AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The cost of keeping illegal aliens in prison and providing them with medical care exceeded $250 million last year in Texas, according to state health and corrections officials.

The testimony before the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday came as lawmakers faced a projected state budget shortfall of up to $18 billion.

``We want to focus on what the real costs are for state services,'' said Rep. Burt Solomons, RCarrollton, the committee chairman. ``There's really not a lot of wholly accurate data.''

Jerry McGinty, the Texas Department of Corrections' chief financial officer, said state prisons held 11,766 offenders who are foreign citizens in July. He said it costs the state about $171 million per year to hold them, although the federal government reimburses about 10 percent of that total.

Rick Allgeyer, director of research for the Health and Human Services Commission, said illegal alien health care, mostly emergency hospital care, cost the state nearly $100 million last year.

Rep. Rene Oliveira, DBrownsville, said an Arizona type law allowing police to question anyone they stop about their citizenship status could fill every county jail in Texas. ``It would bust all our counties,'' said Oliveira.

Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, told fellow committee members that when making policy, ``you always have to be aware of unintended consequences.''

Gallego said there could be significant effects if law enforcement and other public agencies were asked to reallocate already-sparse resources to check citizenship of people in Texas.