The Bay City Tribune reports on our newly elected Texas House Representative Randy Weber's speech before the Bay City Chamber of Commerce.
On how he got elected:
Weber said he challenged Mike O'Day to replace Glenda Dawson's seat in the special election when she unexpectedly died in 2006.When O'Day announced his decision not to seek re-election he began the campaign that landed him a seat in the 81st legislature.
"When I began to run for this campaign I started making meetings all over the district. I went to school board meetings, city council meetings, auctions, grand openings of businesses, homeowners association meetings, military honors, town hall style meetings, service organizations, STP's information meetings, TXDOT meetings, really getting a good feel for the people that I represent," said Weber.
Weber also said that he had a meeting with four of the five school superintendents in Matagorda County just prior to the luncheon - allowing him time to find out what their priorities are."
As a result I developed a really, really good understanding for the people of this district."
How he has started representing the district's interests:
"I actually went to the very first air-quality caucus meeting held this session in Austin this past week," he said.
"I learned about how they measure air-quality output."Weber explained how he had been working with local consultants to really learn the important water issues in Matagorda County.
"I began to meet with some other state reps from around the area and already informed them that the SAWS project is watched regularly by us and the Colorado River is a big issue for us down here that we are going to be watching," said Weber."
That was news to them, they asked how come and we talked briefly about their proposal plans and how Matagorda County is situated and the economic impact it would have on us here."
The issues likely to dominate the upcoming session:
He explained the state of Texas has a $165 billion biennium budget and a few of the most important issues likely to be addressed are education funding, the franchise tax, Trans-Texas Corridor, water and property tax caps.
The accomplishments of the 80th Legislative session:
...a student religious liberties bill passed, the Texas state pledge of allegiance wording was changed to include the words "one state under God", two pro-life bills failed, a measure requiring the words "In God We Trust" displayed in the Senate and in the House passed, two pro-marriage bills passed, a bill requiring school districts to offer an elective Bible course passed, a transparency bill passed - requiring the comptroller and governor's office to post all of their expenses online, a bill allocating $5 million dollars for the collection of umbilical cord blood for stem cell research passed and property tax caps were not set.
During questioning, he commented on energy and education:
Mitch Thames, Bay City Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture president, posed the first question from the audience."I just think one of the issues you've not brought up, but is very important in Matagorda County and Texas, is the price of power per kilowatt. It just seems 19, 20 and 24-cents per kilowatt is ridiculous," said Thames.
"You are absolutely correct - we will be meeting and talking about that," said Weber.
Weber was also asked about his stance on seeing new home construction being built to good quality standards and his stance on allowing tax credits for homeowners who choose renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
...
A final question from the audience dealt with using some of the budget to help reduce costs of higher education. Weber said it is important to consider how every bill that passes is going to have an effect on the budget. He explained that there was talk of a bill that would provide for students who completed college within four years in Texas to receive debt forgiveness on their outstanding students loans. The bill would provide college students with incentive to complete their degree within the customary amount of time because research proves that the longer a student takes to complete their degree the higher likelihood they have of dropping out.
