Allan R. Jamail Senatorial District 6 AllanJ211@aol.

com (SDEC) Texas State Democratic Executive Committeeman 2013 - RULES, COMMUNICATIONS & RESOLUTIONS 52 year proud member of the AFL-CIO. SUSTAINING MEMBER TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY HOUSTON's REPRESENTATIVE CAROL ALVARADO DELIVERS BACK TO HER DISTRICT
Let me begin by thanking Texas State Representative Alvarado (Carol) for my invitation to attend her Annual State of the District Breakfast. Even though Carol isn't my State Rep. she never fails to invite me, and so does Rep.'s Jessica Farrar and Armando Walle and other's that have me "district jumping". LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP @ DISTRICT 145

My Saturday morning began at Carol's event with a delicious breakfast, juice, fruit and coffee before my heading to one of my favorites, the Annual Pleasantville Reunion where politics is always on the menu and being served. Rep. Alvarado's staff under her watchful eye performed as always for the District 145 constituents like a "well greased team". Rep. Alvarado and her Chief of Staff Crystal Ford was on top of their game and with the other "team members" they gave back to the District one of the best post Legislative wrap-up's I've ever attended. Everyone had plenty of informative handout material placed in their purple gift tote bag for reading later. The formal Agenda fell right into place and kept things moving at a deliberate and comfortable pace designed to prevent boredom.

The District's High School (Austin, Chavez, Eastwood and Milby) students were involved as participant's and to me this was one of the highlight's. By giving our high school students the opportunity to engage in an event like this can be so rewarding to their future and the future of our country. When they participate in something like a Legislative wrap-up it exposes them to the political process that governs our nation. Another benefit of involving high school and college students in our political process is its proven to be a motivating factor in the student's family causing them to become more active in government and voting. THANK YOU CAROL. Carol's been appointed Co-Chair of the newly created Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations. This committee is in charge of looking at the inner workings of state agencies and higher education institutions to ensure that our state government is operating in an open and transparent way. Even though the legislative session has ended, this committee has kept Carol busy and will continue to remain active throughout the interim. Carol informed us the lawmakers restored $3.4 billion of the Public Education cuts from the 2011 session. And in Higher Education increased funding to general academic institutions 7.9% ($318 million) from the previous budget. Community colleges will see an increase of 2.1% ($36 million) from the previous budget. Technical and State Colleges will see an increase of 2.9% ($4 million) from the previous budget. Carol also addressed the Texas water crisis. Over 1000 people move to Texas every day. State's population expected to grow by 82% in the next 50 years; she said we need to have enough water to meet the state's needs. In 2011, Texas experienced the worst single-year drought on record, costing Texas farmers and ranchers $7.62 billion in lost livestock and crops. Today over 88% of the state is still experiencing drought conditions. A lack of water can affect the state's public health, local quality of life, and Texas' ability to create jobs and grow the economy she said. Lawmakers agreed to use $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund to create a water development fund to finance revolving loan programs for water infrastructure and conservation projects. And this November 5th Texas voters will vote on a Constitutional Amendment (Proposition 6) which if passed it would create two

funds to help finance key projects in the state water plan by pulling about $2 billion from the Texas Economic Stabilization Fund. Rep. Alvarado made statements on women's health, mental health, public education reform, the Lilly Ledbetter Act which passed but Gov. Perry vetoed it which would have gotten women equal pay as that of men... on an average Texas women are only paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. Other Speakers included Harris County's Clerk Stan Stewart, TXDOT's District Engineer Michael Alford, Houston's Assistant Chief of Police Michael Darden and Mario Castillo, Regional Organizing Lead in the Houston-Gulf Coast region for Enroll America and Get Covered America a nonprofit group. Get Covered America is a national campaign of Enroll America that is focused on educating consumers about the benefits of health insurance coverage and the new health care options that will be made available under the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Castillo addressed the overload condition of the enrollment web site saying people need to be patient with the enrollment web site and keep checking back. Keep in

mind that this is a marathon, not a sprint, we have a six-month open enrollment period. So theres a lot of time out there were not too worried about that. The

enrollment period lasts through March, but if you want a health plan that starts as soon as possible, which is January 1, you must enroll by December 15.

left to right: Democrat Kim Ogg, a candidate for District Attorney in the 2014 Primary, Judge Armando V. Rodriguez & Rep. Alvarado.

Centered is Adriana Tamez candidate for Trustee, District 3 Houston Community College talking to citizens before the event began. FORWARDED BY: Allan R. Jamail Senatorial District 6 (SDEC) Texas State Democratic Executive Committeeman 2013 - RULES, COMMUNICATIONS & RESOLUTIONS 52 year proud member of the AFL-CIO. SUSTAINING MEMBER TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY To unsubscribe to receiving email please click on the following link (here) and type the word unsubscribe in the subject title.