Texas Has New Leaders: A Review Of The South Texas Mayors' Summit

by: Katherine Haenschen

Tue Mar 26, 2013 at 04:39 PM CDT

Members of New Leaders Texas with Mayor Julian Castro and Ramiro Garza, City Manager of Edinburg This past weekend, New Leaders Texas held the first South Texas Mayors' Summit, which brought together municipal, legislative, and Congressional leaders to discuss the needs of South Texas and how government can rise to address the challenges we're facing. Here with a first-hand account is Austin Kaplan, a member of New Leaders Texas who helped plan the Summit.

Texas Has New Leaders - A Review Of The South Texas Mayors' Summit
By Austin Kaplan

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, the keynote speaker at the New Leaders Texas Foundation's South Texas Mayors' Summit, said it best: "there is a new generation of leadership in Texas."

The New Leaders Texas Foundation organized this Summit in Edinburg as a way of convening community and civic leaders and elected officials from around Texas to talk about the needs and enormous potential of the unique South Texas region (full disclosure - the author is a member of New Leaders Texas and helped plan the Summit).  Panelists addressed the border, energy, education, and healthcare, and the Summit offered numerous opportunities for South Texas leaders to informally talk, organize, and strategize.  More than 100 leaders from South Texas were present each day, including Congressmen Joaquín Castro, Filemon Vela, and Rubén Hinojosa (the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair), and Mayors Richard Garcia (Edinburg), Raul Salinas (Laredo), San Juanita Sanchez (San Juan), Tony Martinez (Brownsville), and Chris Boswell (Harlingen).

Continued below the jump...

Democrats Move to Fix School Finance Immediately

by: Michael Hurta

Fri Feb 08, 2013 at 09:26 PM CST

But an idea popped up into the head of some state legislators: our children deserve better.

It was clear from Democrats' statements then that they didn't want to wait quite that long. They want to fix school finance this session, because even if the Supreme Court reverses Judge Dietz's adverse ruling -- we can't really be proud as Texas leaders if we fund our schools in a constitutionally questionable way.

As it turns out, Democrats are moving with every asset they have to immediately bring our schools back to par. Yesterday, six state representatives sent a letter to Governor Perry asking for school finance to be declared an emergency item. Bills can be passed addressing emergency items immediately, while most bills cannot be passed until after a large chunk of session. The key argument from the letter:

You have criticized the federal government for creating a "climate of uncertainty" for business. Texas leaders should be held to no less of a standard. After cuts of last session, the public schools responsible for over five million children deserve confidence that they will be adequately funded.

Unfortunately, Rick Perry is among the Republicans in Texas who have shown an anti-education tilt, so it would shock everyone to see him declare the emergency item.

So, Democrats have two other moves up their sleeves.

First, from Yvonne Davis, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, on the caucus's behalf:

the House Democratic Leader and Democratic members announce their intent to offer an amendment to the supplemental budget. This amendment will utilize the budget surplus and restore $5.4 billion in funding to public education that was cut last session as well as pursue ways to fund education this biennium.

What's the supplemental appropriations bill? It's a bill that helps pay for things that the Texas Legislature didn't agree to pay for last session. That is, the Texas Legislature didn't think it could pay for a full 2 years of Texas government, so it used an accounting trick. So we're going to pay for the rest of the current two year cycle before we write our next budget. The problem, of course, is that Republicans don't seem to consider billions of dollars in education cuts as money that should be paid on the last budget.

The supplemental appropriations bill is important. It has to pass. And it needs 100 votes in the House. Republicans have 95. They need Democrats to support, so Democrats have a little leverage to return some money to education there. (You'd think, of course, that Democrats wouldn't need leverage; that Republicans would want to give schools their money back, too.)

Meanwhile, Representative Trey Martinez Fischer has found that the Texas House can create their own emergency items.

From the Mexican American Legislative Caucus's press release:

Today, MALC Chairman Trey Martinez Fischer called to be recognized to dissolve the House into a Committee of the Whole, in order to consider school finance reform. Chairman Martinez Fischer is recognized as an authority on the Texas House Rules. Last legislative session, he successfully bought to light procedural defects in legislation by deploying 11 of 16 points of order. Under Rule 4, Sec. 51, the Texas House has the ability to create a Committee of the Whole to consider any matter. In addition, in order to pass legislation from the Committee of the Whole within the first 60 days of the legislative session, 120 members must suspend Art. III, Sec. 5(b) of the Texas Constitution.

In the past, the Texas State Legislature has acted on issues of the upmost importance while litigation is pending. In 2009, the legislature modified the top ten percent plan (S.B. 175) while litigation that would have affected admissions to institutions of higher education was pending. Further, in 2007, the legislature acted with all due diligence to enact Jessica's law (H.B. 8) despite pending litigation on the matter.    

"While members of the Leadership have held that we must wait until the Texas Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of our state's school finance system, it is clear that we have the ability, within our rules, to act today," said Chairman Martinez Fischer. "We have the opportunity to prove that education is our number one priority. There is a clear path to begin the debate of restoring education funding cuts and fixing our broken school finance system."

The Dallas Morning News reported that Martinez Fischer's parliamentary inquiries to Speaker Straus won't be answered until Monday. But the jist is that Martinez Fischer wants to ask our state representatives if our children are worth helping immediately. It's not just on Perry: it's on everyone.  

And it seems, through Martinez-Fischer's plan and the amendment coming to the supplemental appropriations bill, state representatives will have at least two opportunities to show their constituents if they think that children are worth it. Keep an eye out. With any luck, we may adequately fund our schools next week.  

González & Rodriguez: Why the Latino community should care about reproductive health

by: Michael Hurta

Sun Feb 03, 2013 at 04:59 PM CST

As colleagues and legislators, we have been discussing the current status and future of reproductive health care in Texas. Recent political discourse has prompted us to reignite a community conversation in hopes of raising some awareness about the intersections of race, class, and gender when it comes to health care.

There are plenty of setbacks already facing Latinos when it comes to health care. Latinos make up more than one out of every two uninsured people in Texas and about 30 percent of the uninsured nationwide.

Overwhelming evidence continues to prove that Latinas are bearing the brunt of the damage when our leaders fail to address women's health issues.  Funding and awareness for programs that would improve the health of our mothers, sisters, and daughters has continued to be put off. However, we cannot stress enough the importance of addressing it now more than ever. Here in Texas, Latinas continue to suffer from the 67 percent cut in the state's family planning budget in 2011. Other programs- like the Women's Health Program- remain at a standstill while the state searches for enough providers for the over 130,000 low-income, uninsured individuals enrolled in the program.

Republicans have worked hard to make abortion and family planning synonymous with each other - something that isn't true and which we need to work to undo. This is about the health of our families and children. Latino legislators should be working their hardest to change the conversation.

Latinas have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. When it comes to diseases like cervical cancer, Latinas also have the highest incidence among all racial and ethnic groups, as well as the second highest mortality rate in the nation. Many strains of HPV cause cervical cancer, which can easily be treated if caught early. However, with rapid closures of Texas family planning clinics during the past several years, we've seen a rise in sexually transmitted diseases as well - another negative impact on our community.

Despite all of these facts that demonstrate the impact on our community, there are still some who question whether reproductive health should be incorporated as part of a larger Latino political agenda. Our community will continue to be at the forefront of this damage if we avoid addressing these issues. We must converse with our Latino legislators and leaders about the negative impact the lack of preventative care for reproductive health has had on individuals and our community.

The facts are that Latinos will suffer significantly from inaction. We must engage our friends, family, and community because we cannot ignore these issues any longer. The time for Latinos to care about reproductive health is now.

We invite you to look at the following statistics and share with those around you to further engage and bring awareness to our community:

Nation-wide:

• Nearly one in three people uninsured in the U.S. is Hispanic (30.1 percent of Hispanics)
• Uninsured rates are substantially higher among non-citizen Latinos

In Texas:

• 37 percent of Texans are uninsured
• Texas women have the third-highest rate of cervical cancer in the country
• The incidence of cervical cancer is approximately 19 percent higher in Texas than the national average
• For Latinas the rate of cervical cancer incidence in Texas is 11 percent higher than the national average for Latinas
• In Texas, Latinas are nearly 36 percent more likely to die of cervical cancer than their white counterparts
• Latinas in Texas are nearly 26 percent more likely to die of cervical cancer compared to Latinas nationally

Perry in Wonderland: A Realistic Response to the State of the State

by: Mary González

Tue Jan 29, 2013 at 02:42 PM CST

But let's get back to reality.

We all know what the real Texas is like-- the Texas that continues to be overlooked. The last fourteen years has created an insular, out of touch Governor who can't look past the reports and charts on his desk to see that millions of Texans need a greater investment in education, infrastructure, and health care. The Governor's tax plan short-changes working Texas families while providing huge, unnecessary corporate tax credits. We could actually invest in our colleges and universities, our public schools, a substantial and comprehensive reproductive health program, but instead our Governor chooses to throw opportunity away.

No matter what Governor Perry may say, our neighborhood public schools need a Governor who cares if our children are learning, not what they score on a standardized test. As Texas Politifact wrote last week, education spending has dropped 20% since 2004. In 2010, 40% of Texas Hispanics did not have a high school degree. In my own House District 75, 20% over 25 have not graduated from high school.

Yet when the Governor speaks with his staff, he sees testing as a way to create accountability. When I speak with my constituents, like I did this past weekend, I hear about how high-stakes testing is ruining our public schools. The first step to stronger public schools is to restore the billions of dollars that were cut in 2011 and throw out the failed high-stakes testing schemes.

And while Governor Perry seems to throw accountability around in every education speech he writes, he doesn't seem to hold himself very accountable for the 6.3 million uninsured Texans he represents. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country, and Governor Perry wants to keep it that way. From the recently restored mansion, Governor Perry cannot see the 1.5 million Texans who would benefit from Medicaid expansion, effectively sending billions of Texas taxpayer dollars to states like New York and California.

Governor Perry has chosen to use his position to legislate based on ideology, not sensibility. Because of this, our communities, families, and children in this state will continue to pay the price. How are we supposed to trust our leaders when they refuse to notice there are changes that need to be made? Texas deserves not to be lied to. Myself and others are working to address the real issues and be honest with our constituents. We're working to bring change and make a better Texas happen now.

Friday Afternoon Round-Up: Starr County, Dick Armey, and Drunk-Driving Data

by: Katherine Haenschen

Fri Jan 11, 2013 at 03:00 PM CST

• Way to go, Starr County! The south Texas county had the 10th highest vote share for President Obama in 2012, where he racked up 86% of the vote. All 10 are majority-minority counties, and many are in the South. Maybe Texas Democrats can call our resurgence the Starr County Strategy.
  
  
• Newly minted Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro (CD-20) was elected president of the freshmen Democrats by his fellow first-termers. Excellent!
  
  
• State Representative Mary Gonzalez (HD-75) is getting some positive press in her first week on the job. Gonzalez is the first openly gay woman elected to the Lege. It's a great step forward for Texas, and I'm confident that Representative Gonzalez' historic contributions to our state will go beyond identity politics.
  
  
• One-man Dick Armey accidentally gave a dishy interview to liberal Media Matters, thinking it was the conservative Media Research Center, reports the Daily Caller. Right-wing bloggers got really mad. Armey's interview was quite juicy, calling the $1 million FreedomWorks spent on Glenn Beck a waste and a mistake. (Duh. I could have told y'all that.) The interview is here.
  
  
• Heh heh, Ted "the UN is coming for our golf courses" Cruz said that Chuck Hagel's views are "not in the mainstream". By the by, Cruz also thinks sharia law is a huge problem here in the US. Cruz is not exactly the arbiter of "mainstream" thought these days, except maybe in the GOP.
  
  
• The Atlantic today pondered if there is less drunk driving in the South, or just less data. The South has lackluster public transit, and presumably high levels of drinking, so should that correlate to high rates of drunk driving? Turns out something's amiss with the data collection.

On that note, if you're here in Austin, come join the Austin Young Democrats for our monthly happy hour tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 at Donn's Depot. All are welcome!

The Latest Equality News from Texas & the Nation

by: Nick Hudson

Fri Jun 15, 2012 at 00:00 PM CDT

Texas Democrats added marriage equality to their platform during the convention in Houston last weekend.

President Obama will host a reception at the White House today in observance of Gay Pride Month

Equality Texas is hitting back hard against University of Texas associate sociology professor Mark Regenerus's methodologically-flawed research which purports to demonstrate that children of straight, married parents do better on a range of social, emotional and relationship outcomes than children of same-sex parents. Unsurprisingly, homophobic groups like the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, and Texas Eagle Forum are trumpeting the junk science as proof of the dangers of gay parenting.

Less than one year after the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Pentagon announced today that it will mark June as Gay Pride month and hold its first event honoring gay and lesbian troops. A Navy Spokesman said about Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, "Now that we've repealed 'don't ask, don't tell,' he feels it's important to find a way this month to recognize the service and professionalism of gay and lesbian troops."

Boy Scouts of America is being petitioned to end its longstanding ban on gay scouts by Scouts for Equality, and Ernst and Young CEO James Turley, a prominent national Boy Scouts board member, issued a statement this week demonstrating support for ending the Boy Scouts discriminatory policy

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association recently released their State Sponsored Homophobia Report. The report is a world survey of laws prohibiting same sex activity between consenting adults. Check out their world map below, and click here to view maps of other areas of the world.

The Latest Equality News from Texas & the Nation

by: Nick Hudson

Thu May 31, 2012 at 01:02 PM CDT

El Paso County Democrats elected Latina lesbian Mary Gonzalez (pictured right) to represent Texas House District 75 on Tuesday night. Since there is no Republican opponent in November's general election, Mary Gonzalez's victory in Tuesday's primary ensures that Mary is the State Representative-Elect from District 75. The Texas Equity PAC gave Mary its first-ever endorsement in a primary election race, and it actively supported Mary Gonzalez's candidacy. Congratulations to Mary and to Texas Equity PAC!

A 3-judge federal appeals court this morning unanimously ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. The court said the denial of federal benefits to married gay couples was not " adequately supported by any permissible federal interest."

California is poised to become the first state to limit 'Ex-Gay' Therapy. The California Senate passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit children younger than 18 from undergoing the repudiated therapies that purport to change a child's sexual orientation.

More than two dozen gay and lesbian couples in Illinois filed lawsuits Wednesday challenging the state law that denies them the right to marry. Currently, gay and lesbian couples in Illinois are only able to enter into the downgraded version of marriage, civil unions.

Gay marriage opponents in the State of Washington say they have the signatures to qualify a proposed referendum, R-74, seeking to deny gay couples the right to marry. Washington's governor signed Marriage Equality into law in February, and a poll released yesterday shows it has strong public support. By a margin of 54-33, Washington voters support the new law.

Hector Enriquez, TAB, and Their Fight Against Basic School Standards

by: Michael Hurta

Tue May 22, 2012 at 00:30 PM CDT

Enriquez also holds the dubious distinction as being the only non-incumbent Democrat to be endorsed by TAB. (And even then, TAB only endorsed 2 House incumbents - one who is unopposed). So, they're going out on a limb for this guy. They tend to endorse Republicans, and they definitely don't endorse normal, unsafe Democrats. Not in primaries...except Enriquez.

Perhaps it has to do with their part in the school finance lawsuits. That's what the Texas State Teachers Association believes, who sent this in a press release last week:

El Paso educators today challenged District 75 legislative candidate Hector Enriquez to explain why he apparently is promoting a special interest lawsuit that could devastate public schools in El Paso County.

"Mr. Enriquez is either unaware of the damage this lawsuit could inflict on our schools, or he is joining  forces with those who would destroy our public education system," said Glenda Hawthorne, president of the Socorro Education Association.  

Enriquez recently re-tweeted news that the Texas Association of Business (TAB) has joined a lawsuit filed by charter and private school advocates, which attempts to strike down education standards and safeguards crucial to maintaining a strong learning environment for students. Enriquez, a candidate for the Texas House District 75 seat in the May 29 Democratic primary, has been endorsed by TAB.

TAB joined the so-called "efficiency" lawsuit, which claims Chapter 21 of the Education Code is unconstitutional.  The net effect of striking Chapter 21 would be repealing the 22-to-1 class size cap for elementary students, removing all training and certification requirements for teachers, eliminating critical class-preparation periods for teachers and jeopardizing teacher retirement benefits.

While it is encouraging to see anyone take issue with this Republican Legislature's record on public education, the largest problem is the gigantic slashes to funding, not standards that keep our education from going lower.

It's hard to tell exactly how conservative Enriquez's education ideas are, but between TAB, his Perry donations, and his scant issues page, we can probably connect the dots. You would think that a candidate in a safe Democratic seat would be a prouder progressive.

Burnt Orange Report Endorses Mary Gonzalez in HD-75

by: Burnt Orange Report

Tue May 15, 2012 at 10:30 AM CDT

Mary Gonzalez is an inspiring candidate. She has dedicated her life and career to helping others succeed, as an educator, Hispanic community organizer, and legislative staffer. The voters of HD-75 could hardly ask for a better individual to represent them in the state house. We are confident that she will do what is in the best interest of the people in her district, while also actively working towards our progressive goals here in Texas.

Gonzalez has the experience necessary to provide exemplary constituent services for her district. She worked for State Representatives Paul Moreno and Richard Pena Raymond, and also served as Assistant Director in the Office of Research and Demonstration at the National Hispanic Institute. As National President of her Latina-based sorority Kappa Delta Chi, Gonzalez helps young Latinas engage in community service and achieve their career goals.

Gonzalez will bring so many needed perspectives to the floor. In particular, it is her perspective on education that is most sorely needed in the Legislature. With higher education in a crisis here in Texas, Gonzalez will be able to speak from her own experience as a graduate student and college instructor about the dire impacts of cuts to our public universities and resulting curtailed opportunities for education.

Gonzalez's opponent, Hector Enriquez, is not deserving of Democratic support owing to his three donations to Rick Perry, an individual who has done more to hurt the residents of HD-75 than just about any other elected official in Texas history. Three times a Perry donor is three times too much for us. This is a Democratic district, and voters should elect the candidate they can trust to advocate for their needs at the Capitol. That person is Mary Gonzalez.

Mary Gonzalez will provide needed and necessary perspectives on the floor of the State House. We enthusiastically and unanimously endorse her for election, and urge you to support her campaign!

HD-75 Democratic Candidate Hector Enriquez Donated to Rick Perry... Three Times!

by: Katherine Haenschen

Wed May 02, 2012 at 02:16 PM CDT

Our friends over at The Lion Star Blog reported on Enriquez's ties to Perry, as well as his use of a photo of himself with George W. Bush. Democrats in a Democratic primary flaunting their Republican ties? Bizarre. Even worse, Enriquez appparently sought support from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a group that traditionally backs Republicans, as well as Democrats who support "tort reform," i.e. denying their fellow citizens a chance to gain justice in a civil court of law.

But wait, there's more! The Texas Association for Business, the ultra-conservative right wing group that was involved in Tom DeLay's money-laundering scheme, which previously endorsed Mitt Romney for President and David Dewhurst for US Senate, also endorsed Enriquez for HD-75! To his credit, at least he's trying to hide their endorsement. The bigger issue, however, is that TAB evidently finds Enriquez acceptable just as they find Romney and Dewhurst. With friends like these...

It's a strange turn of events, given the district. As Annie's List pointed out in an email yesterday, HD-75 is one of the most Democratic in Texas, and also one where Rick Perry's draconian budget has caused tremendous harm:

House District 75 is one of the most Democratic districts in Texas. President Obama received 74% of the vote in 2008 and Bill White received 69% in 2010. It is also predominantly Hispanic, lower income and one of the areas hardest hit by the shameful budget cuts supported by Perry during his term as Governor. Perry has proudly championed over $5 billion in cuts in public education alone.

These cuts are devastating El Paso public schools, causing teachers to be fired and class size limits to rise. Perry also pushed for billions more in health care cuts for women, children and seniors--all while leaving over $6 billion untouched in the Rainy Day Fund. Perry's policies are disastrous, shameful and particularly harmful to communities like El Paso. Enriquez knew this about Perry and endorsed his values with a financial contribution anyway.

Thankfully, voters in El Paso have other choices: Mary Gonzalez and Tony San Roman. Democratic voters should make sure that when they're deciding who to send to the Legislature they pick -- oh, I don't know -- an actual Democrat!