Senior Leadership Northeast Minutes from July 21, 2009

The July 21, 2009 meeting of Senior Leadership Northeast was convened at the Colleyville Chamber of Commerce at 9:00 AM by Chairman Ed Havran.

 There were seventeen (17) individuals present representing six (6) Northeast Tarrant County cities.

 Sunny Meeks the new Colleyville Chamber Events Director introduced herself and welcomed us.

 State Representative Vicki Truitt gave us an update on the 81^st Session.  She has received even more responsibility with the new speaker including chairing Pensions, Investments and Financial Services, the House Committee on Public Health, and Stabilization. Following some of her comments about the Session are sumarized.

Over 6,000 bills were introduced and 1400 were passed.

The governor vetoed about 3 dozen bills.

They passed the state budget ($182 Billion) for 2010-2011.

She stated that Texas is in far better shape than any other state.  We have $9.1 Billion preserved in our rainy day fund.

She stated they cut taxes on small businesses.

Property Appraisal Reform—increased accuracy of appraisals, elimination of highest and best use for residence homesteads. 

 100% Disabled Vets will no longer have to pay property taxes.

 She stated many  bills died because of chubbing (stall tactic).  The democrats didn’t want the House to consider the Voter ID Bill so it took five days to move through 200 non-controversial bills that should have taken four hours.  Because of this, many bills died including the Texas Local Option Transportation Act.  If this isn’t the answer, what is?

 The DFW Metroplex now has 6.1 million people, in 20 years this will grow to 9 million with 5 million trying to get to and from work every day.

In the first quarter of 2012 TXDOT will be out of funding for new roads.

While we wait, prices for construction are increasing.  (Since the DFW Connector and North Tarrant Express were first funded in 2002, the cost has doubled to $1.5 Billion)

100% of local dollars would be spent on local projects.  She agrees with the need to stop diversions but this will only address half our needs.  (For every Fuel Tax $ we send to Washington, Texas gets back 80 cents).  This is not fair but it probably won’t change.

She’s currently working with the comptroller on data on lost productivity and loss of quality of life while stuck in traffic.

No protection for voters?  The language would have been more thorough than a school ballot, everything would be completely described.

This is a difficult issue with no one having a remedy.  It has to be addressed.

The tax rate on our fuel tax hasn’t changed since 1991.  The excise tax has been decreasing because our vehicles are better, but there are more of them.

This is a clean air issue, improve our quality of life.

Right now we’re blessed to be an attractive area for companies to relocate.  If we don’t address our transportation issue, companies will leave.  It will kill our economy and jobs.  North Texas has 25% of the state’s population and 27% of the economy. 

 Illegal Immigration—the state has put 100’s of millions of dollars into enforcing our borders

The SHL endorsed 14 Resolutions that were signed by the governor.

Other discussion included utility rates –save money with Power to Choose ($1100 last year), the centralization of medical records (Medicare and Medicaid will have access)

Representative Truitt also thanked David Baltimore for his involvement with her Property Appraisal Working Group.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:30.

 Respectfully submitted

 

Rebecca Barksdale