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Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and Rep. Betty Brown visited Henderson County last week. They stopped at Groom and Son’s and met with some local residents. Charles Stiff photo
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State officials travel Henderson County
Gun Barrel City — Dist. 4 State Rep. Betty Brown showed Texas House Speaker Joe Straus around Henderson County Thursday.
The representatives spoke to crowds in the East Texas Medical Center, Athens Bush Board Room, and in the Trinity Valley Community College cafeteria around lunchtime. They then traveled to Groom and Son at Cedar Creek Lake.
“I invited the speaker because I’ll have occasion to talk to him about the needs of my district,” Brown said at the ETMC gathering. “I want him to have a picture in his mind of the people and places here.”
At TVCC, Straus told the audience he wants to get to know Brown’s constituents.
“It is important for me to meet her friends, which I hope will be my friends too,” Straus said.
Brown said the hospital provides the community with both vital services and good jobs.
“ETMC provides Henderson County a quality of healthcare that’s rare for a town this size. It supports the community by providing good-quality, good-paying jobs,” she said. “This hospital is a big reason Athens could be designated a certified retirement community by the state of Texas.”
At TVCC, Brown said the college contributes to Texas’ economic solvency by providing its students with skills in demand in the workforce. She said that in spite of the fact that she recognizes the suffering of those who are unemployed, the big picture in Texas is pretty good.
“When you look around, you see how much better the Texas’ economy is than other states in the nation,” Brown said.
She said the Wall Street Journal ranked Texas the best state in the nation for business. Forbes Magazine found the state has the fourth-lowest debt in the nation, Brown said.
Straus said the Texas Legislature was able to pass a balanced budget last session.
“We did a very good job of using all the revenues available to fund all the priorities important to this district and my district,” he said.
Straus said a recent decision — by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and himself — to have state agencies and universities trim spending by five percent, is an effort to curb a projected budget shortfall.
“We thought it was responsible to take some measured steps,” he said. “That is what taxpayers expect of us.”
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