Chris Wallace, president of the Texas Association of Business, said his organization is similar to a state chamber of commerce.

So maybe it was appropriate he was the guest speaker at the Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce Leadership Breakfast on Tuesday morning at the Park Central Holiday Inn in Port Arthur. The TAB exists to promote a climate of pro-business growth and job creation in the Texas.

Wallace said the last session of the Texas Legislature, the 84^th Legislature that met in 2015, was one of the most pro-business sessions ever.

“We’re all about small businesses,” he said. “We’re similar to a local chamber of commerce. That’s why we work so closely with them.

Wallace gave a PowerPoint presentation with figures and statistics on TAB’s work with the Legislature.

He said policy areas such as economic development, education, transportation, health care and regulation are vetted through multiple TAB committees.

In the last session, the Legislature made $4.6 billion in tax cuts and they also had a surplus.

The question was, however, how to spend the surplus? Invest it or give it back to the businesses who pay 63 percent of taxes in the state?

Some programs the surplus was used for included:

• Increasing the homestead exemption by $25,000
• Cutting franchise taxes by 25 percent
• Providing $130 million for Pre-K programs including full-day Pre-K for some districts
• A new A-F grading system for school district performance
• Funding $2.5 billion in improvements to highways and bridges
• Promoting reforms to increase state competitiveness
• Increasing the number of primary care doctors
• And balance billing reform

On transportation funding, Wallace believes $5.5 billion is needed for short-term transportation projects.

To TAB, some of the top issues facing the 85^th Legislature when they meet are:

• The effect the low cost of oil is having on the Texas economy
• Public education costs, the education index, school choice and recent Supreme Court rulings
• The 60 x 30m plan for higher education that calls for 60 percent of Texans ages 24 through 36 should get either a two-year degree, a four-year degree or a certificate by 2030
• Using the $10.4 billion Rainy Day Fund for unfunded liabilities and retiring debt
• Medicaid expansion and extending the 1115 waiver (extending Texas’ waiver 15 months that will expire in 2018)
• Telemedicine (using technology to connect rural areas that have a shortage of doctors)
• The Religious Freedom bill
• State vs. local control

Some federal issues important to TAB are the meeting the export-import quorum, federal mandates from the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Trans Pacific Partnership, immigration reform and transportation.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the official export credit agency of the United States. EXIM is an independent, self-sustaining Executive Branch agency with a mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services.

Wallace said Texas is the largest export state in the union.

Another issue is the DOL rewriting overtime pay laws and TAB trying these laws in Texas courts.

Texas’ population is forecasted to double by 2050 and transportation needs will grow in importance.

TAB’s top five issues in next session will be transportation, taxation, education and workforce readiness, economic development and criminal justice.

Wallace concluded his presentation by urging businesses to become engaged in the process.

David Ball: 409-721-2427