Denise Bell
Post Managing Editor
On Thursday afternoon, Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus endorsed State Rep. Betty Brown as the two hit the campaign trial together to visit with voters from across Kaufman and Henderson Counties.
Making two stops in Athens and one each in Mabank, Terrell and Forney, Speaker Straus and Rep. Brown braved the cold and rainy weather to speak with hundred of citizens as they visited area businesses.
Arriving late due to the continuous rain, Forney was the last meeting of the day and Speaker Straus and Rep. Brown were greeted by a room full of Forney City officials, business owners and local residents at the Steve Silver Company warehouse.
Campaigning for her sixth consecutive term as the District 4 House Representative, Brown explained “we’ve visited with a lot of the businesses in this district today and I’ve told each of them how important it is to me that the Speaker has come out with me. When I am working with the Speaker in Austin on funding for our schools or the economy, it helps to know that he has been here and met some of the people of our district.”
After being introduced by Brown, Speaker Straus casually addressed the Forney audience by jokingly stating “it’s been a great day. Betty just said we haven’t been to all the businesses in the district but I don’t know. I think maybe we have been to them all.”
Gathered in a warehouse where the outside storm could easily be heard, Speaker Straus stated “Texas has a record we can be proud of. While other states are drowning in deficits we have a rainy day fund. Because we have been careful with our spending in the last couple of sessions, our rainy day fund is growing.”
Speaker Straus explained “but we can still do better. I recently signed a letter to all state agencies asking for them to come up with a plan to help reduce the current $ 180 billion budget by 5 percent. That equals about $ 1 billion dollars.”
After speaking for roughly forty minutes on the state of the Texas economy, a short question and answer session was held before Speaker Straus and Rep. Brown left Forney amidst a torrential downpour.