Texas Democrats
by Beata Mikrut

Texas was the 28th State to enter the Union on Dec. 29, 1845.  The population now reaches 18,378,185 (July 1996 U.S. Bureau of the Census estimate) and includes: 12,775,000 (65%) White, 4,340,000 (15%) Hispanic, 2,022,000 (9%) Blacks, 319,000 (1%) Asian, 66,000 (0.2%) American Indians and 1,804,780 (9.8%) others.  The principal products produce in manufacture is chemicals and allied products, petroleum and coal products, and in agriculture they produce Cattle, grain sorghums, cotton lint and seed, wheat, rice and dairy products.              Texas Democratic Party mission is to “seek to inspire and motivate people who share our values to give their time, resources, and votes to build a better Texas for our families and children in the 21st century.”  They put a strong emphasize on strong family.  First issue they deal with is education.  They oppose any form of private school vouchers because vouchers would drain resources essential to guarantee a quality public education for all our children.  They believe that raising teachers pay to the at least national level will bring more well educated and trained teachers.  They want to assure equal opportunity by equalizing school funding from the bottom up, not by leveling it down.  Another issue about family is the protection of children from domestic violence.  They support programs, education and centers for battered woman and children.  They want the centers of sexual assault crisis to be spread to unserved and underserved areas of the state.  They have reduced class sizes in the crucial early grades, curbed campus violence and disruption, raised students performance, lowered dropout rates and provided parents and communities much more information and input the operation of the schools.  The kindergartens and per-kindergartens programs were established.  The Texas Democrats Party believe all Texans must have an opportunity to attend public universities and colleges, and they will support innovative approaches to ensure diversity in every Texas institution of higher education.  Higher education provides the higher-level skill that crucial to competitiveness in global economy marked by rapid technological change, therefore they support additional funding of higher education to assure financial aid and access for all students.              Another aspect is a childcare.  They believe that the private sector can do more to improve the availability of affordable childcare.  Therefore they want to cut corporate tax credits, property tax entrepreneurial assistance, so they can help businesses invest in childcare.  They also support the creation of a Texas Care Fund to pool local, nonprofit and private dollars to be used to get the maximum available federal childcare matching funds.            The Texas Democratic Party believes all Texans should share in tax cuts.  The Democratic leadership voted against raising the sales tax to 11 percent on basics necessities, including food and medicine, and voted to abolish all corporate franchise and property taxes.  That highlights the opposition to regressive tax increase that unfairly target fixed and middle income families.  They go even farther and want to pass a constitutional amendment banning a sales tax on food and medicine.  They believe that citizens should not be subjected to a state income tax and the sale tax on the purchase of cars and other necessities should be reduced or eliminated.            Texas Democrats believe that the best way to end poverty is to ensure jobs that pay a living wage.  Government assistance should be a transition to help people take responsibility for they own lives and become productive members of society.  These families should find a way to quickly move from welfare to jobs.  A society that emphasizes personal responsibility must also strive to create jobs, reward work, and provide an infrastructure that encourages people to work and to rear children responsibility.            Texas Democrats believe that people will make sound, healthy decision for themselves and their families.  They believe in every American right to privacy and the right to make personal choices for themselves.  They believe that no government should interfere in an individual private and personal decision, such as when or whether to bear children.  They want also decrease the rate of adolescent pregnancy and the alarming rise in teenage dropouts - both of which increase the number of Texas children living in poverty.  They also want to increase the federal minimum wage aimed at giving full-time workers the ability to live dignified lives.  They also guarantee that all farm workers are afforded that same dignity. Regarding health care, Texas Democrats believe that doctors, not HMOs or insurance company, should make medical decisions, and HMOs and insurance companies should be banned form restricting a doctor ability to tell a patient about all medical options.  Texas Democrats support a Patient Bill of Rights Amendment to Texas Constitution that will give every Texas family the right to choose their own doctor outside of their HMO plans.  HMO and insurance companies should be barred from  discriminating against pre-existing conditions such as HIV infection, Alzheimer, cancer and other chronic diseases.              Texas Democrats believe that linguistic and cultural diversity presents opportunity to develop a competitive edge in a growing global economy.  They believe all Texans have a responsibility to be proficient in the English language but oppose the efforts of the extremist “English-Only” movements to curb the use of other language.  They also believe that it is the responsibility and duty of the United State to secure its borders.  At the same time, the Texas Democrats promotes immigration policies that create economic opportunities for all individuals and businesses, strengthen families, protect members of all communities against discrimination, and protect people from intrusive from of personal identification.   Since 50 percent of Texans live in areas that fail to meet clean air standards, they want to require the old industrial polluters to come into compliance with clean-air standards within five years.  They support full implementation of the Clean Air Act and create incentives to reduce or prevent air problem.  They want also the expansion of the state parks.            Texas is known for its agriculture, which is important to domestic and international trade.  To maintain the world leadership role of Texas farms and ranches Texas Democrats are doing a few things.  First is to ensure the safety of imported foods not covered by the regulations against dangerous chemical and pesticides that apply to food grown in the United States.  Texas Democrats protect food producers from unfair competition with foreign producers who use chemicals banned in this country to increase their yields at the expense of the purity of the product.  Texas Democrats recognize a large number of family farmers and ranches are as important to food and fiber production as large corporations and conglomerates.  They want to promote a federal legislature that would establish appropriate minimum price support levels and restore the economic safety net for family farmers and ranches which Congress effectively eliminated with the passage of the 1995 Farm Bill.