League of Women Voters election survey: Rain Levy Minns, candidate for Texas State Sen. - District 16

by Staff of League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters of Dallas sent a questionnaire to every candidate running for public office in Dallas County. The election on November 4th features a number of local races to decide state and national Senate and House of Representatives seats.

The responses of Rain Levy Minns (D), who is running for the Texas State Senate - District 16 seat, appear below. Minns is running against Paul E. Osborn (L) and incumbent John J. Carona (R).

LWV Please describe the training and experience that qualify you for this office.

Minns: Mother of two small children; JD, Cornell Law; BA, magna cum laude, Dartmouth; federal tax defense attorney; Temple Emanu-El; Humane Society; Texas Assistant Attorney General, Elder Law and Public Health Division; HoChunk Nation Department of Justice; Southern States Rottweiler Rescue; General Counsel's Office of U.S. Trade Representative; FTLOTL

LWV The Texas Legislature in 2007 overhauled business taxes to provide property tax relief for homeowners, but many small business owners in Texas now claim that their property tax decrease was far less than their business tax increase. What measures should be taken to maintain adequate state tax revenues without unduly burdening individual taxpayers or small business?

Minns: The new business tax both failed to offset reductions in local tax capacity imposed by the legislature and buried businesses in mountains of costly red tape. Our public education system is crumbling under the weight of oppressive testing and starvation funding. A comprehensive overhaul of public education funding is necessary. It cannot be done piecemeal or as an afterthought when the legislature has finished all other business. They have proven that repeatedly.

LWV Texas deregulated electricity rates with the promise that competition between suppliers would lower consumers’ electric rates, yet rates in Texas remain well above the national average. What measures should be taken to ensure electric power reliability and affordability in Texas?

Minns: Texas consumers desperately need reregulation now. The legislature’s “deregulation” is a license to steal. In six years, Texas utility rates went from some of the cheapest to the most expensive. One day in May, wholesale prices rose briefly over $4 a kilowatt hour — about 40 times the national average (Wall Street Journal 7/17/2008). The legislature also needs to make the Public Utility Commissioners elective instead of appointive offices.

LWV According to the most recent published data of the Texas Office of Public Insurance Counsel, insurance industry losses in Texas have decreased by 85%, yet homeowners’ rates have fallen by only 4%. What reforms would you support to lower homeowners’ rates in Texas?

Minns: Texas consumers desperately need reregulation and they need it now. The legislature’s “deregulation” is a license to steal. Texans pay twice the national average for homeowner's insurance. Meanwhile, insurance companies are enjoying 40% profit margins in Texas. (In 2007, when ExxonMobil recorded the most profitable year in history, their profit margin was only 10%.) The legislature also needs to make the Insurance Commissioner an elective instead of an appointive office.

LWV The Texas legislature has not increased the gas tax since 1991, and also diverts millions of dollars of transportation funds to other areas of the state budget such as education and the Department of Public Safety. The public has voiced much disapproval of toll roads and public/private partnerships to build new roads. How would you fund construction of new roads and maintenance of existing roads and bridges?

Minns: Stop legislature from raiding transportation fund, dumping $184 billion into Trans Texas Corridor, selling roads to foreign interests, enacting proposed gas tax increases and slapping tolls on existing lanes. Instead, use transportation fund as intended and tolls only to build roads then remove tolls (e.g. I-30 DFW).

LWV If diversions from the State’s transportation fund are stopped, how would you pay for those items that are currently funded by gas tax monies?

Minns: See #2, above, for education funding. Fund DPS Highway Patrol and driver license functions from transportation fund. Fund DPS crime fighting functions as priority from general fund. Reauthorize other such items only if new funding sources can be found and justified.

LWV Currently, sales prices of most residential property are disclosed while those of commercial property are not. Do you support public disclosure of commercial real estate sales prices so as to ensure fair and accurate appraisals?

Minns: Legislature needs to require public disclosure of all property sales, both residential and commercial, including mandatory filing of deeds within reasonable time. Current loopholes enable big commercial property owners to understate appraisals to avoid legitimate property taxes, thereby shifting tax burden to homeowners. Loopholes also prevent cities from effective code enforcement against slumlords.