ISSUES

We Need Change in Austin, Not More of the Same

The stakes are too high in Texas to allow our public policies to continue to be hijacked by narrow special interests. Let’s not settle for the thought that things could be worse. Let’s demand that things be better.


Public Education
When Austin shortchanges public education, our local schools suffer and a whole generation of children arrives for classes with their eyes on their shoes when they should be on the stars.

• Reverse the ratio of state-to-local public school funding to relieve the burden on local taxpayers and force the state to shoulder its fair share.
• Protect public schools and private schools by heading off any efforts to shift tax dollars from one to the other.
• Pay our teachers like the professionals they are.
• Roll back soaring tuition rates so that middle-class families can afford to send their kids to college again.

Public Health
The insurance industry has a stranglehold on the professional politicians in Austin, and the result is more than four million Texans with no health coverage at all — including more than one million children.

• Fully fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and draw down billions in available federal revenue.
• Solve the most severe nursing shortage in Texas history by training qualified medical personnel for local hospitals and clinics.
• Restore $50 million for vital mental health programs that were cut by the current leadership.
• Work with Washington to reverse cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors, which, if not reversed, could total 37 percent in less than a decade.

Public Safety
Texans have a right to feel safe in our homes, our businesses, our schools, and our neighborhood streets. That means getting tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.

• Give local police officers the resources and training they need to protect us.
• Increase proven drug and alcohol training in prisons, where 85 percent of inmates are incarcerated due to substance abuse-related crimes.
• Step up jail diversion initiatives to keep non-violent mentally ill inmates out of overcrowded prisons.
• Elect leaders whose strong personal ethics and good character reflect our mainstream values.

Public Integrity
From illegal corporate campaign cash to preying on underage pages in the halls of the nation’s capital, corruption has corroded modern-day politics and weakened our ability to resolve the major issues of the day.

• Enact strict new accountability measures in campaign finance laws to stop the ability of corporate special interests to subvert the public process.
• Record every vote in the Texas Legislature so citizens can monitor their elected representatives’ performance.
• Close the revolving door by imposing a five-year period before politicians-turned-lobbyists can peddle their influence at the State Capitol.
• Create an independent commission for redistricting and limit the process to once a decade following the decennial census.

Public Transportation
Our State population continues to grow, and we need new roads and methods of transportation to accommodate our growth. Privatization of our roadways and suddenly converting already paid for, publicly financed roads into toll roads is absolutely the wrong way to go, and the Trans Texas Corridor tops the list of what’s wrong with our State’s transportation policy. The politicians in Austin have lost their way if they think Texans will support government confiscation of private lands and farms to build a huge toll road through Texas, especially one owned by a foreign corporation. If this Corridor is realized, all Texas voters will get out of the deal is the exhaust fumes from the eighteen wheelers.

• Stop the Trans Texas Corridor in its tracks and call for congressional hearing to investigate who stands to benefit from this land grab.
• Work to guarantee that Texas receives its fair share of the federal gasoline tax to support construction of roads in Texas.
• Support the construction of commuter rail options within Senate District 11.
• Support tolls as a financing option only for certain newly constructed roads.

Public Legislation
Initiative is a process that allows citizens of many U.S. states to initiate and then vote directly on proposed legislation, but Texans have been denied that right statewide. Referendum is a process that allows voters to force a binding vote of the people on legislation passed by the Legislature. Texas allows home rule cities this power, but denies it statewide. If it’s good enough for cities, it’s good enough statewide. During my time as a councilman and Mayor pro Tem in Galveston, our citizens witnessed initiative and referendum in action on the local level, and both are positive and empowering processes. I want to see that power available to Texas voters statewide.

• Defend the people’s right to petition for a vote on issues (initiative & referendum), an important check and balance on the power of government officials.