From the Senator's Desk…
December 14, 2006
Senator Shapleigh's notes and observations will keep you updated on what is happening behind the scenes in Austin and El Paso.
Written by Senator Eliot Shapleigh, www.shapleigh.org
Getting Ready for Session
Over the last few days, all our Senate staff has come together to get ready for the upcoming 80th Session of the Texas Legislature. Before every session, we gather ideas from neighbors who have visited with us, educators who want better public schools, families who want CHIP health insurance, students at UTEP and small businessmen and women who are trying to earn a living. From your ideas, we craft an agenda on how to keep El Paso and Texas moving forward.
Several sessions back, one of El Paso's leading small businessmen brought us an idea to make it easier to file papers in Austin to start a new company. From that idea was born "Texas Online," one of the best state websites in the US.
Students at Bel Air talked to us about computers in classrooms. From that initiative came the "Texas Laptop Immersion Project," an ambitious plan to put laptops for every student in Texas right in the classroom.
Some years ago, several El Pasoans who wanted to see clean air came to us. Together we crafted a bill where fines levied in Texas could be used to remedy air quality issues anywhere in our regional airshed. As a result, hundreds of brick kilns in Juarez have now been re-engineered so as not to pollute our air.
For several days now, we have sorted through many of your good ideas and plan now to take them to Austin. As a delegation, we meet every week to go over El Paso's Agenda to move our ideas, initiatives and dreams to reality.
With a budget surplus this session, we are very confident of our number one goal – funding our four year medical school in 2007!
Have a happy holiday, a great New Year and always, keep the faith!
Senator Eliot Shapleigh
El Paso, Texas
