The 81st Legislative Session is officially underway, as House committee assignments were announced by Speaker Joe Straus this past Thursday. After serving ten years in the House of Representatives, I know that each session brings its own set of challenges. This session, I am looking forward to working on the important issues that arise in the House Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on Public Safety.

King said he is drafting several bills, including measures that would give cities representation in water district matters and to grandfather land that has already been platted.

King’s primary committee assignments include the House Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on Public Safety.

It is an unfortunate reality that Texas is one of the nation's leaders in drunk driving fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 1,569 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in Texas in 2006 and more than 63,500 were injured. This session, the legislature has an opportunity to change these disturbing statistics and save lives in Texas.

We all hear stories almost every day of someone losing their home to foreclosure. Part of that is caused by high property taxes which now account for 17 percent of the average residential mortgage payment in Texas! Despite the fact you may have paid off your home loan, you never truly “own” your house because you continue to pay property taxes. In reality, you just rent your property from the government. Combine this with the all too common appraisal creep and it’s no wonder why so many Texans — like me — consider changes in the property tax system an urgent priority for Texas. That is why I have filed HJR 38.

I have filed House Bill 469, a proposal that will focus Texas on promoting clean coal energy projects. This bill provides financial incentives to build clean coal plants by authorizing the State of Texas to contract with organizations interested in implementing a clean energy project. Environmental concerns with coal driven energy are addressed with the use of this technology, and I hope to see Texas become the first state to successfully build one of these plants.

Almost 90 percent of those participating indicated they would support legislation requiring a valid picture ID to cast a ballot in Texas.

The Texas Conservative Coalition, the principal organization for conservatives in the Legislature, has made enactment of the ID measure one of its leading priorities. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, who sponsored a photo ID bill in 2007, said that voter demands for greater "integrity" at the voting booth have intensified over the last two years, in part because of widely publicized fraud allegations against canvassers who registered voters for the advocacy group ACORN.

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, has filed a bill offering up to $300 million in tax credits to companies interested in building so-called clean coal plants in Texas. The plants, the first of their kind in the nation, would be designed to sequester at least 60 percent of the carbon dioxide they produce. Under those guidelines, the plants would meet the emission standards of California and Washington, according to supporters.

Why can't government fix the economy? Well, to be honest, much of our economic woe is the fault of government. Ronald Reagan was right when he said that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." And after all, who does it make more sense to trust - the power of the individual, the strength of the family, the free enterprise system? Or should we put our trust in politicians, bureaucrats and government agencies to meet our needs and manage our lives?