As 2017 approaches, proposed laws kick off the New Year with the next Texas Legislative Session starting on January 10.
District 83 State Representative Dustin Burrows said an overall top priority for this upcoming session is resolving issues with Child Protective Services. However, he added there are local concerns he wants to address as his big ticket items as well.
“We start off the session with a tight budget,” Burrows said. “We’ve got to find a billion dollars and asked every agency to come back and one of the big things that’s really driving the budget and why we continue to have less money to go around is the cost of healthcare.”
He says the difficulty to afford healthcare insurance is compromising the lives of some local citizens.
“So I’ve got a bill that tries to tackle health care inflation,” Burrows said. “It deals with price transparency, price disclosure so people actually know what things cost ahead of time. Then an incentive for them to actually shop around, negotiate, and if they get a better price, for the insurance companies to give them better savings.”
A legislation proposal by Burrows that is prominent in West Texas is to continue protection for local farmers. As well as, a bill to waive the carrying fees for a licensed carry holder.
“Then of course school funding,” Burrows said. “There’s a 300 square mile penalty out there. Rural schools receive less money than urban counter parts, only because they’re small. They have 37 and a half percent less funding. I filed a bill to do away with that.”
Local citizens have also reached out to Burrows office with concerns of their own.
“Most of the people I talk to want to fund schools, fund transportation, take care of public safety,” Burrows said. “Then try to get out of the way of high taxes and everything else so business can thrive,” Burrows said.
Burrows said if anyone has concerns or proposals they want addressed in this session, reach out to his local office at 687-0630.
