The Texan Podcast - A Panel on Texas House Freshmen — The Texan's 89th Session Kickoff

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

At The Texan’s 89th Session Kickoff event, freshman Reps. Hillary Hickland (R-Belton), John McQueeney (R-Fort Worth), Daniel Alders (R-Tyler), and Mitch Little (R-Lewisville) joined reporter Kim Roberts to discuss their early experiences in the Texas House and the challenges of transitioning from campaigning to legislating.Listen to more interviews from our 89th Session Kickoff wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, subscribe and leave us a review.

Good afternoon. Welcome to our freshman panel. My name is Kim Roberts. I probably greeted you at either the check-in table or at lunch. I'm a North Texas regional reporter for the Texan and I'd like to ask each of our panelists to introduce themselves. About 30 to 45 seconds, your district and something about yourselves my name is John McQueen II I cover Southwest Tarrant County which in Carpets is Fort Worth white settlement Crowley and Benbrook certainly excited to be here I joke with everybody for those of y'all that are have been here a while I joke with everybody that I'm the new and improved version of Craig Goldman and I say that to his face we We were together last

weekend. And anyway, it's a good bit. So anyway, certainly happy to be here with y'all. Thank you. Hillary Hickland. I represent half of Bell County, which is Temple, Belton, Harker Heights, Nolanville, a little bit of Killeen. And I'm a mom of four. Texas history is my drug of choice. I'm a ninth generation Texan, so we go back to the Republic. I'm very proud of that. I'm Daniel Alders. I am a seventh generation East Texan, but we also go back to 1836, the years of the Republic. I represent House District 6, which is Tyler-Smith County, the district that Matt Schaefer represented for the last 12 years. And very good to be with you. I came up through the LLC program, by the way, before running for office.

So I'm one of the younger legislators. I'm bringing down the age. How old are you? 38. Oh, shoot. You are young. Okay. I'm Mitch Little.

I'm about to be 46. I'm from House District 65, which is in Denton County I'm in the southern part Carrollton Louisville Flower Mound all the way out to Justin and Northlake and I'm a trial lawyer very good thank you so as freshman legislators there's obviously a transition from campaigning to now being lawmakers. So if you'd please describe for us some of the highlights that you faced in making the switch from campaigning to lawmaking. Well, you know, for me at least, my campaign was run on knocking on doors. I lived knocking on doors, lived knocking on doors live knocking on doors it was you know 5,000 doors in about 60

days barely made the runoff and then knocked another 5,000 doors in that next 90 days kind of came back and got the race one and so the transition for me from knocking on doors is hearing what constituents want and then getting here and actually putting that into action so you know i think it's getting it into action you know i think that we're getting started and there's a lot of foundational work in the house that happens you know we're working through that right now and you know it's about to get real busy i can't improve too much on that i think that's a great answer that that face-to-face interaction those relationships are uh what i think make a good legislator or the

kind of legislator that I hope to be in that constituent care. And I think campaigning really prepares you for that. Well, y'all have touched on both of these things. So I'm just going to build on the relationship side of things. I think so much of what is involved in passing good, strong legislation is a consequence of building relationships. I mean, I've had the opportunity to get very involved in a couple of communities. I grew up in Nacogdoches, was very active in that community before we moved over to Tyler and jumped in the deep end of that community over the last 10 years and just got active, got busy about the business of working in a community and getting to know people. And so I was in the weird spot of actually didn't have a primary opponent,

which is unlike most of the freshmen that entered this year. Everybody was scared to run against him. Well, the only thing I can say, honestly, is that we had an opportunity over a decade to build some strong relationships across the community, both in the conservative grassroots side as well as with our chamber business folks in the community. And sometimes that's a little bit more challenging in one community versus another. But that same mentality of building relationships is how you campaign successfully. It's also how you build relationships in the pink dome. And so that's what our focus has been. And as we get to work on legislation, that's what we're focused on.

Yeah, Kim, I would say it's the same job. When you're campaigning, you're fighting for every inch of real estate, and, you know, you're knocking doors, and, you know, you may go knock 100 doors, 200 doors in a day, and you're like, does this really matter? Is it making a difference? Or you go to a club, and there's 10 people there. Was that a good use of my time? And the reality is when you take on this role, this job, and you come into your office, there's nothing hanging on the walls, you're like, what really matters?

So last week I spent a lot of late nights drafting amendments to rules and housekeeping resolutions. It never mattered because we didn't get to vote on them, but it mattered because you're supposed to fight for every square inch. That's what our voters sent us here to do. So just a different form of militancy. You know, you're trying to go out and get a vote versus trying to go out and make things better for Texans who put you in office. I don't know about any of you guys but we've got our mayor and city council races starting in Fort Worth and I'm having like signage PTSD.

Like out in the neighborhoods and you know you go on some of these major streets and I'm like texting Maddie and I'm texting Macy and I'm texting these people that are running. I'm like you're missing a spot here. You need to get your sign. Speaking of fighting for real estate right good advice they can look to you the 89th legislative session got underway on January 14th so please describe for us some of the ways these opening days have been what you expected and some of the ways it's differed from what you expected. Hillary, why don't we start with you?

Great. A lot of this is learning as we go. We can watch from the sidelines or outside of the rail of how we think things are. And it's really interesting to be on the floor in the moment just as things are coming at you, just considering your constituents and what matters and the effects of each vote

and also taking the opportunities to connect with the legislators around you, those members that maybe haven't had a chance to connect with, because, again, it's relationships, and we have to work within this body to advance good policy that we were we were brought to Austin to do oh yeah I think I think it is it's a it depends on what you've set your expectations to be I think and I you know we all have had conversations over the last year or so about things you hope we can change in the house things

that are important to various constituent groups and we've had opportunities to challenge some of those trends. But then there's opportunities to then shift the focus, and you have power struggles, and then you have the opportunity to pivot to doing legislation. There's a time for each. And so I think for me it's been not necessarily having a whole lot of set expectations and knowing we've got to get through one battle before we can go tackle the conservative policy that Texas conservatives want to accomplish over the course

of 140 days. And so, you know, for me, that was the expectation that I had in my mind of we've got a battle at the beginning, and then we're going to pivot and move to policy and So in that sense, it's kind of been what I expected But Mitch, what do you think? Yeah, the real things faster When you're out on the when you're out on the floor the voting part is the easy part, you know I'm always listening come and say, you know a lot of things happen for the voting machine has three buttons It's not that complicated. Anybody in here can do it. And the people back home are really not that hard to please. They just expect you to vote with fidelity to their values and the reasons that you campaigned on. So that part is not the hard part. It's more intense than I

thought it was going to be. To give you an example, we had this housekeeping resolution battle. Housekeeping resolution never comes to the floor. Spend all night reading, getting ready to amend that thing. And then same deal with the rules. We've got tons of amendments that we're going to offer. Never get a vote on the rules. All the debate gets snuffed out. Things that you can't plan for, it's just a faster chess match than maybe you anticipated going in.

And what I'm finding is this job is as easy or as hard as you want it to be meaning if you don't care what's going on you're just good you're you're there to hit a button it's a very easy job if you're if you're there to move the needle and actually force the house to be compliant with the values the people who put you there it's a very intense job and so I think the first two weeks have been faster and more intense than i thought they would be yeah i mean i think uh everybody's kind of covered it it was kind of as expected um not going to say it's been the most pleasant two weeks you know but i think what matters now is us looking forward we've got to look forward as a body we've got to

look forward as a party you know you've got four republican legislators here you know we are going to agree 99 of the time and need to move policy forward we all want to get stuff done we care about what we asked our constituents you know to support us in and that's we've got to get property tax relief we've got to get the border secure we've got to take care of the china land issue we've you know we've got to get this stuff fixed. We've got work to do. And I think the first couple weeks were kind of as expected, which I think we all kind of reiterated, but it's time to get to work.

Thank you all very much. Let me start with Representative Alders for this one. Some GOP activists have been calling for some house reforms, we know, piggybacking off of some of what was said. The rules package passed last week. What was your reaction to that? What reforms, if any, do you still hope to see implemented? Well, like I talked about, I think there are moments where you have an opportunity to press the conversation forward. And I think the last couple of weeks

were an opportunity to really push full court press on the reforms that we wanted to accomplish. And that's what happens when you have a speaker battle. That's what happens when you're passing the rules of the House. You know, it was unfortunate that there was not an opportunity to amend the rules process. I put out a statement last week that talked about, you know, how it's important to have a debate and conversation and accept amendments you like, amendments you don't like, but having that conversation, the debate is important. But we have a rules package that I think, by and large, will still allow the House to work and move policy forward. And I don't know that those rules are going to have a negative impact on passing conservative policy. It's possible that they could, but we don't know that yet.

And so I ended up voting for the rules package. But it's going to be interesting to see how the dynamic continues forward, as we have an opportunity to engage with leadership and various factions in the party to go where are ways that we can continue to improve and how we communicate as a body as a caucus and how can we move forward in a transparent way in a responsible way that moves the ball forward on all the things that John just talked about all all those policy priorities, how are we going to do so in the committee process? That's going to be an important thing.

I don't know how many rules reforms we'll be able to achieve going forward, but if there are opportunities to press for continued reforms, we're going to do so. Okay, thank you. Do you mind? continued reforms, we're going to do so. Okay, thank you. You don't vote to shut down the debate of your fellow Republicans under any circumstance ever. Ever. Every system, Kim, is designed perfectly to get the results that it gets, and the House will be no different. So you look at the rules package package we now have mandatory Democrat vice-chairs who under the plain language

of the rules the the written expression they are enabled to essentially force the hand of the chair to bring their measures their bills their ideas forward to the forefront and so if you think of what the House has been historically, which has been the obstructionist body of the legislature, it is perfectly designed to yield that result now. That we will probably see the Senate pass a ton of conservative legislation very quickly,

and it will come over to the House, and it's probably going to be bogged down with Democrat debate and theater and all kinds of other testimony on stuff that is ultimately not going to pass. And so when we look at the next five months you're gonna see results yielded by the House and what you should conclude is this system got the results it was perfectly designed to get from the beginning and Republicans really didn't get to have a full and complete voice in the process that would yield the system that got that result.

You know, I think that the biggest deliverable from the rules that did go through that our voters asked for was banning Democrat chairs. These committees are going to be run by Republicans, and strong Republican leadership is going to get our priorities across. I think that time will tell if the rules package is sufficient to get everything accomplished. I do see that the House is working at a quicker pace behind the scenes and think that we're going to get more legislation across the finish line. That's certainly all of our intention.

Yeah, we have 124 days left of session. I filed 21 bills and more in the process. My goal is to pass conservative policy, and we have a time clock. And so as I looked at the rules package, I had my questions answered. I didn't see any major red flags. And among the amendments, there were deal-breakers for me so in the hope of coming together the leadership has been set and I absolutely don't want to be an be part of division or an obstruction to progress of what we're there to do and

every session from what I've seen has been the time clock runs out and so for from my perspective for my constituents I want to get to work representative little you mentioned committees so I want to ask a question about committees obviously play a key role in the Texas house process speaker Burroughs told us earlier today, committee assignments are not coming out on Friday. Which committees are you hoping to serve on, each of you? If we'll start with you, why and how do those interact

with your policy priorities? Wow, okay. So I turned in my committee card I think yesterday, or actually it may have been, I sent an intern to do it this afternoon, but I want to tell you, so you sort these committee preferences by seniority and preference. To me, it was extremely important to get on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee because of the circus that ensued around Robert Roberson over the interim and the desire on the part of both moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats to

essentially take someone who is convicted of murder of a child off of death row and set that person free we need to have an oppositional voice on that committee so that if they try to bring them in front of the committee I'll at least have a chance to cross-examine them you may not have heard I'm pretty good at that I might have a chance to do that. So if you look at the preference, you know, I think the General Investigating Committee in the House is very underutilized. It has essentially been used as a device to investigate Republicans and no one else. Republicans who are oppositional, of course, not just every old Republican. So I think the purpose of that committee, if it were fully utilized,

would be to investigate things that are going on in our state writ large, like endemic corruption in the city of Houston and Harris County, like the constant lawfare investigation that's going on with Dr. Mary Bowden through the Texas Medical Board. So that that committee could be used for many better things. You know obviously I'm a natural fit for something like judiciary and civil jurisprudence because that's what I do. It's what I've done for over the last 20 years. So I've got some ideas things that might do. Yeah. You know I think as freshmen you know from a seniority perspective we're

gonna probably at the bottom of the totem pole from spots available you know I think that the time that you spend with the speaker and his team they identify what your background and your you know where they think you'll be fit you know I've heard multiple stories from legislators that have been around a very long time that say look your committee assignments may or may not make sense to you, but there are people here that understand, you know, Drew Darby tells a story about how he was frustrated with a committee and it turned out to be the committee he learned the most on. So I'm not too concerned.

I mean, I think we'll get assignments and we're going to get to work. You know, I think that, you know, I've got a trucking business. People understand that transportation works. I've got a restaurant business, you know, so, you know I've got a trucking business people understand that transportation works I've got a restaurant business you know so um you know I'm a business owner and I'm sure that that'll get utilized uh for me I hope to be where I can be most effective for my district so one of the things that we're looking at is um collaborating for a central Texas water alliance and so thought about natural resources. I'm hearing that that's a hard one to get on this session, which is fine.

I have some tax bills. Property taxes are obviously very important to all Texans. So ways and means is something that I'm looking at. As a mom, I care about our kids' education and their opportunities is a natural bend for me. I've been home with our kids for 14 years, and that's obviously something that I'm really passionate about. We have Fort Cavazos in my county, and so the veterans have a really special place in my heart

and wanting to make sure that they're represented and taken care of is important to me too. Okay, thank you. Well, we may have to fight over the natural resources front. I think everybody's fighting over that one. It's true, it's true. East Texas has the water and the rest of the state doesn't, and so we need to make sure that East Texas is represented in that debate going forward.

But I'm a limited government conservative and a fiscal conservative, and I think it's really important if you're going to do this job and do it well that you understand where your taxpayer dollars are going. Our state has, the last one passed by any budget was $320 billion. $320 billion per biennium, and I think it's important to understand how that money flows towards various agencies, various duties that the government has legitimate responsibility to conduct business and spend your taxpayer dollars.

And so my goal is to identify and understand how the state budget process works. So a couple of the areas that I'm interested in are appropriations, which I know it's difficult to get on. But appropriations, then we have a new government efficiency committee as well. That's probably going to be also very popular. But you don't get what you don't ask for, for sure. And so we're taking a look at that and then also leaning back on my AG background I grew up in rural East Texas on a farm

and have been involved in the AG industry for for many years my family's been involved in that for a long time so as a fallback and seniority picks you know you have to go oh well that would be a good fit so I wouldn't be surprised to see that the doge committee is on 85% of people's cards I mean I mean think about that like it's it's it we're certainly blessed with the leadership we've got in Washington and you know the government efficiency is a problem there it's a problem here and I think that because of that leadership in Washington you're gonna see that we'll never know but I would imagine that it's on 85% of the cards on the Republican side

Probably very few Democrats All right, thank you very much So you have a unique experience entering as a freshman class I think we were talking about over 30 new freshmen in the house and At the same time there was a contested speaker race. How do you plan on navigating the new leadership as well as divides among members who supported different camps? So, Representative McQueen. I mean, I think that it's being echoed across the stage.

I mean, it's time to get to work. And I think that we're gonna unite on policy I think it's very important that we deliver for our constituents and for the greater state the needs of the whole state so I'm very hopeful that that will bring us together yeah staying focused on what we're here to do and holding accountable to the promises that have been assured to us by the current leadership they're saying we're all gonna have a voice that we're all gonna have a place and that our priorities matter and so You know part of this is since we're new to this We we haven't been in the trenches with these with these legislators. And so at this point it's like, okay

Well, we're gonna hold you to it. Thank you. There's been a speaker race. I think that we're gonna see as everyone gets comfortable and kind of as the dust settles, I think that there will be an opportunity for various roles to emerge I think that's what's gonna inevitably happen and I think that they're the goal my personal goal would be for people to understand that that's how life works

and I mean if you got a body of 150 and you've got 88 Republican members it's gonna each Republican member is gonna look a little bit different and you're gonna have you know the spicy attorney that you know is at the back mic and you know you're gonna have a businessman you know like John who's not necessarily gonna be at the back mic and I think that's good that's healthy and it's important for our ability to move conservative policy forward, is to have people in various roles. And so I think it's going to be interesting.

I think there's going to be a sorting that occurs over the next couple of weeks, not just in committees, but in the roles that we play. Are you Slytherin, Daniel? I am not. Did you? No. No.

I'd have to ask my daughters what I am. I don't know. He represents rural Texas very well I'm Hufflepuff in case you want yeah the expect this to go that direction said sorting I immediately went to sorting head yeah I don't I don't know what I am I'm gonna respectfully and professionally try to make leadership navigate me. I think that's what I was hired to do. And so, and what I mean is, there are going to be bills that come to the floor. They can always be better.

They can always be better for our voters, for our people back home. And we need someone to diligently represent them, not just hitting a button. So I think when you elect someone to office, you're entrusting them to take to carry their skill set to Austin for the purpose of moving the needle, not just voting, you know, red or green. So I think I would be doing my voters a disservice

if I didn't do that. Yeah, and I think that you can see with the diverse backgrounds that we've all got, everybody is going to play a different role in advancing what we think the same motive, you know, the same values and the same legislation. So, I think it's very important for all of us to have a voice up there. Thank you very much. Representative Hicklin, I'd like to start with you on this one.

Just asking you as freshmen your understanding of the dynamics between the House, the Senate, and the executive branch, how would you describe the role of the House among those? I love this question. Because it refers to a quote that stuck with me and I hope I don't misquote it. I believe it was George Washington who said the House is the teacup and the Senate is the saucer. That the House holds the heat. It's the passion is the saucer that the house holds the the heat it's the

passion of the people it's one of the reasons that it turns over so quickly because it should be a good reflection of where the people are at and and that shifts depending on the district and and the times and the challenges and that we face and that stability that the Senate can bring is the saucer that holds it together. I think it's a really beautiful combination and the way that government was set up. So I'm honored to be part of it.

I consider myself as a passionate person. I mean, nobody fights like a mom. So I'm happy to be where I am and honored to serve in whatever capacity I can. Coming into this I've been told that there's supposed to be this tension animosity that exists between the House and the Senate. I don't know what that's like because I've got and have had a great relationship with my senator Brian Hughes. I don't think that it would be possible for us to get at odds with each other. But, you know, I'm incredibly optimistic about the opportunity that we have

if we can work together, if we can get on the same page and cast a vision that will accomplish the priorities that we have as a party that have been laid out by RPT, that the grassroots want, that our leadership appears to want, and that we've been communicated with, that these are the priorities that we wanna see accomplished, then let's get that, let's get the ball across the finish line.

And I think we have a tremendous opportunity with the governor, with the lieutenant governor, and the speaker's team. The results, the proof will be in the pudding. And we have the leadership. We have the rules. The committee preference cards are almost all turned in in 30 minutes. And so the makeup will exist to get the job done. And I think we're going to look and see,

do we get strong conservative legislation? Do we get a strong school choice bill? Do we get a strong border bill? Do we get strong legislation that is pushing us far to the right? We're never going to have the perfect bill, Mitch, but we can have pretty darn close. And I think we can. I think we can have pretty darn close. And I think we can.

I think we can move the ball forward on a lot of these issues because there's an opportunity for all those bodies to work together. So we're gonna see whether that can happen. I'm gonna do what I can to do so. Yeah, I think about this in really simple terms. There are very clearly defined parameters for mission failure and mission success of the legislature.

We have GOP legislative priorities. We're all Republicans here. The objective is to accomplish each of the GOP legislative priorities. I have a high degree of confidence that the Senate will pass bills out of the Senate that will address and accomplish each of those GOP legislative priorities. I'm less confident now than I was even two weeks ago that the House is going to be able to do that. Historically, it has not functioned with that degree of aplomb, but I guess we'll see how it does this time.

You know, I think the canary in the mine shaft here is going to be what does Governor Abbott say in the state of the state are his either emergency items or priority items that are supposed to come they're supposed to fly through the legislature because we have a Republican control in house Republican predominated Senate should be easy right let's see how easy it is I think it's the first test for leadership how easily did those priorities expressed by the governor and state of the state get accomplished yeah I think it's I think that everybody here's optimistic that we can get what we get our job done we need to get our job done

in the house and it's gonna be very clear if we do or we don't I think that's factual and I think the house is set up to function in a way that we can get that done this session thank you very much well you mentioned representative Alder's school choice. We had an education panel earlier today. I wanted to ask you, Governor Abbott has made school choice a priority issue. What do you expect to see accomplished this term

in terms of school choice? We're going to get it passed. That's what I expect. And I think it's important that the children of this state are prioritized and you're prioritizing them by empowering their parents to decide what is the best choice for them and I think I think that is what we have seen across the country is the most successful and I think it's important that we don't try

to put people in a box and so I think a universal school choice package is what we need I think that's what we're going to see I know the governor has fought for that and I know that that the the governing majorities and all and all branches of government are focused on making sure that that priority gets across the finish line. I'm a product of homeschooling, and we homeschool our two girls, and that choice is not possible for everyone, but everyone deserves that opportunity.

Every child deserves that opportunity, and so hopefully we can make that happen. Thank that happen I think the big question is what is it quote-unquote when we say we're gonna pass school choice what is school choice at the grassroots have made it very clear that school choice is the opportunity for every to every family to choose the school of their choice for their student with no strings attached with no strings attached and so this is one of these priorities that I guess kind of gets it goes into the legislative machine and it gets modified by a bunch of people with great ideas should be a very simple idea but it gets

modified and rather this is kind of like the no dim chairs deal grassroots priorities decided no dim chairs but they didn't say we don't want 30 vice chairs of the oppositional party so even we want school choice we want it with no strings attached how about with strings attached I think this continues to be an issue will be an issue that comes up again and again in the house and presumably the Senate but the question is is the bill that finally comes to the floor whether it have has strings attached or not is it going to improve the lives of Texas children is it going to improve their education I

guess we'll see when the bill finally gets in front of us and maybe we'll have an opportunity to make it better maybe we won't you know there's there's another side of this equation too so we have public schools that are and if you talk to any of your school districts they say that they are desperately in need of additional financing these are two sides of the same coin one conversation will not happen without the other it may not happen in the same, but these two issues must be handled and treated in conjunction with one another so that all Texas children are taken care of. You had to piggyback on that.

I think that it's vitally important that this is not a win-lose situation. It is a win-win situation. The families in Texas need the choice when it comes to their children's education as Mitch said without strings attached but we've also got to make sure our public schools are financed in a manner that they can be successful it is vitally important that we get more money to our teachers it's vitally important

that you know we've got to get that fixed we cannot continue to grow the Texas economy without good schools we could no longer attract big companies to come to towns that don't have good schools for the majority of Texans the biggest financial investment that you make in your life is going to be purchasing a home if you don't have good schools in your neighborhoods the value of that investment is not is going to deteriorate so this is needs to be a win-win situation we need to give families the choice we've've gotta get public education also at the forefront of our minds.

And one will propel the other. So this is not just for creating opportunities for students but it also creates opportunities for educators. We can see in other states that have school choice that their public schools have improved. So this is creating the best educational environment for our kids. Again, it's been said, we've got to do what's best for the kids. I think it's important to note that when we talk about strings being attached, that this isn't a PPP loan, that it's not free money.

And so everyone has the choice whether you take it or not and so if there's a concern about well what will be what am i giving something up then don't take it if you have a situation that's good for you stay with what you have and but this is for families who do not have options whether it's for finances or zip code or whatever variety of reasons. I mean, kids are different. And so per kid, the best education could vary per year. It could vary.

And so it's really putting that at the forefront, but also being good stewards with the funding. So I mean, if you consider we're're gonna have parameters as to what these funds can be used for, much like an HSA, health savings account, you can't use it to buy Skittles, that there are verified vendors and products that these funds can be used towards, that's good stewardship. And so if those are considered strengths, I think there might be a catch there.

So as it's been said, it really depends on the legislation, which the House bill is yet to be seen. Well, I was going to touch on this earlier when Mitch brought it up. I think it is an important debate of what do we mean by strings attached. Does that mean no testing, no annual tests are supposed to be implemented? Yes, that's my understanding. Maybe I missed it. Well, I mean, and I think there's a legitimate conversation of to what degree are we supposed to be responsible with taxpayer dollars. And I think there's room for that debate to happen.

I think it's important that that debate happens. I don't think that our responsibility is to hand out money like Hillary just said. We're not about the business of handing out dollars. I've gotten this question as a homeschool dad multiple times of, well, there's a conversation about dollars being sent to homeschool dad multiple times of well what is there's a there's a conversation about dollars being sent to homeschool families what is that going to mean for me do I have and is there an opt-in or opt-out requirement and of course the easy answer on is that this is an opt-in only deal homeschooling is not suddenly

going to be regulated in the state of Texas more than it has been in the past this is about providing more opportunities for the homeschool movement to grow in reality but if you I think I think the legitimate conversation that needs to happen on the strings attached front is is there a requirement to take a norm reference test in order to have those funds or some kind of an annual test I don't know I'm willing to have that conversation but I don't know that no strings attached meaning there's no restriction on your ability to get free dollars from the state I don't think that that is the responsible responsible

use of taxpayer dollars as well so it's a conversation we got to continue having all right thank you very much for that helpful conversation was it more interesting earlier today I heard it was maybe a little more interesting earlier today I think there's four yes votes for school choice up here bringing it closer to home who did I just start with okay please tell us about some regional issues from your district that you look forward to pursuing during this legislative session regional issues you know I I represent a primarily suburban and rural district obviously water rapid growth is significant expanded access to

electricity you know like electrical production throughout the state hardening our grid if you look at regional issues, something that's facing every urban, suburban region that I can tell is housing availability. And there's a couple things that we can do nothing about. Interest rates, we can't do anything about that. Okay, so the ability of somebody to access capital to be able to buy their first house. I think you know, Kim, home ownership is the prime tool of wealth generation in our country. And we have an entire generation of young people that is almost unable to do that for two reasons. Lack of supply. We have communities, towns, cities that are holding up development by, you know,

either through permitting or zoning restrictions that government needs to get out of that business and let the market do its work and to property taxes so if you live in a if you live in a suburban rural community like mine and you're knocking doors everybody wants to talk about property taxes we are overtaxed. And so this overtaxation problem, it is definitely preventing younger people from buying homes and making it harder for them to access this wealth creation tool. We as legislators need to have that front of mind that we have got to find a way to

replace the property tax system and eliminate it, or we've got to find a way to replace the property tax system and eliminate it or we've got to be working as hard as we can to essentially nullify it by expending as many funds as we can to buy down the rates so that people can have access to housing I've got a similar you know district to Mitch and I would piggyback on his comment that we've got a problem with insurance too. You know, as much as the legislature worked on getting property taxes down, that got chewed up and eaten up by your increases, and some of your local taxing authorities wanted to take some of that money,

but also your insurance rates. So, you know, I think that we've got water issues we've got electric issues we've got high growth issues property taxes you know I tell a story somebody was asking when I first got involved in this campaign was like what are you talking about border security for in North Texas and then the guy lives out in the country and I asked him I said hey how fast do you drive when you drive in town to take your kids to school he goes oh about 90 or 100 I go okay I go you ever seen a DPS he's like it like stopped him in his tracks you know because you know even in North Texas the border crisis was a problem I

think that we are gonna be able to I don't think we're gonna be able to supplement the border security with the new administration in Washington, which we're extremely fortunate for. But, you know, these high growth in Texas is making an impact on infrastructure, property taxes, housing availability, the regulation of lot sizes. It's overregulated there. We've got to, you know, kind of cut the chains so the businesses continue to grow etc so not to be redundant so I'll skip over that but water and property taxes are

absolutely an issue for my community but one thing that's unique to Bell County is that we are blessed with an abundance of veterans and Texas offers the homestead exemption for disabled veterans, which is an amazing benefit that our disabled veterans have earned, that we've promised them. And the rollout of that benefit is that a lot of the cities don't have that revenue from their taxes. And so that has created just a deficit for cities and municipalities

that are really operating with... I have one of my cities that are affected up to 20% of their revenue is lost because that's how many disabled veterans live in that community. So finding a way to expand the fund that is created to make those communities whole is something that is a priority for me. Thank you. You know, Tyler is the hub of East Texas. It is the medical hub, the educational hub, the economic hub of our region, and I'm very honored, very blessed to be able to represent House District

6, which covers all of Tyler proper. But you know, I was sent down here to advance strong conservative policy and legislation so that Texans continue can continue to be successful so that Texas can continue to lead on a global stage and you know I think that that that the key formula for that is a limited government model a low tax model and I think government is should be focused on keeping our people safe keeping our people free and providing an infrastructure for the free market to be successful you want to talk about limited options on housing I'm in real estate and I will tell you right now I

don't want the government being involved in housing that is not a role for the government to play the free free market should be the solution to fixing any housing issues that we have in an urban area, in a rural area, in a suburban area. But that involves us getting our own house in order. And so I'm here to fight for a low tax structure and free market principles and a conservative vision that will create

stronger families and make sure that not only is East Texas the best place to live but our whole state is the best place to live for generations to come. No I just she says our time's up and I think you've got you've got you've got one more guest coming who's significantly more influential than the four of us so I think we're gonna get out of y'all's way before we thank our panelists stay tuned for lieutenant governor Dan Patrick please thank our freshman panelists you