State Rep. Stan Lambert, who’s Austin-bound for his fourth session of the Texas Legislature, is looking forward to at least three things that any graduate would expect.
Hugs.
Handshakes.
Money to spend.
A fresh start
The 88th session begins Tuesday and should be upbeat, much more than it was two years ago. Texas still was in the vise grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant limited physical interaction between legislators.
“I think the mood is one of excitement. People are going to come back and hug and shake hands and not worry about transmitting some foreign substance,” he said smiling.
In speaking with the Reporter-News on Friday, Lambert said one interesting aspect of the new session will be all the new faces. That includes both newly elected representatives and those who were first-timers in 2021. They didn’t get a full dose of what a session is like, he said, due to ongoing health concerns.
Lambert easily was re-elected to a fourth term in November, defeating Democrat Linda Goolsbee with 81% of the vote. His three-county District 71 expanded to now include Callahan, which gave him 91% of the its vote.
Lambert said the wealth of new faces – 40 or so out of almost 150 representatives – means those with experience could be tagged with more responsibility. That, he hopes, includes him. Lambert said his experience in education and banking could be further tapped with committee leadership assignments.
He is eager to see new leadership of the public education committee. There is much work to do regarding testing and teacher workplace issues.
Overall, Lambert is pleased with the House leadership of Dan Phelan (R-Beaumont).
“I think he excelled in a lot of areas. A lot of us weren’t skeptical but for any first-time House speaker, you have reservations. Are they going to be able to take on the challenges of the term ‘herding cats.” I think he navigated that very well.”
That despite the 2021 summer issue of a quorum break, when some legislators bolted out of state to stall a vote on Republican-backed voting changes. Lambert expects some House rule changes to address that.
Money to spend … but how?
There will be money to spend, which hasn’t been the case in recent sessions. In 2011, about $5.4 billion was cut from public school education. The next Legislature restored much of that.
“I think there is a lot of anticipation about this session and certainly the thing that makes it more interesting is that we’re going to start with a large amount of revenue available,” Lambert said.
The biennium budget will be between $260 billion and $270 billion, he said. Education and health services take the biggest chunk of that, about 80%, he said.
This session, Lambert said a Monday report from the state comptroller should show $30 billion or more, Caps limit the state from spending all of that this session. Gov. Greg Abbott has indicated he would like to use that money to reduce property taxes.
There also is a “rainy day” balance of $13 billion-$14 billion. That’s too much in reserve considering the size of the state and its biennial budget, Lambert said legislators have been told, and now is the time to spend some of that money. Maybe half.
The question is, should be be on programs that would need to be sustained or for one-time efforts? Lambert likes the latter idea more, he said.
“That’s where we should be looking, at one-time expenditures,” he said.
Name one.
Infrastructure, Lambert said.
“That would be my No. 1 priority,” he said. “The needs for additional roads and transportation, broadband expansion, the need for additional mental health beds.”
Lambert noted Texas grew in population by 466,000 between July 2022 and last July. New residents did not bring roads or hospital beds with them, he said.
“We need to make sure we’re keeping up with the growth of the state,” he said.
By percentage, only Alaska grew more. But Alaska has fewer than 1 million residents; Texas has almost 30 million, according to 2021 figures.
“We don’t see anything happening that would continue that growth.”
There is school safety efforts to continue – the Uvalde shooting occurred between sessions – and medical facility capacity in Texas-Mexico border areas also to consider, he said.
“Maybe we’ll get a little help from the federal government, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not counting on it but at least the past few days we’ve heard better indicators that (President Biden) might be willing to take a look at the border situation.”
Thus, how money will be spent will be a challenge. But better that than debating what to cut.
“There will be a lot of discussion about what are the priorities,” he said. There are spending caps to consider. “It’s going to come back to how much of this economic growth is sustainable.”
Some activity, he said, is due to “pent-up demand” from COVID.
“People are more interested in getting out and spending a little more money, though inflation certainly has slowed that somewhat,” he said.
Meeting in the middle
Not only is there the Democrat-Republican rub in the House, there is the rural vs. urban challenge.
A seat at the table is needed, Lambert said.
“We understand where the population growth has occurred but at the same time, we don’t need to be giving up anything,” he said. The appropriations committee needs to be fair in its allocation of existing and new funds.
Lambert believes fairness will prevail.
“We still have friends on the other side of the aisle. and they consider us friends as well. the extremes have their way of doing things but when the pragmatists get in the room and the common-sense folks get in the room, we can hammer out solutions that can meet the objectives for both urban areas as well as our rural communities,” he said.
As for party vs. party, Lambert said, “I don’t sense there’s going to be a major shift in how we go about trying to address the issues and the problems that face Texas.”
He noted Republicans picked up three seats. There are 86 Republicans to 64 Democrats.
Work can be accomplished whether it’s a “moderate-conservative Democrat is that leading a committee or common-sense Republican chairing a committee,” he said. “With the additional revenue we’re really going to figure out our priorities.”
And there is a related issue of funding charter schools.
“Whether you call it a voucher or a tax credit, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it is a duck. Vouchers, to me, are another way to rechannel funding from public ed to a different source, and I don’t support that,” Lambert said. “I haven’t supported that from the time I went to Austin.”
What is important to him is supporting rural areas, where school choice is limited or non-existent. A public school may be the only choice.
“We need to make sure public education provides those choices,” he said. “I think we’re doing a pretty good job in our rural communities.”
He noted increased opportunities for students to prepare for a career.
Lambert believes the House will provide stability on this issue.
“Do I think the challenge will be there again? Absolutely,” he said. But rural representatives will “stand up and fight.”
Of interest to District 71
State Rep. Stan Lambert said there are two appropriation requests pending.
- Asking for additional funding to support the NEXT Lab under construction at Abilene Christian University in conjunction with research at Georgia Tech, Texas A&M and the University of Texas.
- Making Abilene Regional Airport a permanent Texas Forest Service tanker base for fighting wildfires. “Everyone we’ve talked to is on board because it makes so much sense,” Lambert said, citing Abilene’s central location. And the need.
How about state mandates?
Retired County Judge Downing Bolls often decried unfunded mandates imposed by the state. And this month already, Taylor County commissioners weighed in on a plan to place a state juvenile facility here.
More:Taylor commissioners examining proposed state juvenile pre-adjudication facility
“I think that anything we add, we need to ensure the funding is going to be permanent,” Lambert said. “that it’s consistent and not something we provide the seed money and two or three years later we back out and let the county and the local taxpayers pick up the tab.
‘That’s not something I’m interested in doing.”
