ERIN SHank

It is absolutely vital that we have strong security at our border. Additionally, we have a political and humanitarian crisis on our Southern border. There is only one way to fix this crisis. Republicans and Democrats must come together and fix our broken immigration laws. Our immigration laws have not been revised and amended since Ronald Regan was President and we are therefore trying to dig ourselves out of a hole with a broken shovel. It is simply not working. This is unacceptable. Several of our U.S. and State Representatives, many of whom represent our Texas border communities, have rolled up their sleeves and have begun drafting revisions to our Immigration laws that modernize our laws and enable them to address our current border crisis. I applaud them and look forward to working with them as we make these much needed modernization revisions to our immigration laws. Without question, it will take Republicans and Democrats working together to get these laws passed. We must stop electing politicians who just like to fight about the problem and not work to fix it. I support all types of physical and technological efforts to make our border safe and will support legislation designed to give us the best and most advanced technological border security. We must also provide more immigration judges and court personnel to process legitimate asylum claims and alleviate the tremendous backlog of pending cases in our immigration courts. The vast majority of those seeking entry into this country are coming here to work. However, under our current system they are not allowed to work while their immigration status is being adjudicated in our immigration court system. I support our local businesses who are literally begging for workers to take jobs that Americans are not taking - jobs in dairies, farms, food production plants and construction sites - by expanding the number of temporary work visas for those whose claims have been legally processed, are in the U.S. legally and are simply awaiting their immigration judge to rule on their case. I want to roll my sleeves up and work with legislators, on both our state and federal level - especially those who live in and represent our border communities - to come up with common sense, bi-partisian solutions to finally address this political and humanitarian crisis.

In this post-pandemic world we are all feeling the impact of the rising costs for groceries, gas, and housing in our pocketbooks. We need a leader that will bring our hard-earned tax dollars back to McLennan County. We deserve someone who will listen to our community to understand in greater detail what our district needs from Austin, and then fight for those needs in the Texas House of Representatives. I understand that when elected our Representative must listen to the needs of our community, all of our community, at the Texas Capitol. I have been representing Central Texans as a practicing attorney for 40 years and I am ready to take my decades of experience to represent you in the Texas House of Representatives.

I support the increase of the homestead exemption from 40% to 100% recently adopted by the Texas voters because it will give us permanent property tax relief for Texas homeowners. However, in the last legislative session, the Texas legislature passed a very temporary and very expensive property tax relief by using our large budget surplus to buy down our property taxes for the next two years. Three years from now, our property taxes will skyrocket again when the surplus is gone. We must reduce property taxes while we still fund public education and our other vital government needs such as first responders, and roads and bridges. The only way to do this is to find many alternative sources of revenue to fund our state government so that we can stop relying on property taxes. For instance, if we expand Medicare (something all three of our local hospitals have been requesting for years) we could bring $5 billion dollars to Texas to fund indigent health care which is currently being funded by our property tax dollars. If we expanded our electrical grid so that our grid was connected with the other 48 states, we could sell our excess electricity in times of plenty (thus generating tax revenue) and rely on our sister states to assist us when our grid gets perilously low. Also, did you know that we are spending $25 MILLION dollars a week on Governor Greg Abbott's "Operation Lone Star'' at the border. However, that money is not stopping our current crisis on the border. Let's revise our immigration laws (something that both Republicans and Democrats agree needs to be done), fix the border and invest all that money into our public schools, declining infrastructure and permanently reduce our property taxes. Finally, our Southern sister states, including Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, have legalized casinos and made billions of dollars of tax revenue that fund their local schools and governments. Shouldn’t we at least debate this tax generating, tourist attracting industry as an alternative revenue source? It is time to elect a representative that will think out of the box and come up with the only way to permanently reduce our property taxes - finding ways to fund our government other than on the back of hard working Texas homeowners.

As the product of Texas public schools, I know that I’m the successful attorney that I am today because of the many teachers and professors that poured their heart and knowledge into me. As a former teacher, I understand the challenges and rewards our Texas teachers experience day in and day out. Our Texas public schools are molding our next generation. Ninety five percent of the youth in McLennan County are educated in our public schools. Yet Texas, with all its great wealth and prosperity, ranks 45th in the nation in school funding and teacher pay. We must fully fund our public school districts so they can provide teachers with much overdue and needed pay raises, be able to fully staff their schools, purchase the equipment and technology they need, provide special education support to our students with disabilities, and so much more. Our children are relying on us to get this right and we cannot let them down. School vouchers will de-fund our already underfunded public schools and push them deeper into crisis management forcing them to cut more staff and programs from our public schools. Other states that have adopted voucher systems have shown that the vast majority of these tax dollars go to reduce private school tuition for students who already attend private schools. We cannot take funds away from our public schools and school teachers when they are already hurting and struggling to meet our children’s needs. As your representative, I will author and vote for legislation that supports our public schools, students and teachers. I will fight to fund our schools and provide our teachers with a permanent pay raise. I will push to diversify our tax system by legalizing gambling to allow for more funds to be poured into our public school. I believe there are real, common sense solutions that can solve this issue and I will be a staunch advocate for our public schools.

On February 15, 2021, an estimated 700 Texans died in the winter storm. Decades before that terrible, preventable tragedy, the Texas House and Senate were warned that a catastrophic storm of this size would cause our electrical grid to fail. However, our legislators in Austin ignored the warnings and voted against weatherizing our electrical grid. This last session of the legislature, by all reports, the Texas Legislature did not sufficiently invest in weatherizing our systems to prevent another catastrophe and voted to push the financial cost of the February electrical freeze on us, by increasing the costs of our electricity bills each month. This is simply inexcusable. McLennan County deserves a leader who will fight to ensure that when our next climate catastrophe occurs, we are ready and that Texans will not freeze to death because of inaction in the Texas legislature. Texas is the top producer in the country for wind, oil, natural gas, and renewable energy, and the second largest producer of solar power. With so many energy sources available, the state of Texas should not have to operate on a weak and inefficient power grid. The 2021 winter storm that plunged our state into a freeze, left us out in the cold and took the lives of our fellow Texans proved that our grid is unreliable. We need solutions and we have a variety of resources that can help us create sustainable and reliable energy for all Texans. The extreme heat we all experience this summer will only get worse as climate change takes its hold on our world. We need solutions and we need them now! As your state representative, I will work to pass legislation that will create a more reliable power grid that is supported with multiple energy sources, including oil, natural gas, solar, and wind. I believe we can create a system that can support the ninth largest economy in the world and help lower our rising utility bills.

Gender inequality has deepened across the country since the Covid pandemic. Today, we continue to witness violence against women, a dismantling of reproductive health services, and the failure to help children living in the Texas foster care system. McLennan County deserves an advocate who will address structural policy change to ensure women and children find full recovery and economic security. To address gender inequality in McLennan County, I will work to raise awareness of the issues and the policies that perpetuate them. I will advocate for increased funding for programs that provide education, job training and child care for women, so that they can access economic opportunities and improve their financial security. I will also work to strengthen the foster care system in the county by partnering with local organizations to create a network of support for foster youth. I will push for legislation that supports women's access to healthcare services, so that women can make informed decisions about their health and future. Finally, I will fight for stronger laws to prevent and punish violence against women, so that everyone in the county can live in a safe and secure environment.

My husband and I are the proud parents of three children. Our youngest child, Rachel, has Down Syndrome and Epilepsy. After being Rachel’s mom for the past 25 years, I now see the world through the eyes of a disabled child. Texas does not have an advocate in the Texas House for the disabled. I want to be that advocate. I will work with the disabled community to craft supporting and empowering legislation for the disabled. However, my experience as Rachel’s mom will enable me to see the impact of all legislation on the disabled community and fight against harmful legislation. For instance, in both of the past legislative sessions bills have been passed that make it harder for members of the disabled community to vote. These bills were passed without one drop of evidence that disabled individuals cheat when they vote. This is shameful and I will fight against harmful legislation such as these laws. I have fought for Rachel through years of government red tape and throughout her 64 hospital admissions. I am ready to take that fight to Austin to represent this community, including our precious disabled community, in the Texas House of Representatives.