Posted on 11/13/2003 9:03:41 PM PST by Theodore R.
Comptroller touts border issues in Laredo
BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer
"Texas is great, but we can do better. We can be leaner, not meaner," were the lines repeated by Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn during a Wednesday visit to Laredo.
Almost sounding like she was on the campaign trail, Strayhorn was critical of Gov. Rick Perry's administration during a Wednesday luncheon at Texas A&M International University, but noted that she was not yet ready to announce a run for governor.
Strayhorn and Perry have continually clashed and locked horns throughout the year.
The state "has been abdicating its responsibility" to improve the social and economic health of the border, Strayhorn said in a fiery and fast-paced talk called, "Our Texas Border: Heart of the Americas," held at TAMIU's Western Hemispheric Trade Center.
About $41.6 billion of Texas exports now go to Mexico, meaning that trade flowing through the border now makes up 12.1 percent of Texas' entire Gross State Product.
Despite the border's contributions to this phenomenon, Strayhorn cited statistics that show the 14-county border region lagging far behind the rest of the state.
For starters, the border suffers from a poverty rate that is double the state average, according to her November 2003 report "The Border: Snapshot."
The percentage of school children in poverty along the border is 35.3 percent, compared with the state average of 18.6 percent. The number of 25 year old persons without a high school degree on the border is a staggering 43.2 percent, compared to the state average of 24.3 percent.
Average annual pay on the border is $24,550 compared to the state average of $36,058, while per capita annual income is $16,493 and $28,472, respectively.
In 2001, Laredo was one of the top three cities in the entire nation that had the lowest per capita income, Strayhorn said.
Although the border is faring better than the rest of the state with annual short-term employment growth, it still has an unemployment rate of 10.7, while the state average is 6.3 percent.
The root of these disparities, Strayhorn argued, has been the state's failure to listen to the needs of the border.
Most importantly, however, has been the historic disparity of state dollars sent to the border versus the rest of the state for secondary and higher education, she said.
"Nothing is more important than education. We need to make substantial changes to how we pay for public schools," she said.
She pointed out that the state's portion of the total pie has gone from 60 percent to less than 40 percent, with property owners picking up the rest of the tab.
"For every $1 invested in education, there is a $5 return....Whatever we do to improve education, the problem will not be fixed without more money in the system," Strayhorn argued.
The state must form a "brain trust" to brainstorm on how to bring about true reform and identify new sources of money.
"You must be involved every step of the way," Strayhorn told the audience.
Texas must commit itself to greatly expanding its number of flagship universities, community colleges and research dollars, she said.
"We are very under-represented when it comes to flagship universities," she said, noting that Texas has two, compared to states like California (nine), New York (eight) and Massachusetts (five).
Strayhorn then proposed a plan in which all Texas high school graduates should have the opportunity to attend any community college or technical school, with the state picking up the bill for tuition and books.
"I would rather spend $2,100 a year on a student rather than $15,000 a year to have them incarcerated," she said while the audience clapped. "Tell the governor to add that to his call on (a special called legislative session for) school finance reform!"
Other jabs she took at Perry were budget cuts he made this year that affected hundreds of thousands of the poor and elderly.
One other "glaring omission" has been the state's failure to appoint someone from the border to sit on the powerful three-member (soon to be five-member) Texas Transportation Commission.
"The governor still has not appointed someone from South Texas. He needs to do that and he needs to do that now," Strayhorn said, which drew loud applause from the audience.
The state's leadership must also rekindle its previous spirit of bipartisanship and civility in Austin, which was lost due to the bitter fight on congressional redistricting.
(Staff writer Tricia Cortez can be reached at 728-2568 or tricia@lmtonline.com.)
11/13/03
They mostly vote in the DemocRAT primary.
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