I just returned from a neighborhood meeting with State Representative Mark Strama, the one-term Democrat who's representing north Austin and is up for reelection in on November 7th. He was meeting with people from the Milwood neighborhood to have a chat about the issues that are important to us. I missed the first part of his remarks, but I really liked what he had to say about energy policy, health care, and transportation.
On energy policy, I caught the end of a conversation about how to promote research on cleaner energy and energy independence; Mark talked about how in the 1980's, the Federal government funded Sematech to help improve the competitiveness of the US semiconductor industry in the face of foreign competition, and he thought a similar structure, one allowing basic research to be funded and shared among US companies, would be a good way to move us forward. One of the participants talked about the problem of installing solar systems; the City of Austin has a good rebate program, but often Home Owner Association rules get in the way. Florida has a law that says that HOAs cannot prohibit solar installations, and Mark thought something like that would be a good idea for Texas as well.
On health care, Mark thinks that the increasing cost of health care is hurting the competitiveness of American companies; something needs to be done. As a step in the right direction, no child should go without health insurance, but he wasn't ready to endorse a Massachusetts-style universal plan until he's seen how well it works.
Mark explained how the property tax system funds school and other government services and talked about that the tax cuts passed in the last session mean to homeowners. If you've got a home that's appraised at $200,000 (after the homestead exemption), you'd get a $1000 savings on your tax bill from the 50 cent reduction. However, since the total property tax is affected by the local appraisal and by the rate set by the local school system, you won't necessarily see all of that savings. He praised John Sharp for coming up with a new tax system to close a loophole in the business tax in Texas while rewarding companies for spending more on employees.
I got to ask Mark about transportation policy, and while I wish he'd talked more about improving public transit, he was able to get in some very good points about the local toll road situation. The big issue with him is the fairness of using toll revenue for purposes other than paying for the road you're driving on. He thought CAMPO should be more transparent, and if a tollway took in more money than was needed to retired the revenue bonds that funded it, that surplus should be used to either lower the toll or to fund other projects; however, any projects that get funding would be done through an open political process. He also thought that a monthly cost cap would be a good way to calm fears of people that will be using the toll road often and that a system like that may actually increase revenue because people would be less inclined to bypass the toll roads if they knew that they wouldn't have to pay more than a set amount a month for their use.
A big thank you to Mark for spending time on a beautiful Saturday with us. Good luck with the election!