Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I have had the honor of serving you in the Texas Legislature during the current 80th Legislature. Despite some bitter political disagreements last year's session was highly productive.

The latest budget estimates indicate we will have a $15 billion dollar surplus which is a huge turn around from the 78th Legislature where we had a $10 billion dollar short fall. The National Conference of State Legislatures indicated at least 35 states had serious budget shortfalls for the coming year which we will not have. During the last session we reduced school property taxes by over $14 billion dollars, passed the budget that has led to this $15 billion dollar surplus, increased the state share of support for public education, took action that put more funds into rehabilitation of addicts and kept us from having to spend almost $2 billion dollars on new prisons.

We are now approaching the start of the 81st Legislature in January 2009. We will have many challenges before us including the Texas economy, transportation which includes both highway construction and public transportation, water issues, immigration, voter identification, taxation and many others. 

I have prepared this survey as a means of gathering your input on the important issues coming to the front for the upcoming 81st Legislature. I am your Representative and as such I need to know your collective opinions on these issues to better represent you. This coming year I expect to cast more than 4,000 votes as your Representative in Austin and it is my goal to use your input to make a truly representative vote on each issue. 

Please take a minute to fill out the Constituent Survey which asks your input on proposed legislative issues, the Constituent Opinions Poll covering areas of concern for our state and if you would like to serve on a focus group to help shape legislation on specific areas please fill out the Focus Group Involvement form. Your input will help me represent your interests in the upcoming session of the Texas House.

I will try to answer any questions you have either in person, on the phone, by mail, or over the Internet. Please give us your contact information so that I can discuss these issues with you. I thank you for the honor of serving you and Texas. It is a great privilege to represent all of the citizens of District 67.

Respectfully yours,

Jerry Madden
State Representative
District 67