Bell poverty rate lower than state’s: Figures may not tell whole story

from The Temple Daily Telegram

Carroll Wilson

Telegram Managing Editor

Bell County’s poverty rate is lower than that of Texas as a whole, according to new figures from the Census Bureau.

But, the rate for young people in Temple school district and several surrounding districts is higher.

Another data set just released by the government shows that the average weekly wage in Bell County is $630. That’s $32,760 a year.

But some local experts say the numbers don’t even come close to telling the whole story about the poor and the middle class here.

Cynthia Russell, who has headed up Churches Touching Lives for Christ for 14 years in Temple, doubts the poverty data.

“I don’t even know how you’d do a census here,” she said, noting the high number of people she sees who are homeless.

“If you think about food stamps, you can’t get a Lone Star Card unless you live at the poverty level, and we have 10,400 files over here on people who come in or have come in, and we don’t see everybody,” she said. “People are falling through the cracks. Families with children. On the street, men and women, and we have a tremendous number of veterans on the streets here, and they’re well below poverty level. We get new ones in all the time. We keep food for them. They’re not giving the proper number. Sixteen percent is too low.”

Connie Minnick of Temple Free Clinic said the number of children in poverty in Bell County sounded low to her, although the clinic no longer sees kids.

“I don’t think that’s too far off,” said Judy Morales of Bell County Help Center. But she, like others, suggested the poverty rate itself is no indicator of what’s going on in this area when it comes to the economic health of individuals and families.

“What we’re seeing a lot is the middle class having more struggles because of the increase in daily needs,” she said. She said the weekly wage is low here, and a great many people work two jobs to make ends meet.

Senior citizens on fixed incomes are particularly hard-hit these days, she said, by high fuel and grocery prices.

“We’re seeing more and more on fixed incomes come to see how to keep their utilities on and not be evicted,” she said.

Morales noted that a large number of students in Bell County are on the free or reduced-price meals programs.

Regina Baird of the Temple school district reported that 63.7 percent of Temple students are participants.

The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), headquartered in Texas, has long criticized the use of the federal poverty rate to measure the well-being of people.

Last August, the center issued its own report, saying that a family with two parents and two children would need to make $45,528 annually to make ends meet in the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan statistical area. A single parent with two children would need to earn $35,790.

Dr. Jose Martinez, a professor of social work at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, said by every measure, Texas ranks below average when it comes to helping people.

“Historically, Texas has had a higher poverty rate than the rest of the country,” he said. “The same applies with health care. And the same with education levels. In a word, what could be called the safety net in Texas is not much of a net in comparison with the rest of the country. It’s interesting in a way. Texas is one of the wealthiest states in terms of potential resources. But, the situation is that a large number of people don’t benefit from that. The potential is there. It’s possible to help. We just don’t.”

According to the CPPP, Texans have seen a decline in the real value of their incomes.

“The purchasing power of Texas wages has been stagnant since 1979, despite the increased cost of living,” the CPPP reported.

And, Texans are less likely to receive employer-sponsored health insurance than are workers in other states. The Dallas Morning News recently reported that Texas has the highest number of residents without insurance - 25 percent.

In addition, Texas has high sales and property taxes that hit lower-paid workers the hardest.