District 81 Issues: Part VIII

On toll roads and highways ...

Wednesday, the Odessa American will wrap up letting the four candidates vying for the District 81 seat in the Texas House of Representatives weigh in on various campign issues.

Jesse Gore

‘I think our chambers do a wonderful job of bringing in new businesses. These tax abatements I think are a necessity to bring in corporations to our area. I think that’s proven.‘

Tryon Lewis

‘A lot of times in Austin, there are regulators who think, ‘Here is what I do in Austin what’s wrong with doing that in Odessa?’ Well, they’re different areas. You have to go and sort of be the agent for economic development down there because you are in Austin. … You have to go to those agencies and talk to people. You’re the agent, and you need an agent.

‘The other side is funding. So many projects … there is funding required for them. That’s one thing that those things get funding and that not all of the research funds, for instance, stay in Austin or Dallas, and we’re not ignored out here. That is a lot of detail work. There is nothing glamorous about it.

‘Our biggest burgeoning nontraditional industry is wind turbines. We need to encourage that. There is talk about extending the railroad from Seagraves to down to here. We need to work on that.’

Randy Rives

‘What I want to support is No. 1 to make sure to continue to support the core industry out here. One of the pieces of economic development that gets pushed to the side is we’re an energy-based area that depends greatly on that revenue for jobs and taxation, and it’s our No. 1 priority. I want to make sure that there are no undue regulations or taxation on that program.

‘I want to continue UTPB and OC growing. Those are two tremendous assets that we have in this area that need to be supported. That helps us economically.’

Buddy West

‘I think we’ve just shown the area that we promote but came up short on is our FutureGen. I had the opportunity for the last two years to travel all over 11 western and southern states and several provinces in Canada to promote economic development for this area. It’s something we are all going to have to do that we think is viable for our area. I hope we can come up with something that our entire community is behind. I think we have a great economic development department here.

‘Another thing we need to do not only with the Odessa area but with Kermit area and our An-drews area is housing. They are all suffering with housing.’