Grumet: What if that $4 million went toward helping Texans instead?

They could have spent the money to help Texans.

They decided instead to spend our taxpayer dollars to appease Donald Trump.

Last week Gov. Greg Abbott and GOP legislative leaders used their emergency powers to move $4 million out of the state prison budget to fund election audits — this, despite the fact that the secretary of state’s office declared the 2020 elections to be “smooth and secure.” This, despite the fact that three-quarters of Texans believe the election results to be somewhat or very accurate, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.

The reporting by The Dallas Morning News’ Robert T. Garrett leaves no doubt about the motivations behind this $4 million effort: “Officials in Republican leadership offices at the Capitol said Abbott’s move is aimed primarily at an ‘audience of one’ — former President Donald Trump,” who had belittled Abbott’s earlier plan to audit only four counties’ election results as “weak.”

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Some might argue: It’s only $4 million. What difference does that make in the state’s two-year budget of $248 billion?

“But the fact is, that $4 million could cover a lot of other things that might actually make a difference,” state Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat, told me.

For instance, if Texas had an extra $4 million to spend:

Lawmakers could have restored the $1 million that was cut from the $20 million Nursing Shortage Reduction Program, designed to get more people through nursing school and into the health care jobs where they are desperately needed.

Lawmakers could have put extra money toward child care subsidies, which would help more parents get back to work and more businesses move forward. Texas remains one of a handful of states that put the minimum amount of federal funding toward child care subsidies.

Lawmakers could have put $830,000 toward a pilot program to provide pregnant women on Medicaid with doulas, trained professionals who provide support during the pregnancy. Studies have shown doula-assisted mothers are four times less likely to have a low birth weight baby and less likely to experience birth complications.

Lawmakers could have put $672,000 toward better supporting young adults aging out of the foster care system by extending certain services to age 23, not 21. That would keep a support system in place for these young adults while they are pursuing higher education.

Lawmakers could have put $860,000 toward requiring the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to develop a plan to reduce the racial disparities in the treatment of families referred for services. A 2018 study found Black kids in Texas are nearly twice as likely to be removed from homes as white kids.

Or lawmakers could have put the full $4 million toward expanding the Nurse-Family Partnership into underserved areas of East Texas, providing lower-income, first-time mothers with regular in-home visits by a registered nurse. The program elsewhere has improved health care outcomes for mothers and children, Howard told me.

Instead, Abbott put the $4 million toward appeasing Trump.

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Understandably, much of the debate over these “election audits” has centered not on the price tag, but on the cost to public confidence in our elections. Spending millions of dollars to scrutinize election results sends a message — an erroneous one — that our election results might not be that trustworthy.

As the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Texas noted this fall, after state officials announced the first four-county review of 2020 election results, these audits “undermine the hard work of county election officials and workers. They are aimed at ripping our election process apart and undermining our democratic foundation.”

And they are also, the league noted, “a waste of state resources and taxpayer money.”

Even if it’s only $4 million, those dollars could be put to much better use.

Grumet is the Statesman’s Metro columnist. Her column, ATX in Context, contains her opinions. Share yours via email at bgrumet@statesman.com or via Twitter at @bgrumet.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Grumet: What if that $4 million went toward helping Texans instead?