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ZAPATA COUNTY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
OIL PRICES PLUNGE
Hein’s positive work
Tax credits raise concerns
District in no rush for new superintendent By JUDITH RAYO
Nuques. Hein served as a consultant for the district and as a high school principal for eight years. Ricardo Ramirez, ZCISD board president, said trustees are happy with Hein on board. “Coach Hein is doing such a good job that right now we are not pushing toward to open up a search,” he said.
LAREDO MORNING TIMES
The Zapata County Independent School District board of trustees is in no rush to find a permanent superintendent to lead the district. In August, ZCISD trustees appointed Robert Hein as acting superintendent after they accepted the resignation of Raul
HEIN
He said trustees would begin a search for a permanent superintendent once Hein makes a decision about his future. Another trustee who seems to be happy with Hein on board is Jose Flores. “Mr. Hein is well known in the community and has made a very positive difference in the schools,” he said.
When asked if Hein would be considered as a candidate for a permanent superintendent, trustees said there would have to be some discussion about it. “It hasn’t been talked about,” Ramirez said. Flores, however, said Hein is there to hold down the fort.
try. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he’d be keeping National Guard troops on the state’s border with Mexico instead of sending them home as planned, the result of a spike in illegal crossings by minor children in the Rio Grande
See APPREHENSIONS PAGE 11A
See OIL PAGE 11A
See ZCISD PAGE 11A
APPREHENSIONS DIP
Photo by Julian Aguilar | The Texas Tribune
U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling in the Rio Grande Valley.
Homeland Security reports a 35 percent drop in 2015 THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
The number of people apprehended by immigration agents while trying to enter Texas illegally dropped by more than 35 percent during the federal government’s 2015 fiscal year, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics released Tues-
day. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped some 210,470 people in Texas between October 2014 and September 2015, compared to 332,457the previous year. On the entire southwestern border, 331,335 people were apprehended in the 2015 fiscal year, compared to 479,371 the year before.
Homeland security leaders attribute the dip to lower numbers of wouldbe illegal crossers and a ramped up border security effort that has nearly doubled the number of agents on the southwestern border since 2001.The number of Mexican nationals apprehended decreased by 18 percent, they said; apprehensions of people from
countries other than Mexico — mainly Central Americans— decreased by more than 65 percent. The new data is not likely to allay the concerns of GOP state leaders, who argue the Obama administration is failing in its duty to secure the border and remove undocumented criminals already present in the coun-
By JIM MALEWITZ THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
In these days of plummeting oil prices, petroleum companies look to protect their bottom lines most any way they can — by scaling back production, laying off workers or using technology to drill more efficiently and cheaply, for instance. Producers in Texas can pursue another option: start calling their oil wells gas wells. Reclassification — the legal term for it —doesn’t happen with the wave of a magic wand. Regulators at the Texas Railroad Commission have to sign off on it.By shifting oil wells to gas wells, producers can often claim a generous state tax credit targeting “high cost” natural gas. Meant to spur more drilling, the policy can shave several percentage points off the state’s 7.5 percent severance tax on natural gas production. The tax credit is good for 10 years, or until the credits total half the cost to drill and complete a well. But a surge in oil-to-gas reclassifications may put taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for oil wells drilled during boom times, including reimbursement for taxes paid years ago. Now, key lawmakers say the natural gas credit — considered a giveaway by some, an essential economic tool by others — deserves a new round of scrutiny. “I am very familiar with the high-cost gas exemption and its original purpose," Senate Finance Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, told The Texas Tribune in a statement. “This is a concerning trend that warrants review." House Appropriations Chairman John Otto, RDayton, and House Energy Chairman Drew Darby also say parts of the policy could use a fresh look after the measure shaved more than $8 billion off operators’ tax bills from 2008 through 2014,
TEXAS-MEXICO BORDER
By JULIÁN AGUILAR
Surge in oil-to-gas may be costly
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Texas drops HIV prevention program By ALEXA URA THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
Amid an ongoing battle over Planned Parenthood’s participation in the state Medicaid program, Texas health officials are cutting off funding to a Planned Parenthood affiliate for an HIV prevention program. In a notice received by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast late Monday, an official with the Department of State Health Services informed the Houstonbased provider that it
would not renew its contract for HIV prevention services. The long-standing grant, which funds HIV testing and prevention services, was set to expire on Dec. 31, according to the notice which was obtained by the Texas Tribune. “There will be no further renewals of this contract,” a DSHS official wrote in the notice to Planned Parenthood. The contract is federally funded through the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention but managed by the state. A spokeswoman for the CDC said she was unaware of the state’s notice and did not immediately provide comment. By ending Planned Parenthood’s contract, the state is cutting off almost $600,000 in annual funding, which the health care provider used for HIV testing and counseling, condom distribution and referral consultations. Through the grant, which Planned Parenthood
Gulf Coast has received since 1988, the organization served individuals with HIV in five counties in the Houston area. Since 2014, the grant has funded more than 138,000 HIV tests and helped in identifying 1,182 people with HIV, according to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.No other Planned Parenthood affiliate is currently a recipient of the grant. “I don’t know who else is going to fill that gap, and I don’t know if anyone can frankly,” said Rochelle
Tafolla, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. “Every time the state cuts these programs in an attempt to score political points…the true victims here are tens of thousands of women and men who no longer have access to health care that they need.” It’s unclear whether the state will reallocate the funds to a different provider in the area. A health department spokesman on Tuesday said the state was “working with local health
departments in the area to continue to provide these services.” The state’s move to end the HIV prevention funding is the latest in its ongoing efforts to cut off taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood.It comes two months after Texas Republican leaders announced they would kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurer of the poor. That action was spurred
See PROGRAM PAGE 11A