1) Safe Streets: Let’s be “smart” and not just “tough” on crime so we’re allocating precious taxpayer resources most effectively. Nonviolent criminals, such as petty drug offenders and the mentally ill, don’t need to clog up our prison cells at thousands of dollars a year when the money could be better spent on rehabilitation and other measures.

2) Sharp Minds: Let’s strengthen our public schools and not weaken them by diverting millions of taxpayer dollars towards private interests. The State Legislature needs to recommit its support for public schools all over the state by increasing its percentage of public school funding to reduce the need to raise property taxes. Educators should be considered stakeholders in the process and deserve better working conditions and pay. Tuition deregulation has been a disaster for average families trying to put their children through college because of skyrocketing costs. Let’s get us back on track to make higher education affordable for ALL Texans.

3) Sound bodies: Let’s improve access to health care and ensure the District and state have tough environmental laws to protect our health. Improving quality of life issues in this state will be good for business!

4) Fairness for Working Families: Utility and insurance rates have had very little oversight over the last several years, with companies having carte blanche authority to raise rates at will. Under the guise of “tort reform,” insurance rates were supposed to go down! That didn’t happen. Working families are losing their homes every day due to unscrupulous lenders charging the most interest and fees to those that can least afford the exorbitant rates. Let’s restore fairness, balance, and oversight to a broken system that currrently allows hard-working Texans to be taken advantage of.

LINKS & RESOURCES (Content listed on the sites below does not necessarily reflect 100% of Virginia McDavid’s views)

There have been a number of consumer issues affected by recent legislative sessions, including loss of homeowners’ rights when buying a lemon home, loss of citizens’ rights to access the courts via the 7th amendment, which guarantees us a right to redress grievances through trial by jury, and the PUC no longer approving utility increases. Here are a couple of public interest groups with excellent websites: