Rogers talks politics at town hall style meeting in Breckenridge
By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
State Representative Glenn Rogers visited Breckenridge on Friday, Sept. 8, for a town hall style meeting and talked to constituents about what went on in the 88th legislative session, as well as encouraged everyone to vote in the upcoming election on 14 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution.
Rogers, along with Texas State Technical College and the Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce, hosted an early-morning breakfast for the community at TSTC before addressing the 35-40 people in attendance and then answering questions.
State Representative Glenn Rogers speaks with a constituent during a town hall meeting at TSTC. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
“Those of you that follow Texas politics know that we’ve had a few major distractions this session. But, despite these distractions, we had a highly productive session,” Rogers said. “We passed numerous pieces of legislation that positively impact this district and rural Texas. So what were those distractions? I’m not going to dwell on these, but they were historic, unfortunately. They’re not the kind of events you want to be involved with. But we had the first expulsion of a member since 1927, almost 100 years. We had the first impeachment of a state official since 1917, over 100 years. … When we get to the question and answer questions, don’t ask me anything about that. I’m under a gag order. And we won’t discuss that.”
Rogers explained how the legislature works, meeting for 140 days every two years in regular session (special sessions of up to 30 days can be called). However, the legislators don’t start voting on bills until the last 80 days, he said.
“So what did we do in those last 80 days? Well, we had almost 12,000 bills, counting resolutions, 8,406 House and Senate bills, when you exclude resolutions,” he said. “And out of those, 8,406, there were 1,246 that actually made it through the House and Senate and were signed by the governor. So, about one out of every seven bills got passed. So the system is designed to fail bills, not pass bills. And that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, we also have some very good bills that don’t make it. But we deal with a lot of bills, and I took quite a few votes. We took third-reading, record votes on 2,089 bills. And when you add in amendments, you add in second-reading votes, you add in committee votes, I took over 5,000 votes in that 80-day period. Now, unfortunately, we have some that want to piecemeal that; they want … to go in and cherry-pick some votes and then try to score you on how conservative you are. I think maybe it’s more how much they can control you. But … you need to be very careful about looking at some of those scorecard fields. I’m very proud of every single vote I took. ”
He went on to talk about the budget process, property taxes, internet access and other issues that were passed by the legislators.
Rogers also mentioned some of the proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution, including one that will create a Broadband Infrastructure Fund to expand high-speed broadband access and assist in the financing of connectivity projects and another that will provide a cost-of-living adjustment for retired teachers. You can read more about the proposed amendments on the Texas Secretary of State’s website.
The election will be Nov. 7, with early voting scheduled for Oct. 23 through Nov. 3. The last day to register to vote in the election is Oct. 10. The last day to request a Ballot by Mail is Oct. 27. For more information about the election, as well as to check and see if you are registered to vote, visit the Vote Texas website.
Cutline, top photo: State Rep. Glenn Rogers, along with TSTC and the Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce, hosted a breakfast and town hall style meeting on Sept. 8. He talked about the 88th legislative session and the upcoming election on amendments to the Texas Constitution. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
