State Representative Tan Parker finalized his bill package Friday for the 83rd Legislative session and announced the filing of key legislation addressing many big ticket issues facing Texas.
Included in his legislative package is the formation of a fund aimed at improving upon Texas’ existing infrastructure. House Bill 2340 will create the Texas First Investment Fund for attracting public and private capital into infrastructure investment all across Texas. House Bill 3092 authorizes the Texas Workforce Development Fund, which will retain a portion of new state sales tax collections attributed to the location of new manufacturing projects in Texas and then invest those dollars into workforce education programs that meet their specific industry needs and prepares their employees for their current and future workforce needs.
“No two issues are more important to our continued economic success in Texas than improving our infrastructure systems and readying a workforce to meet the employment demands of our very diverse and highly technical industries,” Parker stated. “What we do on these issues today will define our state for generations to come and I look forward to passing my legislation that creatively raises our investments in these critical areas without increasing taxes.”
Parker also filed House Bill 2495 to ensure that all public school and university employees in Texas receive the instruction necessary for them to fulfill their legal obligation of recognizing and reporting known or suspected cases of child abuse. Staying with child protection, he also authored House Bill 2319 to give churches the authority necessary to have discretion to provide overnight shelter to homeless children. House Bill 1980, the Paycheck Protection Act, would make it unlawful for a business or labor union to automatically deduct a political contribution from a person’s paycheck without first getting the individual’s permission.
As Chairman of the House Corrections Committee, Parker also proposed a legislative package on incarceration reform, including House Bill 2979 to ensure that more child predators will not have the ability to plead their charges down to simple injury to a child. Additional measures were also proposed by Parker to strengthen the requirement that offenders pay restitution to their victims.
“It is important to me and important to the families that I represent that criminals stay behind bars and that their victims are compensated for the crimes committed against them,” Parker added in closing. “I have a unique chance this legislative session to make a meaningful impact in this area of public policy, and I intend to capitalize on the opportunity.”
Initially elected in November 2006, Representative Parker represents both rural and urban parts of Denton County which encompasses the communities of Flower Mound, Argyle, Lantana, Dish, Ponder, Justin, Northlake, Copper Canyon, Double Oak, Bartonville, Trophy Club, Roanoke and portions of Lewisville, Fort Worth, Highland Village, Westlake and Southlake.
Serving in his 4th term in the Texas Legislature, Representative Parker is focusing his efforts on economic development, job creation, strengthening border security and immigration policy, promoting fiscally responsible government spending, providing a strong public education system, enhancing public safety and protecting family values. Representative Parker is the current Chairman of the Corrections Committee. He also serves on the Land and Resource Management Committee and the Criminal Procedure Committee.
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