Matt Whittington, L
Q. In your opinion, what does it mean for District 136 voters to now have their own area exclusively represented at the state level?
A. It's always nice to have a smaller area to represent our personal views in the Legislature. The old district—District 20—was quite large.
Q. What changes can you make to the state's approach on education that will benefit District 136 families?
A. I'm a supporter of vouchers across the board. I'm fortunate enough to live in the Leander school district, which is a good school district. I am confident with vouchers that most of the students in the district would be going to the same schools.
Q. The economy in Texas is far better than most areas of the country. What will you do at the state level to ensure it remains vibrant and possibly improve it further?
A. The largest issue I have with the economy is transportation. As a Libertarian, it's hard to say this, but the gas tax would probably need to be increased. Overall, any services that aren't any direct responsibility of the state, I would scale back. Transportation funding needs to be directed toward transportation.
Q. What one transportation project that requires state support will you fight for while in office?
A. I can say I do not support state-funded high-speed rail between the major cities. I don't believe in my heart the governments in this state can efficiently run a project of that scale.
Matt Stillwell, D
Q. In your opinion, what does it mean for District 136 voters to now have their own area exclusively represented at the state level?
A. It's just a reflection of the large growth in this district—we weren't awarded it, we earned it. It makes sense along the [US] 183 corridor.
Q. What changes can you make to the state's approach on education that will benefit District 136 families?
A. Take away some of the high-stakes testing for some of these kids. Give back local control so they can decide how to manage their debts and teach their kids. We are running school districts the same way as 60 years ago, and we've got to find a new way.
Q. The economy in Texas is far better than most areas of the country. What will you do at the state level to ensure it remains vibrant and possibly improve it further?
A. I have owned a business for seven years. I know how the free market works, and I know too little regulation is just as bad as too much regulation. What we need is some regulatory certainty to make sure industries in Texas know what regulations there are going to be. We also need a fair [industry] tax structure.
Q. What one transportation project that requires state support will you fight for while in office?
A. For the first time ever, we are going to pay more in debt service in the transportation budget than maintenance and construction of new roads. That is not a good indicator for the future. Texas for a long time has neglected to fund its transportation projects, or all its infrastructure.
Tony Dale, R
Q. In your opinion, what does it mean for District 136 voters to now have their own area exclusively represented at the state level?
A. The closer you can be to your representative, the better off you are. We're fortunate the Legislature drew a district that encompasses a few [similar] communities.
Q. What changes can you make to the state's approach on education that will benefit District 136 families?
A. Members of Leander ISD recently presented me with a pretty thick packet of unfunded mandates from the state onto the school districts. A lot of those are not related to student achievement, so I'm committed to eliminating those and giving more local control to school districts.
Q. The economy in Texas is far better than most areas of the country. What will you do at the state level to ensure it remains vibrant and possibly improve it further?
A. There's still work to be done, and I've got a record of keeping taxes down and reducing burdensome regulations—not to help business per se, but when you build an environment in which businesses can thrive, it helps provide jobs to families. So, when you've got a strong economy, it helps build strong families.
Q. What one transportation project that requires state support will you fight for while in office?
A. A lot of people who live in this part of Williamson County work in Austin, and the commute is a disaster—everyone knows it. So I don't need a traffic study to tell me that's a problem. It's critical that all levels of government work together in terms of funding and prioritization.
