Nick Jimenez

Sunday, January 7, 2001

Legislators focus on top priorities

Corpus Christi area legislators spoke this past week with the Caller-Times Editorial Board about their top issues for the coming legislative session. Reps. Ignacio Salinas of San Diego and Irma Rangel of Kingsville were interviewed by Editorial Page Editor Nick Jimenez. Below are a few selected excerpts from their board interviews.
   State Sen. Carlos Truan
   On a proposal to add more seats to the Port of Corpus Christi commission: "My thinking is that the port has development in San Patricio County and I think that a lot of people live there and work here (in Nueces County). I think the port has a lot of interest in San Patricio County. I think we have a number of issues in common with San Patricio County. The port will give us a good opportunity to come together better as a region."
   On Gov. Rick Perry and his relationship with House Speaker Pete Laney: "It concerns me that (Perry) and the speaker do not get along. I hope there's some way to bridge that. Perry really has to focus as his own man. I'd like to think this is an opportunity for him. If he wants an agenda to be supported, he can't carry on as a partisan Republican in that office."
   On priority for a local health education center: "My major interest is getting more funding for the projects that we have. The newest project is the Texas A&M University Coastal Bend Health Education Center that we just created last year. We were able to get several million dollars (last session), much less than we requested. What's the sense of giving birth to a program that's not adequately funded, so we have to get more funds for that."
   Rep. Vilma Luna
   On spaceport: "I'm on the Economic Development Committee, and we've got spaceport in that committee which is the big issue for that committee right now. The biggest thing is appropriations. (We might need to have state) funding - $3 million to $5 million -to do some of the studies that need to be done. You might need to do some kind of infrastructure studies or environmental studies, funds that the state could use to assist local areas, so if the federal government goes ahead with the loan guarantees, then we're ready."
   On the possibility of a tax cut: "We've done tax cuts in the past, but how much of it really reached the average family across the state? Most people, in my constituency anyway, would prefer that we fully fund, for example, junior colleges, or that we fund some of the other areas of the state that are not funded fully, instead of a tax cut that doesn't have a big major impact to a typical family."
   On redistricting: "I don't see my seat as a "hot seat" or anybody else's in this area. I know it's been discussed that there might be the loss of a seat in this area. I don't think that's going to happen. (But if that happens) then when the Coastal Bend is fighting for something, they have one less vote."
   Rep. Jaime Capelo
   On need to reform the state's Medicaid program: "We (Mexican-American Legislative Caucus) found alarming things with Medicaid. We decided that Medicaid needs to be addressed and how it's run, and that the culture around Medicaid needs to be changed. The federal government requires two things: Social Security number and income. The state of Texas has then layered on anywhere from 13 to 15 other requirements, from asset tests, to verification of certain things on questionnaires, to face to face interviews to follow up interviews. It's incredible. The total number of forms needed to apply for Medicaid is anywhere from 5 to 19. The total number for CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) is one. The total number of other signatures, aside from the applicant's, for Medicaid is four to 15, and for CHIP is zero to one. We've got to convince folks that health should be a state priority."
   On increasing juror security: "The local judges have asked me to help with the juror problem, the concern with the juror being threatened during the capital murder trial in Judge Nanette Hasette's court. In line with that, there are several ideas as far as protecting the jurors and protecting their names and addresses. And also making the penalty stiffer (for threatening jurors)."
   Rep. Gene Seaman
   On legislation to promote career and technology training: "Our job is to move people from welfare and into jobs and educate them continually into higher paying jobs. The solution is not take a single mom from the street into a $5.25 job at McDonald's and leave her there. We need to take them from that point and move through Del Mar College through the system into $12- and $14-an-hour jobs. Every where you go in Texas, people need skilled help. Part of my whole career-technology effort is somehow to bring these people through the high schools, to bring them through the community colleges, to get them out in the workforce, but then don't leave them there. But we're failing to do that. We're failing with our Texas Workforce Commission. I have a real problem with our system."
   On daycare for children and problems with the Texas Workforce Commission: "It's difficult for single moms. (The single mother) doesn't have the transportation (to get to a job) and she doesn't have the childcare. The TWC has the monies to provide the childcare, to provide the transportation. But they are inept. Most of the boards - there are 28 in the state - follow that pattern. We have a real problem with local (TWC) boards around the state doing their job."
   Rep. Judy Hawley of Portland
   On proposal to get wide-band Internet access to rural areas: "We've set a goal of getting broad-band width to rural areas within 15 months. (The PUC commissioners) have made it their priority, just as they made electric deregulation in last session, to work with the Rural Caucus and with me to get band width to areas where there's been market failure. The market failure is because you don't have the density of population and you've got distance barriers. If there is a silver bullet (for economic development) for rural areas, it has to be getting band width to these areas. It's real exciting because if there's anything that's going to float all boats, it's going to be getting that access. If you don't have it (band width), you will be left behind."
   On rural health care: "We lost nine hospitals last year, six of them were rural. We're not doing well. A third of the doctors who serve rural Texas are under 55 years of age, two thirds are over 55. When those people retire, we don't have people to fill those slots. We've got several pieces of legislation to meet those needs." Rep. Ignacio Salinas Jr. of San Diego
   On public education: "We have a problem with attracting teachers and retaining teachers in this state. One of the areas that I think would do a great deal to move the agenda would be to have health insurance paid for by the state for all educational employees. It would help alleviate the local property tax burden. Right now school districts pay for health insurance for their employees, which is a pretty expensive proposition. In Alice that's over a million dollars that could be returned to the local school district to meet the needs of their employees and children that they educate.
   "I'd like to see us working toward helping teachers get national board certification. That is a program that is being done nationally that has had very good response in some states. One good example would be North Carolina, in which teachers are encouraged to go back to school for purposes of improving their teaching skills. This would give opportunity for us to say, yes, these teachers have met a level of proficiency that is beyond what we do at our universities for certification."
   Rep. Irma Rangel of Kingsville
   On the need to improve higher education in South Texas: "We are going to have look very soon at expanding the (university) programs in South Texas. The University of Texas says they are running out of space. (They) are sending them to (the University of Texas at) Arlington. That's wrong. Why should our students from South Texas, if there is no space in Austin, why should we send them farther north? We have wonderful universities. We have universities at Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Laredo and Edinburg. What is needed is to expand these universities and to provide the programs for our students that who don't have to go to Austin, don't have to go to Bryan. I am going to start demanding that we start expanding the programs in South Texas and not keep them so restricted that we are not providing the higher education many of our students are seeking."
   On increasing the number of "flagship" universities: "The flagships they want to look at would be (the University of) Houston or Texas Tech. We're not going to get much out of Houston and Texas Tech (in Lubbock\ when we could be looking for something in South Texas. South Texas needs many more programs."
   (Nick Jimenez can be reached by phone at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenezn@caller.com.)
  
  

 
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