Burnt Orange Report

40/40: Howard and Rider On the Issues

By Phillip Martin

I know K-T has already graciously announced a BOR endorsement for the HD 48 Special Election, but I wanted to go ahead and finish our even-handed week-long look at Donna Howard and Kathy Rider. Click on the jump below for a comparison of where Howard and Rider stand on the issues of vouchers, reforming taxes for school finance, insurance reform, children's health insurance, tuition deregulation, and more.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for an op-ed piece from each candidate.

Vouchers

Both candidates are strongly opposed to vouchers. Howard has said that - while some pilot programs for school vouchers may be worth a look further down the line - to even think of spending public dollars for private school education is totally unacceptable. Rider is 100% against vouchers, and believes that vouchers are a subsidy to those people who have already given up on public schools.

Reforming Taxes for School Finance

Both candidates eagerly await the Tax Reform Commission's recommendation. Kathy Rider believes that an increase in the sales tax on cigarettes and alchohol is worth exploring, and that such a tax could generate as much as $3 billion in additional revenue for the state. Rider also would be in support of a 1% business activity tax, but would want to exclude the health care industry from such a tax (to see why, read her interview here). Howard mentioned no specifics in her interview, saying that she was committed to a broad based tax that was fair to businesses and taxpayers alike.

Insurance Reform

Howard and Rider both talked about the need to lower insurance premiums for Texas consumers. Howard believes that the Legislature needs to follow through on its promise to lower homeowners insurance. Rider spoke more about the way that increased insurance rates - coupled with high utility bills, as well as the increased cost of higher education, health care, and higher property taxes - tend to suffocate lower income families.

CHIP vs. Texas Enterprise Fund

Both candidates talked about how the state needs to maximize the amount of federal dollars it pulls down for CHIP. Howard went on to say that, without the accountability for the Enterprise Fund, we can never be sure what it's doing to attract businesses, while we know what we get when we invest in children's health insruance.

Higher Education and Tuition Deregulation

When I asked the candidates about tuition deregulation, here's what they said:

Kathy Rider: "We cannot continue to push for our children to go to college and then make it harder for them to afford it."

Donna Howard: "We are pricing college out of the reach of too many Texas families." She went on to say that she doesn't blame the universities for raising the cost of tuition; rather, she believes the state has cut too much money from higher education.

Gay Adoption and Abortion Rights

Since neither of these issues are expected to come up in the special election, I didn't press too hard for detailed answers. However, both candidates said that they are pro-choice, and that we should never try to take a child away from a caring, loving home.