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Media digest: Texas cracks down on local efforts to redirect funding away from law enforcement, drought grips Western US

June 4, 2021

Welcome to our media digest for the week ending June 4, 2021! Each week, PI compiles a round-up of the latest public health-related news, with an eye toward media framing and language, particularly as they relate to the role of primary prevention. The views expressed in these articles do not reflect those of Prevention Institute.

This week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott approved new laws restricting the ability of cities to divert funding from police budgets to other purposes. “The other bills create two new barriers to big cities that wish to reduce their law enforcement budgets. Abbott called police budget reductions “downright dangerous” and a “reckless decision” in a press release after signing the legislation. Although calls to “defund the police” can mean several things, they usually include reallocating money to other social services or investing in alternative public safety programs. Last August, the Austin City Council voted to cut and reallocate a third of its police department’s then-$434 million budget. Some of the money was redirected to violence prevention and food access programs, while other funds were reduced so duties like forensic sciences and victims’ services could be moved to other departments. Abbott criticized the decision, saying at the time that it “paves the way for lawlessness.” Under House Bill 1900, if a municipality with a population over 250,000 reduces its law enforcement budget, the state would deduct money from its sales tax and ban the city from increasing property taxes or utility fees. Any areas annexed within the last 30 years could vote to de-annex, and the municipality would be banned from annexing any further areas. Senate Bill 23 applies to counties with a population over 1 million, requiring them to hold elections before reducing or reallocating their law enforcement budgets. Counties that do so without voter approval would have their property tax revenue frozen.”  

 

The New York Times reports on the historic drought in the Western US and disputes over access to dwindling supplies of water: “The brewing battle over the century-old Klamath Project is an early window into the water shortfalls that are likely to spread across the West as a widespread drought, associated with a warming climate, parches watersheds throughout the region. In Nevada, water levels have dropped so drastically in Lake Mead that officials are preparing for a serious shortage that could prompt major reductions in Colorado River water deliveries next year. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has placed 41 counties under a state of emergency. While drought consumed much of the West last year, setting the stage for an extensive wildfire season, the conditions this spring are far worse than a year ago. More than half of the West faces “extreme” drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, including wide areas of California and Oregon. Scientists have said the region may be going through the worst drought period in centuries.” 

 

The Guardian reports that at least 10 US states have drained funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to fund anti-abortion clinics. “The clinics work to dissuade women from obtaining abortions. In all cases, the states used these funds even as Covid-19 caused the worst economic upheaval in nearly a century, left one in four families without enough to eat, and resulted in mass layoffs that had a disproportionate effect on low-income and racial minority Americans. “They’re not a replacement for Tanf, by any stretch of the imagination,” said Andrea Swartzendruber, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Georgia College of Public Health, whose research has focused on how crisis pregnancy centers operate. Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas have all used federal Tanf funds to support anti-abortion clinics.” 

 

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