Weber Speaks About Election Journey

By Heather Menzies
Bay City Tribune

Published December 10, 2008

Randy Weber, District 29 State Representative - elect, was the keynote speaker at the Bay City Chamber of Commerce luncheon held at the civic center Tuesday.

"I want to say thank you to all of you who supported me during my campaign," said Weber.

"Now, if you didn't support me during my campaign, that's okay, I promise to do better next time."

During his speech, Weber explained some of his journey to being elected to the 29th district seat.

Weber said he challenged Mike O'Day to replace Glenda Dawson's seat in the special election when she unexpectedly died in 2006.

When O'Day announced his decision not to seek re-election he began the campaign that landed him a seat in the 81st legislature.

"When I began to run for this campaign I started making meetings all over the district. I went to school board meetings, city council meetings, auctions, grand openings of businesses, homeowners association meetings, military honors, town hall style meetings, service organizations, STP's information meetings, TXDOT meetings, really getting a good feel for the people that I represent," said Weber.

Weber also said that he had a meeting with four of the five school superintendents in Matagorda County just prior to the luncheon - allowing him time to find out what their priorities are.

"As a result I developed a really, really good understanding for the people of this district."

Weber explained some of the meetings he has already attended in Austin dealing with some important issues on Matagorda County citizens' minds.

"I actually went to the very first air-quality caucus meeting held this session in Austin this past week," he said.

"I learned about how they measure air-quality output."

Weber explained how he had been working with local consultants to really learn the important water issues in Matagorda County.

"I began to meet with some other state reps from around the area and already informed them that the SAWS project is watched regularly by us and the Colorado River is a big issue for us down here that we are going to be watching," said Weber.

"That was news to them, they asked how come and we talked briefly about their proposal plans and how Matagorda County is situated and the economic impact it would have on us here."

Weber explained that the state legislature will convene on January 13 and will run for 140 days.

"One of the first things we will have is a rules committee hearing and we will vote on the Speaker of the House," he said.

Weber said the partisan split in the House is 76 Republicans to 74 Democrats.

He explained the state of Texas has a $165 billion biennium budget and a few of the most important issues likely to be addressed are education funding, the franchise tax, Trans-Texas Corridor, water and property tax caps.

"These are all issues that we've already talked about in meetings," said Weber.

Texas is one of nine states in the nation that does not have a deficit. he said.

Weber gave a synopsis of the results of the 80th Legislative session: a student religious liberties bill passed, the Texas state pledge of allegiance wording was changed to include the words "one state under God", two pro-life bills failed, a measure requiring the words "In God We Trust" displayed in the Senate and in the House passed, two pro-marriage bills passed, a bill requiring school districts to offer an elective Bible course passed, a transparency bill passed - requiring the comptroller and governor's office to post all of their expenses online, a bill allocating $5 million dollars for the collection of umbilical cord blood for stem cell research passed and property tax caps were not set.

A few of those attending the luncheon posed some questions to Weber.

Mitch Thames, Bay City Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture president, posed the first question from the audience.

"I just think one of the issues you've not brought up, but is very important in Matagorda County and Texas, is the price of power per kilowatt. It just seems 19, 20 and 24-cents per kilowatt is ridiculous," said Thames.

"You are absolutely correct - we will be meeting and talking about that," said Weber.

Weber was also asked about his stance on seeing new home construction being built to good quality standards and his stance on allowing tax credits for homeowners who choose renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

Weber said it makes sense to him, at first glance, that there ought to be standards in the counties that you can count on and not just in the cities only.

"On the tax credit thing, I don't know, you have to remember California has an income tax and we don't how that would work with us in Texas. I don't know. I think it's helpful to citizens and it's a good thing," Weber said.

A final question from the audience dealt with using some of the budget to help reduce costs of higher education.

Weber said it is important to consider how every bill that passes is going to have an effect on the budget.

He explained that there was talk of a bill that would provide for students who completed college within four years in Texas to receive debt forgiveness on their outstanding students loans. The bill would provide college students with incentive to complete their degree within the customary amount of time because research proves that the longer a student takes to complete their degree the higher likelihood they have of dropping out.

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