A crowd of over 60 residents gathered at the Richard and Meg Weekly Community Center on August 22^nd to hear an update on the 2023 legislative session from Texas House District 135 Representative John Rosenthal and Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones.

Briones spoke first, addressing what she termed a “paradigm shift” in the Precinct 4 commissioner’s office.  Previously, she said, funds were spent in unincorporated areas of the county rather than in parts of the county that fall within the City of Houston.  “My philosophy is that if you pay taxes, you deserve service,” she said.   Briones focused on the development of partnership programs between her office and other governmental entities.  “Fundamentally, I believe that we are stronger together,” she said.  The Westpark Tollway expansion project is an example of such a partnership initiative, she said.

Public safety was a top concern, and Briones spoke about the creation of six new additional courts and about the “tele-deputy” program which frees up officers to respond to the most critical incidents.  Briones also described the creation of a retention incentive program for detention officers, which is designed to slow attrition in those positions.

Rosenthal outlined his efforts to draft and pass bills in the 88^th legislative session. He was successful in getting HB 1457 passed, which requires military cultural competency training for state grant recipients that provide mental health services to veterans or veterans’ families.

He also presented a recap of other bills that passed that he categorized as “good bills” and “bad bills.” “Good bills” included two sponsored by Senator Joan Huffman – SB10 which provides $5 billion for a 13^th check and a cost-of-living adjustment for retired teachers, and SB379 which exempts family care, maternity, menstrual and postpartum products from taxation.  “Bad bills” included SB 15, which bans the participation of transgender athletes from college-level athletic teams and competitions.  Rosenthal said that there were only 17 transgender athletes in the entire state of Texas.

Rosenthal noted that there would likely be another special session of the legislature, this time in October, in order to address issues of school finance and other education-related issues.  He said that the excess funds in the state budget might be used to increase the basic “per student” allotment for school districts, in order to increase funding.

Rosenthal reminded attendees that the general election will be November 7^th and that the ballot will contain the property tax package which must be approved by voters.

Questions for the elected officials which were posed by the audience including queries on school vouchers, clarification on the proposed property tax and its impact on senior citizens and coordination of flood control efforts, among others.