


• Highways - 42nd


• Public Welfare and Medicaid - 46th


• Parks and Recreation - 48th


• Police Protection - 49th


• Government Administration - 50th


• Environmental Protection - 46th

Education (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Percentage of Population Graduated from High School - 46th


• High School Completion Rate - 45th


• State Aid per Pupil - 41st


• Secondary Teachers with Degrees in the Subjects they Teach - 45th


• Average Teacher Salaries - 30th


• Percent of Adults with at Least a Bachelor’s Degree - 27th


• Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Scores - 47th

Health Care (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Percentage of Population without Health Insurance - 1st


• Percentage of Poor Covered by Medicaid - 44th


• Physicians per Capita - 40th


• Dentists per Capita - 41st


• Pharmacists per Capita - 44th


• Psychiatrists per Capita - 36th


• Number of Women Receiving Prenatal Care - 45th


• Rate of Disease per 100,000 People - 9th


• Risk for Heart Disease - 12th


• Percentage of Obese Adults - 10th


• Percentage of People with Access to Dental Care - 48th


• Rate at which Citizens Receive Treatment for
  Drug and Alcohol Abuse Problems - 45th


• Overall Health of the State - 37th

Access to Capital (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Percentage of home refinance loans that are subprime-mortgage loans (generally 3 to 4 percentage points or
  
  more higher than a comparable prime market loan) - 1st


• The total assets of banks, trust companies, and savings institutions located in the state - 38th


• The amount of money that banks located in the state collect through deposits in relation to the amount of
  
  money the banks re-channel back into local communities through loans - 48th

Environment (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Amount of Toxic Emissions from Manufacturing Facilities - 1st


• Amount of Toxic Release Inventory Chemicals Used by Manufacturing Industries - 1st


• Number of Clean Water Permit Violations - 1st


• Number of Environmental Civil Rights Complaints - 1st


• Number of Hazardous Waste and Spills - 1st


• Amount of Ozone Pollution Exposure - 2nd


• Park Spending and Acreage - 49th


• Per Capita Spending on Water Quality - 47th


• Open Space Protection - 46th


• Per Capita Consumption of Energy - 5th

State of the Child (50th=lowest, 1st=highest)

• Percentage of Uninsured Children - 1st


• Percentage of Fully-Immunized Two-Year Olds - 50th


• Percentage of Population Under Age 18 who are Living in Poverty - 9th
  
  

Welfare (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Poverty Rate - 6th


• Percentage of Population that goes Hungry - 2nd


• Percentage of Population that is Malnourished - 3rd


• Amount of Welfare and Food Stamp Benefits Paid - 47th


• Teenage Birth Rate - 2nd

Workforce (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Unemployment Rate - 10th


• Average Hourly Earnings - 44th


• Workforce Education - 43rd


• Income Gap Between Rich and Poor - 8th


• Number of Job-Discrimination Lawsuits - 3rd


• Percentage of Adults with Internet Access - 39th

Cost of Living (50th = worst, 1st = best)

• Homeowners as Percentage of Population - 45th


• Homeowners Insurance Affordability - 50th


• Auto Insurance Affordability - 39th


• Residential Electric Bills Affordability - 50th

Public Safety (1st = most, 50th = least)

• Number of Executions - 1st


• Number of Adults in the Criminal Justice System - 1st


• Number of Adults Incarcerated - 2nd


• Number of Firearm Deaths - 2nd


• Number of Registered Machined Guns - 1st


• Number of Traffic Fatalities - 1st


• Number of Alcohol-Related Traffic Fatalities - 1st


• Number of Road-Rage Traffic Fatalities - 2nd


• Highway Expenditures, per Vehicle-Mile Traveled - 44th


• Highway Expenditures, per Capita - 45th

Democracy (50th = lowest, 1st = highest)

• Percentage of Eligible Voters that are Registered - 46th


• Percentage of Eligible Voters that Go to the Polls - 47th
  
  

Texas Facts

Children

• Over 1 million Texas children are without health insurance.


• 1 in 5 Texas children are poor.


• Nine percent of Texas children were in extreme poverty (income below 50 percent of the poverty level) in 1999.


• Maximum Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance for a family of three is $201.


• Although nearly 1.3 million children are potentially eligible for child care in Texas, only eight percent of these children will receive a subsidy.


• In 2001, Children’s Protective Services (CPS) staffing and projected expenditures were $576,031,456.


• In 2002, 297 children were placed into CPS custody as a last resort for mental health services .


• In 2001, about 43,000 Texas children were victims of abuse and neglect.


• In 2001, the average CPS worker had a caseload of 27 children.

Education

• The high school dropout rate for Texas is 40 percent. Whites drop out at a rate of 27 percent, whereas Blacks dropout at a rate of 46 percent and Hispanics at 52 percent.


• 71 percent of Texas fourth grade students read below the proficiency level in 2000.


• 23 percent of Texas fourth grade students scored below the basic math level in 2000.


• 32 percent of Texas eighth grade students scored below the basic math level in 2000.


• Texas has an average combined SAT score lower than the national average. In 2002, the national combined score was 1,020, whereas for Texas it was only 991.


• While the national SAT average has been slowly but steadily rising
  since 1995, the Texas average has been slowly dropping. In 1995, the US average SAT score was 1,010, and now, it has risen to 1,020. The Texas average in 1995 was 996 and has now dropped to 991.


• While California has six public universities ranked in the top 50 nationwide, Texas has only one, the University of Texas at Austin (47).

Income Disparity

• The average income in the top fifth of income distribution in Texas was at least ten times greater than the average income in the bottom fifth.


• Middle and low-income Texas families did not share equally in the
  economic boom of the eighties and nineties. Families that made $36,000 and under only gained four percent, while families who made $84,500 or more gained 33 percent.


• In 2000, the United States was the world’s wealthiest nation and leading economic power, as well as the western industrialized nation with the greatest gap between the rich and poor.

Taxation

• Middle and low-income Texas families have a higher tax rate than wealthy families.


• Texas’ tax system is listed as one of the “Terrible Ten” most regressive states in the nation.


• Texas asks poor families, those in the bottom 20 percent of the income scale, to pay more than three times as great a share of their earnings in taxes as the wealthy.


• Middle income families pay more than twice as high a share of their income in taxes as the wealthiest families.


• Tax regressivity has worsened since 1998. Overall, low and middle income taxpayers saw their burden grow, while the top-fifth wealthy Texans primarily received tax reductions.

Transportation

• About 25,000 lane miles need rehabilitation, and over 12,000 bridges
  are classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Only 70 percent of bridges in Texas are in good condition.


• Rough roads in Texas are increasing annual vehicle operating costs by $163 per motorist.


• Traffic delays cost Texas urban drivers about $5.5 billion per year.


• Traffic volume is growing 16 times faster than lane miles are added.


• Every 2.5 hours there are 75 vehicular crashes in Texas, someone dies, and two people are injured, with an economic loss of about $9 billion annually.

Health Care

• Texas has 162 physicians per 100,000 population; the national average is 198 per 100,000 population.


• Texas has only 633 Registered Nurses per 100,000 population, significantly fewer than the national average of 798.


• Five of the 15 cities deemed to be the “Fattest Cities in America” are in Texas, with Houston ranked number one.