LaredoBuzz.Com

 Austin, TX—Another day of pounding the pavement and the terrazzo floors of the Capitol yields receptive feedback for the Laredo delegation as they met on a variety of issues. Joining the promotional effort today was the Washington’s Birthday Celebration Association and a group consisting of George and Martha Washington, Princess Pocahontas and her Chief, and the Abrazo children among others. 

 Members of the legislature were invited to attend the 21-day celebration that officially got underway with this past week. 

 First on the meeting agenda was State Representative Veronica Gonzales, Representative for McAllen and Chair of House Committee on Border & Intergovernmental Affairs, to continue to advocate for the city’s priorities.

 “I have heard from other communities that enforcement of manifiestos has become a problem.  The State of Texas will be looking at this problem closely to determine if elimination or modification of the current program will assist the state and the local communities with their budgets without hurting tourism and the downtown business,” stated Representative Gonzales.

 As a way to introduce an idea for possible revenue, the City touched on the difficulty of manifiestos redemption enforcement and examples of how people have found a way to take advantage of the system to their monetary benefit.  I addition to this issue, delegation members discussed the impact of eight-liner business on the law enforcement resources of the city and for a possible state law amendment to address this to either raise the limit on winnings to discourage corruption.

 City officials then met with Secretary of State Hope Andrade to again speak about issues that are unique to being a border community; Carlos Villarreal, Laredo City Manager, touched on health and safety concerns with tire disposal.

 “Last year, the City of Laredo collected and disposed of 75,000 tires at taxpayer expense. If the State would require a mandatory tire disposal fee, we would greatly diminish the eyesore and health hazard of stray tires,” Villarreal proposed.

 Although one of the city’s top priorities is public safety, one of the other top priorities is health services. Laredo works hard to ensure that infectious diseases do not spread throughout the city or state. To that end, city officials met with Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner David Lakey to discuss how the City can continue to partner with the state to further efforts to contain and treat a common infectious disease such as tuberculosis and non-infectious diseases such as cardiovascular disorders.

 “If we don’t contain disease on the border, then it will spread to the rest of Texas and the US. I understand the budget crisis that Texas is facing, but if we do not contain infectious and non-infectious diseases, we will have a much larger problem,” assured Dr. Hector Gonzalez, Health Department Director.

 “Additionally, since there is so much violence on the Mexican side of the border, patients who would have gone to a Mexican doctor are now either coming to county doctors or not seeing anyone at all because they cannot afford it. Tuberculosis cases have not decreased, and if uninsured or indigent families do not have somewhere they can receive cheap immunizations, they will go without and then they will not be allowed to attend school,” Dr. Gonzalez continued.

 Commissioner Lakey has met with the City since his appointment four years ago, and has even toured the border facilities with Dr. Gonzales. He was very supportive of the City’s efforts to prevent and treat Tuberculosis and obesity, and vowed to continue to work with the City to maintain a healthy border community.