In classrooms across Texas, teachers and students are counting down the days until summer vacation. In an almost identical countdown here at the Capitol, legislators are marking the days left until the end of session. As I write this, we are at 18.
Five things that happened this week at your Texas Capitol are:
School testing relief
On Monday, as students around the state were taking the STAAR test, the Senate was debating the future of such exams. We voted unanimously in favor of HB 5 to cut the number of tests required to graduate from 15 to five.
The April Child Abuse Awareness Poster Contest was open to all fourth graders in Henderson County. More than 350 posters were turned in with 11 school districts participating. The poster contest is sponsored by the Henderson County Child Advocacy Center, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, Henderson County Attorney and District Attorney’s Offices.The four schools that are pictured are Southside Elementary, Lakeview Elementary, Cross Roads Elementary and Murchison. Each participant received a goody bag filled with candy and a gift card to McDonalds. The 1st thru 3rd place winners received Walmart gift cards in their goody bags.
CROSS ROADS ELEMENTARY: Pictured are winners from Cross Roads with Sheriff Ray Nutt, Clint Davis, County Attorney, and Deputy Jannell Dunnington, HCSO.
LAKEVIEW ELEMENTARY: Pictured are winners from Lakeview Elementary with Deputy Jannell Dunnington, HCSO, Clint Davis, County Attorney, Scott McKee, District Attorney and Major Jessica Halbert, HCSO.
MURCHISON ELEMENTARY: Pictured are winners from Murchison Elementary with Deputy Jannell Dunnington, HCSO, Scott McKee, District Attorney, Clint Davis, County Attorney, and Mrs. Schmidt, 4th grade teacher.
SOUTHSIDE ELEMENTARY: Pictured are winner from Southside Elementary with Major Jessica Halbert, HCSO and Clint Davis, County Attorney.
Mayor Jerry Don Vaught signs the proclamation declaring Tourism Week May 4-12. The travel industry is one of Texas’ largest industries with visitor spending generating $63.2 billion and directly supporting 545,000 jobs with earnings of $17.6 billion. Henderson County generated $110.1 million in visitor spending and supported 480 jobs with earnings of $17.6 million. National Tourism Week is annually recognized the first full week in May, a tradition first celebrated in 1984. Pictured from left to right are Tracie Lyda, America’s Best Value Inn; Sherri Skeeters, Tourism Coordinator; Mayor Jerry Don Vaught; Pam Burton, City Administrator. (COURTESY PHOTO)
As hard as it is to believe, there is only one month left in the 83rd legislative session. This is my 11th session to serve the people of House District 10, and it never ceases to amaze me how each session takes on its own identity. So far, this session has been marked by cooperation and respectful debate, and I am very proud of the job that my colleagues have done so far.
My primary role this session as the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee is to work on the budget for the state of Texas. As a part-time legislature, we are only in session every other year, and therefore we write a two-year budget. The budget we are currently working on will cover the time period starting September 1, 2013 and ending August 31, 2015.
In January, the Comptroller issued the Biennial Revenue Estimate, which gives the legislature the amount of revenue that is estimated to come to the state over that time period and thus how much there will be to spend. Oftentimes the Comptroller will issue an updated BRE at some point in the session, but that has not taken place so far this time around.
The Appropriations Committee spent the first two months of session working hard to produce the House version of the budget. The next step was to take the bill, SB 1, to the House floor, where our colleagues in the House voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill and send it back over to the Senate.
The Senate has been working on their own version of the budget, which differs from ours in some areas. The way that we resolved these differences is through a Conference Committee. The Conference Committee Senate Bill 1 is now officially underway, and I am very proud to be working alongside my fellow House Conferees – Reps Sylvester Turner, John Otto, John Zerwas, and Myra Crownover. We will be negotiating with the 5 Senate Conferees – Sen. Tommy Williams, who serves as the Senate Finance Chairman, as well as Senators Robert Duncan, Chuy Hinojosa, John Whitmire, and Jane Nelson.
The Conference process is where we are tasked with coming to an agreement on each and every item in the budget that may be different in the original House and Senate versions. While this is by no means an easy task, I believe it is a vital step in the process, and ensures that the final budget will represent the will of both chambers of the legislature.
It is my goal that the budget we ultimately pass is able to provide the necessary investments to keep our economy growing and ensure a bright and prosperous future for our state. Some of our top priorities are to strengthen our public schools, increase the amount of financial aid available to allow our best and brightest students to access Higher Education, make significant investments in mental health funding, and increase the amount of Graduate Medical Education slots to help address the growing need for physicians throughout Texas.
This is my fourth session to have the privilege to serve as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and to take on the task of writing and passing a budget. I am honored to work on behalf of my constituents in Ellis and Henderson counties and everyone else lucky enough to call Texas their home.
State Representative Jim Pitts is from Waxahachie, TX in Ellis County and has represented District 10 in the House of Representatives since 1993.
