ABC-7 Xtra: 84th Legislative Session

abc-seven x-tra. >>> live, where news comes first, this is “abc-7 xtra. >>> welcome to “abc-7 xtra. good evening, i’m in for maria garcia. for the next half-hour, we’ll be talking about the 84th legislative session. legislators discussed education, transportation, tax relief and issues affecting the border but what did the session accomplish? tonight, three of our el paso representatives in austin to talking to us about the bills they introduced. what went right, what went wrong and what’s next? you can e-mail us your comments and questions now to abc7xtra@kvia.com. you can also reach us at 915-496-1775. on twitter, use the hashtag #abc7xtra. thank you all for being with us tonight. senator rodriguez, let’s begin with you. i read your column in the dallas morning news, headline read the legislature failed to embrace latinos. you said quote, while the legislature has not outright rejected our latino future, this session represented another missed chance to embrace change and optimism about what lies ahead. so what are some of those missed chances and what work lies ahead? >> for starters, education, school finance, we have a new court decision, the series declaring the finance system unconstitutional and we had a chance to fix and we didn’t. we did not fix the healthcare expansion under medicaid or even under private plans. i had a bill that i introduced to try to have what we call the texas way, involving the private sector to extend coverage to the uninsured in the state. those are the two biggest issues that we face in this state as far as the whole population but more specifically the latinos. and when i talk about failing to embrace the latino future, it’s based on what our demographers have been telling us for a long time, the fastest, youngest growing population in the nation here in the state and yet we’re not providing the educational opportunities that should be there in order to have a well-trained and educated workforce that’s going to be the workforce of the future for this nation. so that’s what i’m talking about. the state had an opportunity i think while we made a lot of advances and had some accomplishments, particularly for el paso, as a delegation, i think we failed the whole state, particularly latinos. >> what do you plan to do next time? >> we plan to keep working hard, to hopefully during the interim fix the school finance system, put more money into bilingual education programs, more money into at risk students, disadvantaged students. these are the very students that the judge in the school finance decision indicated need to have more investment. we need to do something about access to healthcare. we can’t continue to be a state that promises you know, opportunities in the future if you don’t have a healthy workforce and we have the highest number of uninsured in the nation so those are big challenges for us and we need to keep plugging away. >> representative, what do you think lies ahead? what went wrong, what went right? >> what went right is the house did actually address the issue with regard to public education, especially in the house budget. we put $2.2 billion into education and we had another $800 million, $3 billion in the house. this session, there was a very strong effort from both democrats and republicans to address the school finance issue. as a member of the appropriations committee, we had long conversations and also on the article three, i’m on the subcommittee that addresses the education issues, we almost went to $3 billion. unfortunately, it’s not just the house budget that gets passed. the house budget, the appropriations budget started in the house, and then it went over to the senate and unfortunately many of those increases into education were cut. so when the budget came back to the house, it was a significant change from what we had sent over. and so those were the types of issues that i think senator rodriguez was talking about with regard to we didn’t do enough. it was the overall final budget that didn’t address the issues. the house made an earnest effort to address those issues with $3 billion added into education. >> what’s next? >> what’s next is addressing the public education issue, addressing some issues that some other colleagues of mine addressed with the border security bill. i think el paso came out doing very well with the appropriations. we got $3.5 billion for the franklin state park. we had $7 million for the utep pharmacy and those are largely you know, because of our work as a delegation, those affect our areas in this district and so i’m very happy with what el paso was able to bring home in this particular session. >> representative blanco, this is your first grow-around. how did everything go? >> i think we did well for el paso. we received over $75 million for texas tech medical sciences building where we’re going to have brand-new laboratories, we’re going to have new classrooms for instruction and office spaces for instructors. so i think that was very important, a big accomplishment as a delegation for el paso. on the negative side, i think that we gave a lot of tax breaks to corporations where we could use a lot of that to go into public education, we could have expanded medicaid, we could have increased funding for community college. so in the next session i’m hopeful that we can work with our colleagues across the aisle and come to a sensible solution to dollars for higher education that would help our students. >> republicans are saying house bill 11 is a win for texas. the $800 million border security increases manpower, ramps up training and cracks down on crime but critics say it’s further militarizing the border. it will mean more state troopers, cameras and a spy plane to patrol the 1,200-mile border with mexico. abbot said it should accelerate the hiring of 250 additional state troopers who will patrol the border. those troopers will replace national guard troops deployed there last summer by rick perry. at the time a huge number of migrants and teenagers from central america were swarming our border, we saw that. according to the texas tribune, the surge of unaccompanied children and families illegally crossing the border into texas has dropped dramatically. the website sites data stating border patrol agents in the valley are on pace to see 60% fewer unaccompanied children this year than in fiscal 2014. texas governor greg abbot cited different figures, this time from homeland security secretary jeh johnson when he signed the bill into law last week. the governor stated when we have more than 25,000 people a month coming across the border, you see the challenges are still great. the governor goes on to say quote, in fact last month alone almost 4,000 unaccompanied children came across the texas border. it shows the problem still exists. supporters of house bill 11 say the problem is not only illegal immigration. they also bring up the issue of drug trafficking along the texas-mexico border and this week, the austin american statesman reported that in his efforts to get the extra $800 million in additional border funding, steve mcgraw gave statistics on the border region that includes busts made by every local, state and federal law enforcement agency. according to the statesman, mcgraw’s report leave the impression his agency is largely responsible for those seizures when, in fact, it was only responsible for 10% of the drug seizures. state rep blanco, you have been critical of the bill and had been trying to obtain similar records from mcgraw. what happened? >> well, from the very beginning, that’s something that we’ve fought for, information, data, metrics, how are we securing our border? i think we all agree that we want a secure border. but we need to be able to measure results, especially when we’re legislating over $800 million towards border security. i started asking questions with correspondents to director mcgraw and was not receiving any information. so you know,, i brought this on the house floor during debate and i was hopeful our folks across the aisle would come to the senses of trying to find solutions and information to make sure that we’re safe on the border and they decided to vote on politics versus policy. so it’s an unfortunate thing that we’re spending over $800 million when a lot of those dollars could have gone to funding pre-k for a full day or to education or higher ed, as well. so misplaced priorities right now. >> senator rodriguez, you mentioned that that money could have gone somewhere else? >> without question. i think he’s right. we’ve seen the biggest expansion of a state agency, ironically, we have these very conservative representatives, who want small government, they want less spending, limited government and yet they put in $800 million into a state agency that was essentially our highway patrol, and now, has expanded it into the largest law enforcement agency that we’ve ever seen. and as you cited earlier, the statistics will indicate a drop in the immigration numbers. those 25,000 a month is a trickle compared to what it used to be as we all know, 2 million, 1.5 million here in this sector. we have like approximately five apprehensions per border patrol agent a year. i mean, we have a secure border, more secure than it’s ever been. so all this hype about the border security i think is just an excuse to appeal to the conservative base of the republican party for their elections. there’s no question that we have to secure the border but nobody can answer for us what is a secure border? there is no official definition of border security. the state agency, the oversight agency, legislative budget board, did a report for legislators at the beginning of the session pointing out that there’s no accountability on the part of dps and the other agencies that are dealing with border security. there’s no metrics as was pointed out. how do we measure whether the money that we’re putting into it is yielding results? none of that is available to us. and so i think these are misplaced priorities. there’s no question this money could have been better used for healthcare, education, creating jobs, things that are more important for the future of the state. >> representative, $800 million? >> $800 million could have gone somewhere else. when we heard the discussion on appropriations about the money and where the money would go and some of the money would go to local law enforcement, you know, one of the comments that i made in committee was we have so much more scrutiny under other agencies for two fte or three ftes if they want to increase the pay but this particular agency we were so willing to just write a check for $800 million. and so kind of what the concern was, this was coming from above us, which was the governor. the governor had made a determination that he wanted those moneys to be allocated and that certainly was what the leadership was going to push, regardless of the discussion and the debate and also with regard to the questions. how are we spending $800 million? we’re taking over $200 million in another agency. there was a lot of dispute, a lot of discussion and certainly there was a lot of difficult questions and unfortunately, the agency could not answer with regard to these moneys. >> now, lastly, the governor vetoed a bill sponsored by you senator rodriguez and blanco, senate bill 408 would have allowed county governments to consider whether businesses are local when competively bidding on construction projects costing under $100,000 and other goods and services worth half a million dollars or less. the governor said the bill would short-circuit a mandate for government to get taxpayers the best deal possible. senator rodriguez, how does that affect el paso? >> well, the fact is this was a bill that would have allowed counties to do exactly what cities are allowed to do and that is give a 5% preference to local businesses. we all want to stimulate our local economies. we all want to have our local small businesses prosper and so it was a bill that would have allowed that. it would have permitted the best value selection of the bidder. it’s not like you were going to give somebody who’s not qualified and again, this is just another example of the doublespeak that we heard in the legislature this session about how local control is important but yet when it came to this bill, it was local control, the governor vetoed it, just the way they did with some other bills, fracking ordinances, denton and other places. it’s unfortunate i think for el paso. it would have been a good bill because the county does a lot of construction and services, contracts, and it would have given an opportunity for small businesses to have a piece of the pie so to speak. >> representative blanco, you were pushing for this? >> absolutely, i agree. i think something important to note is that republicans both in the senate and on the house voted for this bill. so when it went to the governor’s office he decided to veto it and i think it’s a poor decision. i think it was about local business giving local preference, reinvesting our dollars here into our local economy. i think it was a smart business thing to do. it’s unfortunate that the governor didn’t believe so. >> you’re watching “abc-7 xtra. when we come back, we’ll continue our conversation on the 84th texas legislative session. after the break we’ll talk about downtown redevelopment and once again, education plus the expansion of second amendment rights in texas. if you have questions for our guests, because our phone line is down. >>> welcome back to “abc- xtra.” tonight, we’re talking about the 84th legislative session. we continue our conversation with representative marisa marquez, representative cesar blanco and senator jose rodriguez. the three of you filed three pieces of legislation to spur development in downtown el paso. representative marquez, can you tell us about where those bills went? >> 1742, the language basically allows el paso to participate in state rebate programs for a convention within 1,000 feet of the convention center. so the language is just basically allowing el paso to participate in corpus christi, dallas, austin. unfortunately, we ran out of the time on the clock and so our language, the language got folded into the senate, which senator rodriguez helped roll into a bigger tax rebate bill and el paso was taken care of in that particular bill. so it did pass. and it passed through the house and the senate and so it was already signed by governor abbott. i think it was jose two weeks ago? so el paso will be able to participate in that rebate program. >> so that’s some good news for el paso. >> absolutely. >> well, you know, we’ve been saying that we need more convention space, more hotel space, and this bill will help us do that, to provide some incentives, particularly a state sales tax. that will be advantageous for anybody who’s interested in developing downtown hotels close to the convention within 1,000 feet and hopefully if we can get that done, we will be able to bring the large conventions and tourists and other economic stimulus that comes from those kinds of facilities. >> now to an historic move. the governor signed a bill that removes a ban that has been in place for more than 140 years. house bill 910 gives people with a license to carry a holstered hand gun openly in all locations that allow the licensed carrying. another bill allows gun owners to carry a concealed handgun in and around college dorms. the governor says it reassures second amendment rights will be stronger and more secure than ever before. >> washington and jefferson and reagan fought to defend and ensure, the liberty that texas symbolizes now more than ever, and as governor i am proud to expand that liberty in the state of texas. >> the new campus carry law does allow public colleges and universities to create gun-free zones. state senator rodriguez, you have been critical of the open carry bill and made it known to plan to filibuster but they secured the 21 votes needed in the senate to suspend the rules and allow the bill to pass. what are your thoughts? >> well, they brought it up earlier so that there would be no opportunity to filibuster. otherwise, we would have done it. you know, i think more guns is less community safety. i think more guns leads to more violence, more guns means more incidents and deaths. guns have mow place in college campuses. the rationale as you heard the governor is that we’re expanding liberty. the second amendment rights have never been threatened by anybody. we understand the second amendment. but the fact is that these individuals, including the governor, use that issue as a galvanizing issue again for certain sectors of their constituency. and, you know, frankly, there’s some democrats that also support concealed carry and maybe even guns on campus. but overall, i think the public as i’ve seen the polls nationwide and statewide, including here in el paso, are opposed to more guns. i think there’s such a proliferation. we just had the latest incident with someone using an assault rifle against the dallas police station. i mean, can you believe, it’s the headquarters. i know — i don’t know why we allow assault rifles in the hands of individuals. you don’t need that to protect your second amendment rights. >> representative blanco, what are your thoughts? >> the governor said this is about liberty and as a veteran who served six years protecting those liberties, i don’t see how it’s productive. expanding weapons on campuses and our public places, there’s nothing productive from it. so as someone who does believe in the second amendment, i think that this is expanded too much, and i think we could better spend our time focusing on improving education, healthcare, infrastructure, things that matter to texans, not guns. >> not guns. >> absolutely not necessary. i think that again this is a determination made by the governor to enact this legislation but i will say there’s two things, law enforcement came out strongly against it, law enforcement will not be able to identify who is helping and hurting in a particular situation when there is several gunmen on a particular site and also college campuses are a place of learning. i know that chancellor mcraven came out very, very hard against this particular legislation saying this is an institution for learning. our children and our students should not feel threatened, our faculty should not feel threatened when we’re all trying to learn and this is a process. there were several people that came out against it. it’s unfortunate that it passed but i’m hoping that in the future, this is something that we can address next session and undo it. >> undo it. >> absolutely. >> you’re watching “abc-7 xtra. still ahead, we’ll take your questions and comments on today’s topics. you can we’ll be r >>> and we’ve been hearing from three of our lawmakers working hard for us in austin. your thoughts, your last thoughts what’s ahead in the next actually year and a half until january of 2017? >> well, there’s a lot of work that we do during the interim, committee hearings are held, meetings, and we try to develop the agendas for the next incoming session and so the work ahead as i said at the beginning is still education, public education. providing more investment, providing more support for our healthcare system and closing the uninsured gap and really providing better-paying jobs. you know this growing income gap is a big problem in the state as it is for the nation. we’ve had a number of bills that would have provided for local communities to increase the minimum wage or maybe the state increase the minimum wage, all of those bills were not supported by those in control of the legislature. we just have a lot of work ahead of us and so i think we have a strong delegation that can continue doing good work for el paso. >> for the border. representative marquez, you submitted about 35 bills. a lot of them have to do with education. >> absolutely. first of all, we’ll celebrate the successes which is the utep pharmacy being funded at $7 million. also groundbreaking on the franklin state park visitor center is going to be big this interim but also as senator rodriguez said, our interim committee, making sure water desal was a very big issue and continuing those projects and making their there’s going to be an education portion for us as lawmakers, which is the constitutional amendments and making sure that voters are educated on exactly what these constitutional amendments do and how this affects the future of the state. so there’s a lot for us to do, even though we’re not in session, we’re glad to be home. and to be you know, back in el paso with 103 degrees, it doesn’t matter. and then, of course, continuing our work into the next session starting now. >> okay. representative blanco? >> get to work on that second building for texas tech, that’s a huge priority for us, especially in district 76. working to make sure some of those transportation projects are on schedule and making sure places like alameda and such. and then making sure that the veterans commission, senator rodriguez and i worked together to make sure that we improve veterans employment. we want to make sure those bills get through and agencies help our veterans get jobs and start businesses. >> you have a busy 18 months ahead. so i know that you all are working very hard for el paso. we appreciate you coming in tonight. >> thank you for having us. >> welcome back to el paso. >> glad to be home. >> we’re glad you all are. thanks for