Issue Position: Common Sense Government

Issue Position

Local Control for Local Growth

In Texas, counties have no power to plan for growth and guide development in their unincorporated territory. I will push to give counties more power to plan for the immense growth happening in Texas, particularly in District 45. Not only do counties need more power to guide development in their territories, but the legislature needs to stop forcing one-size-fits-all requirements on cities and counties like the restriction on tree ordinances passed last legislative session. Different communities have different priorities and many communities across the state have created innovative programs and policies to address issues and problems the state legislature has chosen to ignore or exacerbate. Cities and counties need to have the power to be able to dictate how their communities look and operate when it comes to regulations like dark skies, hours of operation for businesses, minimum wage requirements, noise ordinances, and water conservation policies.

Reducing Gun Violence

The only way we'll get any sort of gun safety reform in Texas is to work closely with grassroots activists. I am committed to working with Moms Demand Action, a group that is using the model of Mothers Against Drunk Driving to build bottom-up support for common sense gun safety protections. In fact, Moms Demand Action has given me the Gun Sense Candidate distinction.

In a time when more and more Americans are concerned about gun violence, Texas has an opportunity to push for safe storage guidelines and liability for gunowners who don't follow them, closing the background check loopholes, and restricting access to weapons of war. To address mass shootings, the most important things Texas can address in the short term are restricting access to large magazine clips, and mirroring the regulation of semiautomatic rifles to current regulation of semiautomatic handguns. There is no justification for the current way that semiautomatic rifles are regulated, which is the same way that single-action hunting rifles are regulated.

Long term, Texas needs to adopt better screening systems for gun violence, particularly related to domestic violence incidents, which almost always precede mass shootings.

Fair Taxes

Texas' revenue system needs updating. Our state taxes are regressive - households with the lowest incomes pay the highest percentage of their income in taxes; households with the highest incomes pay the lowest percentage of their income in taxes. In other words, those who can least afford it pay the most. The poorest 20% of Texans pay an average of over 12% of their income in state and local taxes while the top 1% pay an average of under 3%. Meanwhile the Legislature has cut the corporate franchise tax.

Texas state revenue comes from various taxing resources such as sales taxes, franchise taxes, natural gas and oil production taxes, and motor vehicle sales taxes. Property taxes, however, only go to school districts, cities, counties, and special purpose districts like water districts. Property tax bills have risen tremendously in recent years, and House District 45 has not been spared in this increase. The reason for this has a lot to do with the scaleback of state support for public schools. This has forced school districts to raise their tax rates to make up for that diminishing state support. Increasing the money that the state provides to local school districts will go a long way to lower Texan's tax bills.

As your legislator, I will work to diversify Texas's revenue sources, to make our tax structure more progressive, and to reduce the burden on local property taxes.

Transportation

Many residents of House District 45 do not work in the same city that they live in, with the majority traveling up IH-35 every day to work in Austin. That commute continues to get longer and longer, eating up valuable time spent with family and loved ones, among other frustrating effects. Texas needs to focus strategically on multimodal and regional transportation options to help Central Texans with their commutes, which will result in less wear and tear on roads that the state is struggling to maintain currently. Further, I staunchly oppose any public tax dollars going towards the building of toll roads. No Texan should have to pay twice to drive on a road.

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