Texas Rural Reporter Update 4/21
The Rural Texas news you need to read this week
TAKE ACTION
Texas Broadband Development Office Seeks Input from Public for Development of Digital Opportunity Plan
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced today that his agency’s Broadband Development Office (BDO) is asking the public for input on internet accessibility, affordability and usage. BDO will use the Digital Opportunity Plan: Public Survey to develop a Texas Digital Opportunity Plan, which is required to draw down federal funding for connecting Texans to reliable, high-speed internet.
LEGISLATURE
The Texas Tribune: Texas Senate passes $308 billion budget plan, kicking off high-stakes negotiations with the House
The Texas Senate on Monday gave final approval to a $308 billion spending plan for the next two years, sending budget leaders into high-stakes negotiations with their counterparts in the House over property taxes and other divisive issues — with just weeks to go before the legislative session ends. Senators voted 31-0 to spend $141.2 billion in general revenue on major investments in property tax cuts, juvenile justice, mental health, higher education, state parks, historical sites and pay raises for teachers and state employees.
Becker Hospital Review: Texas lawmakers take aim at surprise ambulance bills
The proposed legislation would prohibit municipalities from engaging in balance billing and prevent patients from receiving surprise bills when their insurers refuse to cover the costs, according to the report.
Houston Chronicle: Why Republicans in the Texas House are sticking with their tax cut plan
A poll funded by House Speaker Dade Phelan offers insight into why he’s not budging on a property tax reform proposal that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the Texas Senate, vehemently opposes. Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, and the House have been adamant that their property tax plan must include a way to limit year-over-year increases in the home appraisals used to calculate tax bills. Currently, taxable values on owner-occupied homes cannot grow by more than 10 percent, if they're protected by the state's homestead exemption. Phelan and House leaders have passed a plan that would lower that cap to 5 percent and apply it to all properties, including rentals and other commercial real estate.
Press Release: Sen. Bettencourt and Sen. West pass bipartisan Virtual Education bill through the Senate
Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) and Senator Royce West (D-Dallas), the two longest-serving members of the Senate Education Committee, passed Senate Bill 1861 out of the Texas Senate on a bipartisan vote, 28-3. SB 1861 is based on the bipartisan unanimous recommendations of the Texas Commission on Virtual Education. Senator Bettencourt and Senator West served on the Commission, which was chaired by Governor Abbott appointee, Rex Gore, during the 87th Interim.
EDUCATION
DMN: Skeptical rural leaders aren’t buying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s school choice plan
Placed inside the folder of parental rights and one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s major agenda items, a school voucher like program appeared to have a good chance of passing through the Legislature. That was until the familiar coalition of rural and urban lawmakers against implementing programs that would give students public money to attend private schools stopped the proposal from being seriously considered in the Texas House.
(VIDEO) Fox 7 Houston: The Issue Is — Gov Abbott pushes for school choice
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, unlike past sessions, appears unwilling to buckle to legislative progressives and rural Republicans who fear vouchers will dilute funding for public schools.
Schools Take Steps to Address Critical Rural Veterinarian Shortage
The national shortage of farm and livestock veterinarians could have serious ramifications for animal welfare, food safety, and disease transmission, and potentially stifle the economies of hundreds of rural communities. Critical policy changes are needed to correct the problem, says Clinton Neill, PhD, assistant professor in veterinary economics for the Cornell University Center for Veterinary Business and Entrepreneurship.
Religion News Service: Amy Laura Hall (Opinion) How school choice drives America’s people of faith apart
This month we have marked the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, and Muslims will soon end the holy month of Ramadan with the feast of Eid al-Fitr — a religious “convergence” that many celebrate as a sign of America’s robust religious diversity.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Lubbock Avalanche Journal: Water district reports continued drop in Ogallala Aquifer in West Texas
In the aftermath of one of the driest years on record for our region, the consequences have come in multiples. Several crops saw their worst production numbers in decades; the economy took a major hit as a result. And more notably, the High Plains' region of the Ogallala Aquifer is at its lowest-ever supply and continues to dwindle, plummeting by approximately 12.35 feet since 2009.
KVII: Producers learn strategies for water conservation as drought impacts Ogallala Aquifer
Water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer are dropping at a faster rate thanks to the drought. It’s causing more stress on the aquifer as replenishment is minimal or non-existent.
USDA Offers New Funding to Promote the Expansion of High-Speed Internet in Rural Areas
USDA is offering the funding under the new Broadband Technical Assistance Program. The program supports technical assistance projects such as conducting feasibility studies, completing network designs and developing broadband financial assistance applications. Funding is also available to help organizations access federal resources, and to conduct data collection and reporting.
Texas Tribune: Finding and keeping workers in post-pandemic economy is a struggle for West Texas, local leaders tell Fed
Educators and employers are struggling to train, recruit and keep their workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the way Texans learn and work, regional leaders told the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas last week. Qualified workers — if they can be found — are burdened by financial stresses, such as finding good child care and transportation or being able to afford certification courses, educators and business leaders in the Permian Basin told the Fed as part of a listening tour. Local partnerships, public schools, local colleges and local companies — not the federal government — are the driving forces to solve these issues, they said. But progress is slow.
Fighting light pollution: The West Texas effort preserves one of the largest dark sky reserves
To sit under the vast expanse of stars is to imagine swimming across shining, stellar rivers, creeks and tributaries. But to sit here also is to feel that lump in your throat and skip in your heart, realizing everything you know is far smaller than the majesty of the universe.
Economic Impact Study Shows Livestock Auctions Are Growing in Importance
A 2023 economic impact study, which updated a study from 2017, found that livestock auction markets continue to be important for the growth and vitality of rural communities. The study of an average, fixed-facility livestock auction market revealed that the market provides approximately $2 million in total value-added dollars to its local community. This result is up from $1 million identified in the 2017 Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) Economic Impact Report.
Texas Tribune: Solar and wind companies are coming to rural Texas. These residents are trying to keep them out.
Volunteer firefighter Jim Emery grew emotional as he spoke to the crowd at an anti-solar development town hall meeting in his northeast Texas community. Emery, who worked for decades at the nearby coal power plant before it closed in 2018, didn’t worry then about pollution from the plant.
Olney Enterprise: RURAL ROUTE REVIVAL STARTS WORK ON FIRST HOME
The TV show “Rural Route Revival” started work on its first home last week, setting forms for the foundation of a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a garage and a big front porch on West Oak Street. Developer/producer brothers Lance and Corey Groves are using Olney as the setting for a “Fixer Upper”-style show about renewing rural towns in Texas. The brothers, who grew up in Graham and work as building contractors at Possum Kingdom Lake, plan to build about 10 homes in Olney for the documentary-style series which will air on a major streaming channel later this year or in early 2024. So far, everything is on track, Lance Groves said.
Big Bend Sentinel: Village Farms applies for license to grow medical marijuana
Village Farms is applying for a license from the Texas Department of Public Safety to grow cannabis in a one-acre greenhouse at its Marfa location in addition to existing tomato crops. If the application is successful, the company also plans to add a dispensary to the property.
What’s for ‘Launch’? Space Food Reaching New Heights
The space program has come a long way since the days of the Gemini and Mercury missions, and so has the food the astronauts consume during their space missions. Today, there is a far greater variety of food than the original “cube and tube” foods astronauts ate during those early NASA missions. Now they have a wide array of interesting and tasty items on their menu, including seafood gumbo, beef fajita strips, lasagna, honey ginger fish and pickled beets, as well as chocolate pudding cake and apricot cobbler.
Fox 27 Houston: Texas generated more than $87 million in taxes through Airbnb
According to a report, Airbnb collected and remitted more than $87.4 million in tourism taxes on behalf of hosts in Texas; a 35 percent increase from 2021. Organizers say these numbers come during a time when local governments across the country continue reeling from the financial impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated revenue streams. However, tourism taxes collected on behalf of Airbnb hosts are shown to be a financial success.
HEALTHCARE
San Antonio Express News: In Texas farm country, hospitals face dilemma to keep doors open
A patient who showed up at the hospital in the small Texas farming town of Anson a few weeks ago with pneumonia or a bad infection could count on a bed for a couple of days to allow them to recover. But late last month, Anson General Hospital, about 200 miles west of Dallas, converted to what is in effect an emergency-only facility, designed to either treat patients and send them on their way or, in more serious cases, stabilize them and send them 30 miles away to Abilene. If there’s no space there, patients must travel more than 200 miles to Lubbock.
KERA News: The public health emergency order for COVID ends in May. Here’s what that means for telehealth
When the pandemic began, we all adjusted — or tried to adjust — to a world where interactions happened mostly over screens, and that included doctor’s appointments. With the early days of lockdown long behind us, telehealth has remained an option for many patients seeking health care. But that’s about to change. President Biden announced that the public health emergency will end May 11, and without that emergency order in place, some patients may have to return to in-person medical care.
Rural hospitals are closing labor and delivery services. Babies' lives are in jeopardy
A hospital in Idaho recently announced it will shutter its labor and delivery services due to doctors’ unwillingness to practice medicine in the face of the state’s restrictive and punitive laws surrounding reproductive health care. This comes on the heels of a hospital in rural Washington state closing its labor and delivery services due to concerns over the cost of these services. CNN reported 13 hospitals ceased labor and delivery services in the past year.
PBS: Diabetes a major factor behind declining life expectancy in rural areas
Over the past two decades, life expectancy in rural areas has declined. One major reason is the prevalence of diabetes. With support from the Pulitzer Center and in collaboration with the Global Health Reporting Center, special correspondent Dr. Alok Patel reports from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for our series Rural RX.
KLTV: Bipartisan effort reignited to expand medical access to rural communities (Video)
Rural America has long-standing problems with access to healthcare providers and the COVID-19 pandemic only made things worse.
ELECTION 2024
San Antonio Express-News: Gilbert Garcia: Roland Gutierrez likely to challenge Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate
Roland Gutierrez is gearing up for a likely run against Ted Cruz in 2024. Two sources close to Gutierrez, a San Antonio-based Democratic state senator, say he is nearly certain to challenge Cruz for the U.S. Senate seat that Cruz has held since 2013. “He is very serious,” one source told the Express-News. Another source said, “I would be shocked if he does not challenge Ted Cruz.” Gutierrez declined to comment on his political plans. Gutierrez has been contacting fellow Democrats in recent weeks to sound them out about his interest in taking on Cruz. But any announcement is likely to wait until after this year’s Texas legislative session, which concludes in six weeks. Because Gutierrez won re-election last year and won’t have to defend his Texas Senate seat again until 2026, a race against Cruz would be a free shot for him. He could run for the U.S. Senate in 2024 without relinquishing his current seat.