THE PRICE OF THE PAUPERS

LAWSUITS If taxes go up in the near future, you can blame an 1876 law that says the county must support “paupers, idiots, and lunatics who cannot support themselves.” Dallas County recently lost a major class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of all the homeless people in the county, and County Commissioner JOHN WILEY PRICE is still angry at the jury. “I dare anyone to say that we’ve not dealt with our lunatics, idiots, paupers, and mentally ill.” he says. “We spent $30 million last year on them.” Price also lashes out at TOM KEEVER, chief of the civil section of the District Attorney’s office, who handled the case for the county.

The presiding juror on the case, MARTIN GOLMAN, says that he and the other jurors were simply overwhelmed by the problems of the homeless. “It upset me that in 1982, Dallas County gave grocery money to paupers of $61 a month, and in 1989 they were still giving only $61 a month.”

Meanwhile, the county has hired expensive outside consultants to review the case and possibly appeal it-a strategy, says plaintiffs’ attorney JOE CREWS, that will cost more money than taking proper care of the homeless. “And it’s going to cost more than legal fees,” he says. “In the interim, it will cost lives. Homeless people are going to die.”