Thursday evening, in an exclusive interview with Robert Pratt, State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R- Lubbock, pictured) announced he will run for re-election in 2018.

Rep. Burrows has represented House District 83 since 2014. HD 83 is one of the larger districts, in terms of geographic area, with parts of Lubbock County, and all of Mitchell, Gaines, Terry, Lynn, Borden and Scurry counties in the district.

In the 85th Legislature, Rep. Burrows served on the following House committees: Agriculture & Livestock, Investments & Financial Services, Investments & Financial Services- S/C on Bond Indebtedness. Burrows, and his fellow legislators, will be back in Austin next month. The first special session of the 85th Legislature will start on July 18.

One item of focus during the special session will be property tax reform. Burrows discussed a major part of the proposed reform, “The first part of property tax relief is trying to tell (taxpayers) where the extra money goes to,” he said. “Is it going to their County Commissioners (budget)? Is it going to their cities? Is it going to their school board? And when people actually pay extra money (each year), even through the tax rate didn’t go up, they need to know where it goes so they can have the conversations with the mayors, county commissioners and school boards,” Burrows concluded.

Dustin Burrows ran unopposed for re-election in HD 83 in 2016.

Read More: State Representative Dustin Burrows Announces 2018 Re-election Bid on Pratt on Texas | http://kfyo.com/state-representative-dustin-burrows-announces-2018-re-election-bid-on-pratt-on-texas/?trackback=tsmclip

On Friday’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show, Texas District 83 Representative Dustin Burrows joined Chad in the KFYO studio to talk about the upcoming special legislative session for the Texas legislature, the hot topic of the Texas Tech University veterinarian school, and more.

Burrows and Hasty also discussed the recent action taken by California’s attorney general blocking state-funded travel to Texas because of Texas’ stance on gay rights and other social issues, and Burrows’ introduction of legislation that would have the state of Texas respond to California with a reciprocal ban.

What they want to do is use their influence to dictate the policy and the culture of the state of Texas. Well, as a very proud Texan, I do not want the California legislature determining what the culture of Texas is…There’s some week-kneed Republicans out there also that essentially, I guess they’re comfortable with California dictating our laws of our lands. I’m not…Hopefully we’ll get to address it in the special [session of the Texas Legislature].

Burrows also addressed the topic of delays in moving forward on a veterinarian school at Texas Tech University, which was also discussed with Representative Drew Springer on yesterday’s Chad Hasty Show.

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!

Read More: Burrows Says California Wants To Dictate Texas Culture | http://kfyo.com/rep-dustin-burrows-says-california-wants-to-dictate-texas-culture-and-policy-interview/?trackback=tsmclip

STATEMENT BY TEXAS HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE DUSTIN BURROWS ON TODAY’S ANTI-TEXAS ACTION BY THE CALIFORNIA STATE LEGISLATURE

“Today, the California Legislature prohibited the expenditure of its state funds for state employee travel to Texas because of our morals and ethics. Months ago, I offered an amendment to the Texas state budget to counter this type of nonsense — my amendment would have reciprocated if another state did this very thing. Texans are the most inclusive, welcoming people in the world — what Texans will not do is allow another state to determine our policy and culture”

Read more about California Legislative action here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article157702744.html

END

LUBBOCK, TX (KAMC NEWS) – Are you a fan of South Plains politics? Here are your Talking Points for this week.

How many of you got in line to prostest your property taxes this year? Governor Abbot says he wants statewide reform but is he expecting too much from lawmakers? Lawmakers couldn’t agree on changes the first time in Austin.

Congressman Jodey Arrington has promised to work for local veterans in District 19. Round one of that fight against the broken Veterans Administration may have been won by an adminstrative knockout.

Also this week we introduce you to the new chariman of the Texas Republican Party.

We’ll recap all the local, state and national political news on this week’s broadcast.

Talking Points with Bryan Mudd airs each Sunday morning at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday evenings at 11:05 p.m. on KAMC.

Click here to watch the full interview: http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/talking-points-with-bryan-mudd-61817/744132169

Lubbock Avalanche Journal

I am proud of our governor for calling for us back to Austin to complete some unfinished work. He has done the right thing, which is evident by every liberal and anti-taxpayer special interest group attacking him for making the call. They are wrong, and I expect that we can get the following done within the 30 days:

1. Property tax reform: The property tax is a local tax (Texas abolished the state property tax in 1982). Even though it’s a local tax, the state has the responsibility for setting the process and procedure by which local entities collect it.

Taxpayers are frustrated when they hear that their property tax rate stayed the same, but their tax liability went up and with no explanation of where the extra money went. Taxpayers deserve more transparency. They deserve to know which local taxing entity got what extra money. They need this information to have more intelligent conversations with their mayor and county commissioners about what the extra money was needed for. During the special session, I will support legislation that provides this information to taxpayers.

Taxpayers also deserve to have more control over their property taxes. Texas law currently provides that if a local taxing entity raises property taxes beyond a certain percentage (the “rollback rate”), then an election will occur to ratify or reject that increase. When originally implemented, the rollback rate was 5 percent; however, because of the massive inflation during the Carter administration, it was then increased to 8 percent. Numerous attempts have been made to lower it back to 5 percent. The closest attempt was in 2005, when a bill passed both chambers with strong bipartisan support (the bill died before reaching the governor’s desk). That bill had several amendments to address the concerns of cities and counties, including keeping smaller taxing units at the current rollback rate. I am certain that we can find a solution in the special session that works for both taxpayers and smaller counties and cities.

2. ASATR funding: The most important issue we will address during the special session for District 83 is helping stabilize schools that are dependent on Additional State Aide for Tax Reduction. Those are funds that go to certain schools (many in rural Texas) in addition to the basic funds allotted. These have been in place since 2006 and will statutorily expire unless extended by this Legislature. There is significant opposition to extending these funds from special interest groups that disagree with ASATR.

Many of us fought hard to extend ASATR during the regular session; however, an agreement was not reached before time ran out. During the special session, I will continue to work for an extension of ASATR; and, the elimination of the small-school adjustment.

3. Pro-life initiatives: During the regular session, we accomplished many pro-life initiatives such as ending dismemberment abortion (where the child is killed in utero by being torn limb from limb while his or her heart is still beating). During the special session, I look forward to working with my colleagues to accomplish each of the four measures Gov. Abbott has called for. The measures include: (1) preventing Texans from being forced to fund the elective abortions of others through insurance; (2) stopping cities and counties from funneling tax dollars to the profit-driven abortion industry; (3) requiring patient or surrogate consent before a DNR order is placed on a patient; and, (4) reforming the reporting requirements of abortion and abortion complications.

While I travel the district, I often hear from constituents that they are concerned about property taxes, the funding of schools and protection of life. I look forward to representing these concerns in Austin during this special session.

Dustin Burrows represents House District 83 in the Texas Legislature. He serves on the Agriculture and Livestock Committee, the Investments and Financial Services Committee and the Texas House Republican Caucus Policy Committee.

Read more here: http://lubbockonline.com/opinion/opinion-columnists/2017-06-16/dustin-burrows-key-issues-need-be-addressed-special-session

Representative Dustin Burrows talks about several bills that passed and some that did not pass in regular session. He hits on the big topics like healthcare, education and no texting while driving; along with what will be addressed during special session beginning in July.

Click here to listen: http://www.towntalkradio.com/listen-now-representative-dustin-burrows-towntalk-show/

Tuesday on The Chad Hasty Show, Texas District 83 Representative Dustin Burrows joined Chad in the KFYO studio to talk about the upcoming special legislative session called by Governor Greg Abbot, and some of the issues that have been and will be faced by legislators.

Burrows and Hasty discussed the new texting while driving law, Child Protective Services (CPS) reform, the state budget, SB-2 and property tax reform, and much more.

While talking about the new texting while driving ban recently signed into law by Governor Abbott, Burrows said,

This texting while driving ban, regardless of how you feel about the bill itself, I think most drivers, and I voted for this, it makes sense to have one set of regulations as you drive from city to city, to know what laws you’re under, instead of hundreds of different ones.

During the conversation about state versus local control, Burrows used the example of cities levying fines against someone who has referred to an individual using a pronoun that is ‘unacceptable’ to the other person. Burrows said,

Chad, to me that’s local tyranny. The idea that they’re going to raise revenue off of you and I calling somebody the wrong pronoun? That’s not good for the state of Texas. And we’re not going to let Houston or Austin, or these cities undermine our culture, by coming up with new protected classes and denying science.

Speaking about controversy over the reasoning for, and agenda items on tap for the special session of the legislature, Burrows said,

I’m here today to defend the governor’s call for a special session.

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!

Subscribe to the News/Talk KFYO Newsletter

Read More: Dustin Burrows Talks Special Session And Other Issues | http://kfyo.com/representative-dustin-burrows-talks-special-session-and-other-issues-interview/?trackback=tsmclip

By James Eppler

Lubbock State Rep. Dustin Burrows says he is ready to get back to work for a special session ordered by Gov. Abbott in July. In a discussion on Good Day Lubbock, he said he thinks a deal can get done on school finance, but vouchers do not need to be part of it.

In the regular session, the House passed legislation to pump more than a billion dollars into public schools to begin fixing the finance system. The Senate, under Lt. Gov. Patrick, passed a school finance bill that included vouchers for special needs students and about a third of the money the House approved. Some House members say vouchers are a non-starter. Burrows said the small school penalty is a much more pressing concern.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, for me to want to show up and not fix the real concerns of our district and even talk to them about vouchers,” Burrows said.

On the possibility of transgender bathroom legislation, Burrows said the House bill focused only on schools that he supports is a preemption bill.

“It says, historically, the State of Texas and the United States have always determined who is and who isn’t a protected class,” he said. “There are some cities, some higher education places and schools who believe there are more than two genders out there. I disagree with that.”

The full discussion with Burrows including his ideas on property tax reform and the perceived riff within the GOP is in the attached video.

Read more here: http://www.fox34.com/story/35652634/interview-burrows-on-plans-for-special-session