Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) was first elected to serve House District 83 which encompasses Borden, Crosby, Dickens, Floyd, Garza, Kent, Lubbock (part), Lynn, Mitchell, Scurry and Terry counties in 2014. The Hesperian-Beacon reached out to Burrows at the conclusion of the regular 88th Legislative Session to get his take on how the session went and what he anticipates with upcoming special sessions.
How would you characterize the session that just ended?
The 88th Legislative Session accomplished several important things for Texas: We made our schools safer, passed law protecting our children from sexualization, enacted legislation to make sure Texas business continue to prosper, supported our retired teachers and much more. I would characterize this Session as foundational to keeping Texas a strong conservative state for the next decade.
What bills passed that broughtthemostbenefits to your constituents?
The most important bill of the Session is our District is the State’s budget. We had a historic surplus and from it invested $17.6 Billion for property tax relief (which is the subject of the current special session); $8.9 Billion for public schools; $9.4 Billion for mental health services; $5.1 Billion for border security; $1.4 Billion for school safety; $1 Billion for water infrastructure projects; $325M to establish the Rural Sheriff’s Office Salary Assistance Grant Program to support rural law enforcement offices with recruiting and retention; $2.3B to build new state hospitals in underserved areas; $72.8M in All Funds at HHSC for additional funding provided for rural hospital outpatient payments; and, $1.5b to expand internet reach to rural parts of the State.
How would you characterize the upcoming special sessions?
The next special Sessions will focus on how to invest the $17.6 Billion for property tax relief, teacher pay raises and additional investments in school fiI want to see property tax dollars used to increase the State’s share of funding school district maintenance and operations, and lower every Texan’s property tax bill. I expect we will invest in teacher retention and recruitment to make sure we can attract new teachers into the profession in all parts of the State. I also want to see school finance investments recognize the unique challenges of smaller school districts and make a significant investments in supporting their operations.
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