Burrows files legislation aimed to improve mental health treatment

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Fox34 Lubbock

LUBBOCK – Lubbock State Representative Dustin Burrows has filed legislation to provide access to mental health medications prescribed by specially trained licensed psychologists.

Due to a shortage of psychiatrists in Texas, right now, more than 80 percent of mental health medications are prescribed by primary care physicians or E.R. doctors, resulting in long wait times and higher costs for the patient.

Burrows says as a member of the House County Affairs Committee, he’s heard a lot about how jails, for instance, could benefit from this bill.

“If you look at our county jails and right now they have become the de facto mental health facilities,” he said. “And so you’ve got to have people who are actually in the jails that can help treat them and we have a shortage of psychiatrists, so hopefully this bill allows some new people to go in and do this and deal with patients who they’re already dealing with and have the background to do it.”

Psychologist Cheryl Hall says the bill would help those with mental health issues who live in underserved and rural areas as well.

“My patients are going to benefit from this because they’re going to be able to get the medication that they need in a timely manner which will help their treatment outcome,” she said.

Under the bill, only mental health medications would be able to be prescribed by the specially trained psychologists.

Read more here: http://www.fox34.com/story/34102114/burrows-files-legislation-aimed-to-improve-mental-health-treatment

Texas Rep.’s Bill Takes Aim at Funding Penalties for Small School Districts

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KAMC Lubbock

Slaton, TX

Smaller school districts in Texas are pushing lawmakers to alter a piece of the way the Lone Star State funds schools.  Some districts including, Slaton Independent District, believe that the public school funding model penalizes them just for being smaller districts, putting their students at a disadvantage. It appears at least one Texas legislator has heard their frustration: State Representative Dustin Burrows (District 83)  filed a bill Monday to remove those penalties.

He explained that the laws which established the penalties were enacted in the 1980’s in an effort to consolidate school districts.

“A lot of people wanted to try to force some of these districts into consolidation, it was probably a lot of members who probably don’t live in these districts and don’t understand and appreciate how great of a job these rural school districts do in educating our kids,” Burrows explained.

He’s been involved with efforts in the past  to try changing this policy. His focus is not on altering the way that Texas schools are funded, but rather on getting rid of the “adjustment” which requires that small school districts of less than 300 square miles receive less state funding. The penalty started off as a 25% adjustment, Burrows said, currently the adjustment is up to over 37%.

“It hurts our small rural schools at the end of the day, it’s something I hope we can fix this upcoming session,” Burrows said.

He believes his bill will do away with an outdated, punitive adjustment.

Burrows said that many small rural school districts have come forward  to ask for his help in changing this policy, including Slaton ISD.

This is far from the first time that Texas Public schools have opposed the state funding system. Over 600 Texas schools sued in opposition of state funding, but the Texas Supreme Court upheld the funding policies.

“Our Byzantine school funding ‘system’ is undeniably imperfect, with immense room for improvement. But it satisfies minimum constitutional requirements,” Justice Don Willett wrote in the opinion.

Julee Becker, superintendent of Slaton ISD said that this lack of funding is the biggest challenge facing her district.  While her district has made huge strides in standardized testing, school programming, and other areas, the penalty prevents them from retaining their teachers.

“The reason that impacts us is that we have very good teachers, but if you have a teacher who is offered a job for seven, eight, or ten thousand dollars more in another district, it’s not that they don’t care about your kids or your town, it’s that they gotta make a better life for their families,” Becker said.

She added that one in every three or four teachers in her district will end up moving on to other jobs. That means the school districts lose out on resources they invested in those teachers who move on, and students lose out on consistency in the classroom.

The base salary for a Slaton ISD teacher is $32,000 annually, the base salary for a teacher in nearby Lubbock ISD is $43,000.

“If the state wanted us to consolidate, I feel like they should say that we should consolidate instead of trying to punish us by being in smaller communities,” Becker said. “We are the heart beat of Texas, there are more rural communities and more small school districts than there are any other school districts.”

Becker believes that the bill Burrows has filed would change all that.

Becker said that data from the Equity Center, a school finance research and advocacy organization,  suggests that reversing this penalty would give Slaton ISD enough money to offer salaries to teachers that would be competitive with nearby schools.

Numbers from Equity Center also suggest that  reversing this penalty would put thousands of dollars back into school districts annually: $808,724 for Idalou ISD, $747,612 for  New Deal ISD, $837,694 for Roosevelt ISD,  and $820,766 for Slaton ISD.

Bills like the one Burrows has filed have been pushed through the legislature in the past, but they’ve faced some opposition.

“At the end of the day this bill has been filed by a lot of other members over a long period of time and we have not had a lot of success getting it passed,” Burrows said. “I feel like this session we need to take a hard look at school funding and I hope this is a cornerstone of re-reading the formulas.”

Burrows staff said this bill will have a modest impact on the budget, but it’s too early to know the exact numbers.

Becker plans on meeting with other educators in Region 17 to explain their concerns about the state funding penalty to State Representative Charles Perry.

“I think that it’s gonna take all of us to make a difference with this,” Becker said. “Legislators do listen to educators, but they really listen to parents and to school board members and to citizens, If citizens want a level playing field for our small rural schools,  then they need to let their legislators know, whoever their legislators are.”

Watch the full interview here: http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/kamc-news/texas-reps-bill-takes-aim-at-funding-penalties-for-small-school-districts/619109909

West Texas Lawmakers File New Bills on Guns and Sanctuary Cities

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LUBBOCK, TEXAS

West Texas lawmakers filed bills this week to be discussed in the upcoming Legislative Session.

State Representative for District 83, Dustin Burrows, filed four bills.

The first bill, HB 339 eliminates fees Texans pay when obtaining or renewing a handgun license.

“The second amendment is a right of self protection,” Burrows said. “And I don’t think that we need to be charging people $140 for a license, to license back to them their rights.”

Burrows said HB 339 would keep in place all other requirements for purchasing a gun, like criminal background checks.

When asked if the state budget would suffer without the fees, Burrows said he has done research and the money could be replaced with funds from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The second, HB 307 works to cut the cost of healthcare by making prices available to patients before treatment. The re-organization would allow patients the chance to shop around for the lowest cost of treatment. Burrows said while traveling his district this past year, many constituents expressed their struggles to pay healthcare premiums.

The third, HB 308 has to do with Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction (ASATR)  funding. He said many rural schools districts across the state depend on this funding to cover 1/3 of their budget. The bill will provide additional funding and tax reductions. The current ASATR funding expires in 2017, but his bill would extend funding for 10 additional years.

The final bill, HB 338 is about acreage and bale contracts and providing protection for farmers from legal action. He said it protects farmers who produce under an acre contract, not a bale contract, and stops a merchant from coming back and suing them down the line for not producing what was estimated off an acre contract.

Senator Charles Perry working to eliminate Sanctuary Cities in Texas by filing Senate Bill 4.

“It’s important to me that we make sure and have a law and order society,” Perry said. “The irony, in this debate, is these individuals run from a country that has lost law and order. The first act is they break a law by entering, the second is they have another city that they enter that allows them to continue to be harbored, so they are breaking a law. If we continue to let this perpetuate they are going to have different laws that they pick and choose which ones they operate under and it creates a real problem.”

The bill is an extension of SB 185 which he filed in 2015, but wasn’t able to get enough votes in the Senate. He said, this time, he has support from the Senate and House of Representatives.

Perry said the Department of Justice is withholding federal grants to sanctuary cities. He identified those cities in Texas as Dallas, Houston and Austin.

According to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s office, the higher the number a bill is given, the higher the priority. Governor Patrick released a statement in support of Perry’s bill.

“I applaud Sen. Perry for taking such quick action in filing legislation to prohibit sanctuary cities in Texas. This legislation is key to keeping our border secure. Cities that decide to act as safe havens for illegal immigrants are not only breaking federal immigration laws, they are also creating a magnet for illegal immigration. I am committed to ending sanctuary cities once and for all in Texas and passing SB 4 will be a top priority in the 2017 Legislative Session,” Patrick said.

The 85th Legislative Session begins January 10, 2017.

Read here: http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/klbk-news/west-texas-lawmakers-file-new-bills-on-guns-and-sanctuary-cities

Burrows Files Bill Affirming Right To Self-Protection, Removal of Handgun Carry License Fees In Texas

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On Monday’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show, Texas District 83 Representative Dustin Burrows joined the show to talk about the upcoming 85th Texas Legislature convening on January 10, 2017, details on some bills that have already been filed, and other items on the agenda.

One of the bills Burrows has filed removes the licensing fee charged by Texas for citizen’s License To Carry handguns (LTC). Burrows said,

We charge as much as almost any other state for a new CHL (Concealed Handgun License) [now called LTC] license, or for the renewal thereof. And so my bill says, ‘Let’s get rid of it.’ There’s already a ton of exceptions out there, whether it’s for military veterans, people over the age of sixty, a lot of different exemptions. And so what I want to say is: All of us deserve an exemption. It’s very expensive. This is a Constitutional right, the right of self protection. Society gets a benefit from having licensed CHL holders around, in case bad things were to happen.

Burrows continued, saying,

Background checks would still be in place, all of those things still in place. We’re just removing the fees. It would go into the DPS budget, and we’d all have a little easier time getting a [LTC] license.

Burrows and Hasty also discussed the possibility of ‘constitutional carry’, ‘sanctuary cities’, health care and health insurance, agricultural bills, Child Protective Service and foster care of children.

On the topic of sanctuary cities, Burrows said,

You can’t have cities go rogue. You can’t have cities that basically decide that, ‘Ah we’re going to ignore law, and we’re going to do whatever we want.’ I mean that’s no respect for the rule of law, and they don’t get to do that.

Listen to the entire interview with Representative Dustin Burrows in the video above.

The Chad Hasty Show airs weekday mornings live from 8:30 AM to 11:00 AM on News/Talk 95.1 FM and 790 AM KFYO, online at KFYO.com, and on the free RadioPup app. Follow Chad on Twitter via @ChadHastyRadio & KFYO Radio at @KFYO!

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Read More: Right To Self-Protection Bill In Texas Legislature | http://kfyo.com/dustin-burrows-interview/?trackback=tsmclip

Texas Tribune: As first bills are filed, battle lines for 2017 session begin to emerge

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By MATTHEW WATKINS
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

On the first day lawmakers could file bills for consideration during the 2017 session, leaders from both parties began drawing battle lines for fights over taxation, immigration and social issues that will likely dominate the upcoming meeting of the Texas Legislature.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, announced priorities that he said reflected a commitment to the “conservative values” that helped propel Donald Trump’s election as president.

“Starting in 2017, we will have a friend in the White House who was clearly elected because the people of this country believe in the conservative principles that have guided the way govern in Texas — life, liberty and lean government that promotes prosperity,” Patrick said. “I remain committed to those principles.”

Minutes later, a group of Democrats from the Texas House criticized what they characterized as an embrace of divisiveness in the Senate and promised to focus on what they characterized as “kitchen table” matters.

“We have been the grownups” in the Legislature, said Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. “We are going to continue to be the grownups.”

Patrick’s top two priorities are passing a balanced budget — which is required by state law — and reforming the state’s property tax system. The rest of the list is filled with ideas that will be stringently opposed by Democrats and, in some cases, moderate Republicans, including limiting which bathrooms transgender people could use; imposing more restrictions on abortion; strengthening the state’s voter ID law, and allowing parents more choice in the schools that their children attend.

Lubbock lawmakers

Several lawmakers from the Lubbock-area were filing bills they hope will make it out of committee and on to the floors for consideration.

Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, filed two bills having to do with school funding and health care — two topics he has said will be focal points in this upcoming session. HB 307 has to do with making health care costs more transparent, and the bill seeks to have health facilities or practitioners disclose the exact or estimated price amount before any non-emergency service. The information, according to the text, shall include the amount as well as how much the patient’s health benefit plan will reimburse the facility or practitioner for service, or how much they will charge if it’s not under the patient’s health benefit plan.

And HB 308, which Burrows also filed Monday, seeks to extend certain school district’s additional revenue provided from the state for tax reduction.

Drew Springer, who’s the representative in the Texas House for counties to the east of Lubbock — such as Floyd, Crosby and Garza — filed nine bills Monday.

He filed HB 207 to give municipalities the ability to restrict a registered sex offender from going in or within a specified distance of any child safety zone. He filed HB 212 that says an election for the issuance of bonds by a political subdivision other than a municipal utility district shall be held on the November uniform election date.

Other bills filed by Springer had to do with day designations, like designating Oct. 19 as Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day, and March 21 as BRAVE Day. A few others are directed at Congress, like urging legislators to acknowledge that the vegetation line on the south bank of the Red River forms the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas, and encouraging them to revise policies that promote the waste of water after an irrigated crop has been declared a failure.

Democrats

The Democrats, meanwhile said they’d focus on reforming the state’s school finance system, improving access to health care and making it easier for residents to register to vote and cast a ballot on election day.

Many Democrats and school officials had been hoping that the Supreme Court of Texas would rule that the state’s method of funding schools is unconstitutional, forcing the state to take on the political perilous task of rebuilding it. That didn’t happen, though the court did say the system was problematic and should be fixed.

Democrats listed it near the top.

“We know that the school finance system is broken,” said Rep. Mary González, D-Clint. “We know that, as the Supreme Court said, we need transformational change.”

One key way to do that is for the state to send more money to the school districts, which would ease the property tax burden that homeowners pay to fund K-12 education, Democrats said. Howard, for instance, said she filed a bill on Monday that would force the state to pay at least half of the cost of education each year.

“That could go a long way toward reducing the burden of local taxpayers,” she said.

Democrats said they will also focus on improving the state’s troubled foster care and Child Protective Services systems. And they said they will attempt to work with Republicans on criminal justice reform,.

They expressed confidence that they will be able to work with Republican House Speaker Joe Straus on many issues.

Straus has also listed overhauling school finance and fixing foster care and CPS as top goals. But he has urged caution over the state’s fiscal situation, noting that the shaky oil and gas industry could limit the money that lawmakers have to spend.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11/14/dan-patrick-texas-democrats-priorities-2017/.

Matt Dotray, A-J Media, contributed to this story.

Read here: http://lubbockonline.com/texas/2016-11-14/texas-tribune-first-bills-are-filed-battle-lines-2017-session-begin-emerge#.WCsiFJMrKi5

Texas Legislators Preparing to Make Big Changes in Child Protective Services

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During a year of major changes and criticism of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Legislators are getting ready to overhaul the department. State leaders issued a directive in October in light of “the backlog of children not seen within the statutory guidelines remains nearly unchanged since the spring.” They called upon the Texas legislature to make budget decisions in their 85th Legislative Session to address the ongoing resource needs at DFPS (which manages Child Protective Services).

These state leaders are asking for more case workers and investigators, a culture of accountability, and more agency partnerships with local faith based organizations.

“I’ve been on a committee and we’ve been to several different cities and we’ve heard horrific stories from some of the children in the CPS system and foster care, and the results are unacceptable,” said Dustin Burrows, State Representative for District 83. “I’m very proud of the (House) speaker and the governor and the lieutenant governor for saying this is gonna be a priority next session.”

Representative Burrows explained that the legislature has talked about making changes to DFPS before, but this session funding those changes will be a main focus.

“We’ve already seen a new commissioner put in place to try and shake some things up. We want to make sure we give him the tools and resources he needs to make sure we have better results,” Burrows said referring to the appointment of DFPS Commissioner Hank Whitman this year.

Burrows has been busy researching and gaining insight before he heads in to the 85th session of the Texas legislature which begins January 10, 2017. Already there are a few things  Burrows believes need to be funded when it comes to DFPS:

“More CPS workers, better CPS worker retention, supporting our faith based community who is  providing a lot of the services, then taking a look at the family members to try and make sure that we put them in a position where they can care for the children,” he said.

Burrows explained that Commisioner Whitman will be responsible for shaping many of the policy changes in DFPS, it will be the legislature’s job to provide Whitman with the tools and funding to make those changes a reality.

Burrows is especially concerned with curbing the turnover that exists for employees in the CPS system as well as funding faith based organizations that support abused and neglected children in the community.

“One of the big things [in Lubbock] historically is our faith based community has really stepped up and we have great institutions that provide a lot of the services. I want to make sure they have a seat at the table this next session,” he said.

One of those faith based organizations on the South Plains is the Children’s Home of Lubbock, a facility that supports and houses children who in need.

“I’m really excited about the changes they’re trying to push forward,” said Mary Lauren Taylor, Child Placing Program Director for the Children’s Home. “One of the things they’re trying to do is increase the number of foster and adoptive homes which is something that’s really needed across the state. It’s really hard for kids to come into care and get separated from their siblings,  and if there’s no placements in their region they get sent our of town to another place where they don’t know anyone.”

Taylor has worked with helping at-risk children for a decade, and she said that the recent coverage of the DFPS overhaul is giving the public a clearer picture of  how CPS and foster care work in Texas.

“The caseworkers have such a difficult job and they’re paid so little, so it makes it hard for them to stick around and it makes it more difficult on the child and their family to get to reunification or adoption down the road,”
she said.

Taylor explained that there just aren’t enough beds for  the many kids in the South Plains who need to be placed in foster care.  She’s hoping that community members and churches in the Lubbock area step up and help provide foster homes to support many children who otherwise might not find homes in the region.

“This is a problem for the community as a whole, not just the agencies that work with CPS kids,” she said.

She also hopes that when legislators head to Austin in January, that they keep Texas children in focus.

“I would hope that when they’re going through the different policies that are in place that they remember that these are kids and they are the most helpless and [defenseless] in our community, they need someone to step up for them and help them have a better life than they might currently have,” she said.

Read here: http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/kamc-news/texas-legislators-preparing-to-make-big-changes-in-child-protective-services