End of the 79th Session Letter From Senator Shapleigh to El Pasoans
June 2, 2005
We must fight everyday, every session to ensure that the voice of our citizens is heard loud and clear in the halls of Austin, and resolve to never quit advancing the cause of our great community.
Written by Senator Shapleigh, www.shapleigh.org
Dear Friend:
Our 'Border' is home to a proud and resilient people who live in fast growing communities, work hard to educate their children and are full of hope for a prosperous future. At the heart of our hope for the future is a strong belief in the American Dream. We in Texas, especially along the Border, must demand a government that invests in "21st-Century Educational Excellence." We must insist on great universities with doors open to all students, regardless of their socioeconomic status, and a quality health care system that is accessible and affordable. In El Paso, where half of the children have no health insurance, we must insist on a bold agenda of investment in our people and our future. When we left for Austin, our El Paso Five Star Agenda set forth a clear investment strategy for our people and our region. Some of the essential elements of our plan included:
- Public school finance system that guaranteed equity, put more funding into great schools and motivated teachers, substantially reduced property taxes and paid for schools with fair taxes that did not burden middle income Texans.
- $61 million for Texas Tech University (TTU) faculty at El Paso's four-year medical school.
- $7 million in TTU Tuition Revenue Bonds (TRB) Debt Service to pay for Medical and Research buildings for El Paso's four-year medical school.
- Funding for a Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Transportation Studies Center in El Paso to conduct research, education, and technology transfer to improve the safety of Texas' roads and highways.
- Restoration of cuts made to the CHIP and Medicaid programs by the 78th Legislature in 2003.
- Elimination of predatory lending practices.
- Financial literacy through financial education programs in high schools.
Over the session, our delegation worked together to pass legislation and budget riders that are essential to our Five Star Agenda. As you know, over the last five sessions, we made significant progress toward the goals outlined by this plan, such as our four-year medical school. Via a last minute Amendment No. 2 which we attached to HB 10, the Senate appropriated $37 million to hire the faculty for the first four-year medical school along the U.S.-Mexico Border. This money was in addition to the $7 million for debt service for the Medical Education Building that had been secured by the Senate under S.B. 1. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of our office and a team of dedicated El Paso business leaders, during final budget negotiations, the Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick, removed the $37 million from HB 10. Under H.B. 2329, we secured $30 million for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to fund a comprehensive effort to refurbish and modernize older UTEP campus facilities, including classroom and teaching laboratories, and to achieve compliance with campus fire and safety codes. Unfortunately, as was the case with many Senate initiatives, the bill was killed in conference committee negotiations with the House of Representatives.
Despite the tough loss on the medical school funding, our office successfully passed or co-authored many initiatives. Here are a few:
- Fought to prevent increased sales taxes that would have 'shifted' billions of dollars of new taxes to hardworking El Paso families in sales, auto, beer, and business taxes.
- Fought to make sure that new funding into schools was "equitable" so that every school got the same amount of funding.
- Fought for the El Paso four-year medical school and put funding in the Senate version of HB 10 to fully fund faculty.
- Restored vision, dental, and mental health to Children's Health Insurance Program coverage.
- Passed significant BRAC bills to help military families in Texas and military communities build infrastructure and schools.
- Passed the Texas Soldier's Payday Protection Act to prevent predatory lending abuses on Texas soldiers.
- Passed the Texas Financial Literacy Act to insure that every Texas child gets a great education on basic finances like balancing a checkbook, using a credit card, and buying a home.
- Fought to create a second sales tax holiday in December.
- Created the first Intelligent Transportation Institute for the U.S./Mexico border in El Paso.
- Co-authored the Texas Rail Facility Act to focus rail projects in major metropolitan areas.
- Authored the Texas-Mexico Commission to enhance cross border planning.
- Authored key Adult Protective Service reforms.
- Passed a rider to fund Adult Workforce Curriculum.
As you can see, by working together, setting forth a clear vision for the future, and insisting on investment in our people, we fought to enact an agenda that invested in our children and our future. We fully expect a special session to address the issues of higher education, which will give us another opportunity to address our four year medical school. Given the state's investment to date, in buildings and endowments, we fully expect to the medical school to move forward. As we have learned, the important aspect of this job is to define our agenda to fight every day, every session to ensure that the voice of our citizens is heard loud and clear in the halls of Austin, and resolve to never ever quit advancing the cause of our great community.
Very truly yours,
Eliot Shapleigh