August 20, 2024 • 39 mins
In this episode of "Conversations from the Hill Country," host Adam West sits down with Vikki Goodwin, the Democratic representative from the Texas House, District 47 in Travis County. Currently serving her third term and running for re-election, Vikki discusses her legislative record and the key issues she's focusing on for the next legislative session and beyond.
Vikki shares her insights on housing affordability in the greater Austin area, proposing the Fair Rent Incentive Act to address rising rental costs. She also highlights her accomplishments in the legislature, including laws on drowning prevention, food security, and mental health, and discusses her ongoing efforts to promote sensible gun safety regulations and violence prevention.
Additionally, Vikki delves into her plans for water and power planning in response to Texas's rapid growth and environmental challenges. She emphasizes the importance of public education and her opposition to school vouchers, and advocates for citizen-led referendums to give Texans a more direct voice in their government.
Tune in to hear Vikki Goodwin's vision for a better Texas and her commitment to making meaningful changes for her constituents and the state.
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Episode Transcript
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Music.
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Family, your future, your vote. Conversations from the Hill Country, the podcast.
I'm Adam West. Today, we spent some time talking to Vicki Goodwin,
representative from the Texas House, District 47 in Travis County,
currently serving her third term and running for re-election this November.
We talked about her legislative record and the issues she's working on for the
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next legislative session and beyond.
Vicki Goodwin, Democratic candidate for re-election to the Texas Texas House
of Representatives, District 47, currently serving your third term.
Welcome to the podcast, Vicki. How are you?
I am super. Thank you for having me. Well, we really appreciate you taking the
time out of your busy schedule to talk to us and let us know what's going on
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in Texas politics and in the state legislature.
You are a broker and owner of Goodwin & Goodwin Real Estate.
That's correct. Therefore, you have firsthand knowledge of housing and affordability
issues in the greater Austin area.
And it's certainly been not just Austin, but San Antonio and the whole area
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has had its ups and downs in recent years real estate wise, correct?
Yeah, mostly up, to be honest. But this year has seen a change.
So we're now starting to see some prices come down, which is the first time
in a long time that's happened. Right now, I've seen, yeah, where interest rates
now just started going down a little bit.
But one issue that I know has been a problem is rentals.
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And I know the Austin area, because one of our boys lives there,
is very high and hard to find affordable housing, especially like for college
age kids, right? Yeah, definitely.
We have seen rents go up a lot and hear often that people have to move further and further out.
And of course, if you're trying to go to college, that's challenging.
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You want to be close to school. So I do have...
Proposal that I call the Fair Rent Incentive Act. And you may be aware of the
Property Tax Relief Act we passed recently that did help to put downward pressure
on property taxes, but it didn't do anything for our renters.
However, there is one small piece of that. It's a pilot project set up for three
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years where property owners or landlords that have properties that are worth
$5 million or less get an automatic assessment cap,
which would keep their property taxes lower than if they didn't have that assessment cap.
But there's no strings attached to that. And so my proposal would simply add
a string to that saying that the landlord would get that assessment if they
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are charging fair market rent.
And fair market rent is already determined by HUD.
There's a table. If you Google fair market rent, you can find the table by zip
code and by number of bedrooms.
And it would tell the landlord what rent he would need to be charging in order
to be able to get that assessment cap.
And it would be simple, just like the homestead exemption that homeowners fill out.
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It would be a one-page document where the landlord would say,
I am charging fair market rent or below, and he would turn that into the appraisal district.
So fairly simple process, but it would, again, put a string to that incentive
so that landlords would have an incentive to keep rents lower.
Well, sure. Yeah. I mean, there should be some some control,
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you know, to keep it from getting out of hand. Right. Yeah.
You know, we are seeing a little bit of a softening of the market because more
apartments have been built.
But this would be a long term measure that I really think would help both parties,
the landlord and the tenants.
And, you know, the enforcement mechanism would be the tenants paying attention to what their rent is.
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And all of this is public information.
They can look up and see if the landlord is getting that assessment cap.
And if their rent does not fall within fair market rent, then they could reach
out to the appraisal district and let them know.
Well, that's a good way to go about it. A lot of renters, I think,
maybe feel like they're at the mercy of the landlord, though,
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and may not be aware or know how to deal with a situation like that.
Yeah, there are there's some organizations, though, that do help renters.
It would be an educational campaign to let renters know that they need to pay attention to that.
Absolutely. Talking a little bit about your time in the legislature,
you've passed laws that deal with safety like drowning prevention and violence prevention,
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food security, creating a commission to address food security and mental health.
What are some of those things and how has that gone so far?
You know, very well. Again, it's about letting the public know what has happened.
And we've done some press conferences. For example, on the drowning prevention
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bill, we had a press conference with the YMCA because they run a lot of the pools around the city.
We also went down to Laredo and had a press conference right at their city-operated
pool and let people know about the law.
Basically, child care providers have to find out from parents if the kids in
their care can swim or not.
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And if the child can't swim and the child care provider is taking them to a
pool, then they have to put a life jacket on them.
So fairly simple. But again, it's just to raise awareness.
I personally wasn't aware of how many children die by drowning.
It is a fast, silent, and preventable.
And so we just wanted to let parents and child care providers know that really
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we want to prevent drowning and, you know, be aware of taking safety measures. Sure.
Sure. It's something you don't think about that often, really. Yeah.
So the parents had lost their daughter and they didn't want any other parents
to have to go through that. So, you know, they've also set up a foundation where
they raised some money and bought some life jackets to give to child care providers.
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So they've they've done a lot
of work to make sure other families don't go through that same tragedy.
Oh, very cool. And then another one I'm really proud of is our mental health
bill that expanded access to a procedure called AcuDetox.
It's similar to acupuncture, five needles in the ear. Right.
In prior state law, it could have been used for people that were diagnosed with a chemical dependency.
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Now, with the expansion, yeah, it can be used for anything.
And of course, we still want it to be used for those people that need to kick chemical dependency.
But we also like the fact that it can be used for stress, anxiety,
PTSD, depression, sleep issues, all sorts of things.
Wow, that covers pretty much everybody I know.
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Some form of stress, right? I mean, it's tough these days. Yeah, for sure.
So I think everybody can use some relief like that. The providers that we worked
with had so many ideas of how it could be used.
And so right now, they're trying to expand awareness to other providers to get
them trained on how they can use it.
You know, it could be used for first responders. It could be used for teachers.
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It different ways. And so we're very happy with that bill.
But we also just heard from the two providers that they're looking forward to
working with us again to do even more change to the law next session.
Okay. You did also pass a law on violence prevention.
Now, is that dealing with all forms of violence or was that gun violence or how was that?
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Well, that also came about through a tragedy. There was a 21-year-old Houston
Tillotson student who was shot and killed.
So in her case, it had to do with
with violence with a gun. What we found is that in her case,
she did call the police and they came to her apartment after this man had threatened her.
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Now she had dated him twice, but didn't really want to go out with him again.
He came to her door and threatened her when she wouldn't open the door with a gun.
She called the police and they came out, but then he had already left by the
time they got there. And then the police left.
Nothing really happened. And five days later, He came back. This time he was
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successful in getting into her apartment and he shot and killed her.
We asked the parents some questions about the situation and wondered if the
police had given her information that could have helped her.
For example, there are a lot of organizations that will help women that are
in domestic violence situations.
In Austin, it's Safe Alliance.
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The police have a pink card that they give to people who have experienced domestic
violence. And it does provide information and phone numbers to organizations like Safe Alliance.
But in this case, they hadn't given it to her. We wanted to make sure that people
are getting that information that can keep them safe.
So we turned to the Health and Human Services Commission to provide a one-page
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document that can be handed out at universities, at health care providers.
You know, just really anywhere.
Anyone can download it off their website. site, but I've been going around to
some universities to let professors know and let students know,
here's some information that could keep you safe.
The one pager tells them that you can get a protective order.
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And if you don't have money for an attorney, there are resources out there.
It lets them know what organizations will help. And it also lets them know that
they can exit their lease agreement.
So if they are in a housing situation where they don't feel safe,
they can go to their landlord and let the landlord know they're not safe and
they can in their lease agreement.
There's still some stipulations in Natalia Cox's case. She did go to her landlord.
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They made it somewhat difficult by saying she'd have to pay a new application
fee and pay a new security deposit.
They just fit too many hoops in front of her. So we're going to look at trying
to address that piece of it next session.
Maybe having a pot of money that landlords could use rather than having the
tenant pay the last 30 days, because that can be a barrier if they don't have
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the money to move right away.
And we certainly don't want it to be a barrier. In this case, it.
Didn't end well for Natalia Cox, and we want to try to prevent that.
Yeah, yeah. I know one of the items you're focused on for the next legislative
session along those lines, sensible gun safety regulations and surveys with NRA members, even.
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A majority of gun owners are in favor of sensible regulations.
I think some of that also includes, do they call it a red flag, is it?
Yeah. So basically, if someone has a gun and they have been in a fight,
an altercation, they've assaulted somebody, they go before a judge,
and the judge says, you seem to be a threat to yourself or others.
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I'm going to have your gun removed for a period of time.
That's one red flag law, basically allowing a judge to remove a gun from someone
that they deem to be a threat to themselves or others.
Right now, that law can be used.
However, judges aren't always using it because there's not a lot of knowledge
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about what's the process and procedures.
So my bill that I filed last session and will again file this next session would
have the Office of Court Administration provide that process and the procedures.
So in other words, who goes and picks up the gun? Where does it get stored?
What form is filled out? Can they have a family member hold on to the gun?
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Just answering all those questions that are in the gray area right now so that
judges feel more comfortable with
using this ability to remove a gun from someone who is giving red flags,
indications that they might use that gun to harm somebody.
Sure. And in a lot of those cases, it's a domestic violence situation.
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Correct. Yeah, a lot of times it is. And in fact, in the Natalia Cox case,
the man who threatened her had done, I think He had assaulted somebody previously. And so again...
If this law was being used more often, perhaps his gun might have been removed.
You know, that's the hope. Sure. And that's a tough battle in a state like Texas.
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It is. But I do feel like we moved the needle a little bit last session.
We did have two of the Republican representatives who voted to get the raise the age bill out.
So raising the age to buy assault style weapons from 18 to 21.
Yeah, yeah. And there was the idea that that might have passed the house.
Their young minds aren't fully formed. And the idea that we're allowing them
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to buy these types of weapons before they're 21, I think there's a lot of people
who feel like that could change.
Right now, we don't allow 18-year-olds to buy handguns, but we do allow them
to buy assault-style rifles.
So that seems like something we might change. Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me.
Right. Well, we'll continue to try to get that passed.
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Yeah, certainly. And strengthen background checks. You know,
I think there are a few people object to strengthening our background checks.
It just makes sense that we're making sure people who are going to buy guns
don't have, you know, an assault on their record or something like that.
It just makes sense to make sure we're not letting criminals buy guns.
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Yeah, it is perfectly common sense.
I mean, the regulations are just background checks.
Nobody's coming to take your guns. Well, and the interesting thing on the gun
safety initiatives is that the last session, the House did pass two good gun
bills that were authored by Republicans.
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One was a former Dallas police officer who filed a bill to ban Glock switches,
which are the mechanisms that allow guns to rapid fire. Right,
right. That was a huge priority for the Dallas Police Department,
and it did pass the House.
So, again, you know, there are some sensible gun safety initiatives,
but unfortunately, that did not pass the Senate.
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Similarly, we had a straw purchase bill also authored by a Republican who lives on the border.
That's how a lot of guns get into the hands of cartels in Mexico,
through straw purchases.
So, if that bill had passed as a state law, it would...
Allow our local law enforcement better ability to investigate and prosecute the crime.
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Sure. The fact that Texas, you know, is an open carry state and you don't need
any kind of training, that just seems so counterintuitive to me. Yeah, I agree.
We should absolutely have training. And part of that training should be making
sure people understand what the law is around guns.
It's very complicated where you can and can't carry, where, you know.
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And so, but how to use the gun, how to be safe with the gun.
One of the things that we have done, which I'm very proud of,
is a safe storage, public safety awareness campaign.
I think we could probably take that a step further.
But so many gun accidents happen when young children get a hold of guns that
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are in their own homes. So we are trying to let parents know that that is a
huge factor in many deaths of children.
If they have a gun in the home, they really need to take that step to store
it safely in a gun safe or with some type of a gun lock trigger mechanism. Yeah.
And as far as open carry goes, I just read this morning that the GOP wants to
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allow people to carry guns at the state fair, which, sure, sure.
Let's have a crowd, a big crowd of people all drinking and, you know,
not worry about the guns, right?
Well, and, you know, I heard that same thing on the radio this morning and I
told my staff, I think maybe we should file a bill that says event organizers,
when they're planning a large event like that with so many people,
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they can make the decision of whether or not to allow guns to their event.
Because the state fair decided after what happened last year,
a shooting there at the fair, they were not going to allow guns on the premise.
That just makes all the sense in the world.
And here is our attorney general going after them saying that's not legal.
So let's change the law, make sure that they have that ability to make decisions
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that they believe will bring about more safety.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, got a long way to go on some of those issues for sure.
One of your goals is to work on defeating vouchers again.
What is the best way to do that? I just read recently that now recent surveys
show a majority of Texas residents are in favor of vouchers,
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which they didn't used to be.
It was a vast minority before. Well, I've had a UT professor who said that was
junk science, and he said that the respondents of that poll,
it was not a random sample. Okay.
I believe that. And so we're still trying to dig into where did the list of
respondents come from, who paid for this survey, but it's been called into question.
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It's unfortunate that all of the major newspapers put out that headline. line.
In my conversations, and I have been traveling the state recently talking to
a lot of people, I never hear people say, I really want, I'll take that back.
Occasionally, there is that person that says they want the money to follow their child.
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But the vast majority of people say we support our public schools.
And even folks who are Republicans will say, hey, if someone wants to send their
kids to private school, that's fine, but they need to pay for it.
That's how we've always done it. It's work. Why change the system?
Currently, we're not funding our public schools the way that we need to.
You know, so many teachers, so many teachers are leaving the profession because
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they don't feel respected and they're not earning the pay that they can somewhere else. Sure.
And the majority of the population depends on public education.
And there's so many areas where people couldn't afford probably even with voucher
money to send their kids or it's just not practical to send them to a private school.
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So, how does it make sense to take money away from public education to allow
people to... And even if they choose to homeschool, which in a lot of cases,
There are no standards. There's no regulation on that. Right. Yeah.
There's no accountability that we've seen from other states who have passed
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vouchers for homeschoolers that sometimes that money gets spent in ways that
really was not intended.
So you also asked, how do we stop vouchers from passing?
Yes. Because it is such a huge priority for the governor and lieutenant governor.
I think elections have consequences.
If we have some of our public school supporting voucher opposing candidates
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win races against the opposite, against either incumbents or candidates who
are in favor of vouchers, that will be very telling.
So really, I think this November's election cycle, that is a huge issue that's up for election.
You know, people that go and vote, they really need to pay attention to the
candidate in their area.
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Does that candidate truly support the public schools or are they going to vote for vouchers?
And I think that'll have a big impact in some of these statehouse races. Right.
Would citizen-led referendums and ballot initiatives alleviate a lot of these
issues that seem to be not really supported by legislators' constituents in a lot of cases, right?
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I mean, it seems like... Yeah, yeah. And how would it take, what would it take
to make that a thing in the state of Texas?
I know there's, I forget how many states are allowing that right now.
For example, in, oh, where did I just read in the paper this morning,
where they got the initiative on the ballot for the fall to eliminate the abortion
restrictions in that state.
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And it's a red state, if I'm not mistaken.
But at any rate, you know what I'm talking about.
Yes, absolutely. I read the same article. Is it Utah? I'm not absolutely sure what state, but yeah.
Okay. Well, I am going to file a bill that would allow for citizen-led referendums.
Basically, if there were 8% of active voters signed a petition,
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they could get whatever the item
was onto the ballot for the rest of the citizens of the state to vote on.
I think that is democracy, right?
When you're letting the people have direct input on the regulations that they fall under.
So, you know, Texas has not allowed that in the past.
I think it will be a hard thing to get past, but I do think that's what we need to do.
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So many people feel like their voices aren't heard and they feel defeated.
Why bother voting when what I want never seems to happen? Our representatives don't do this.
So let's let the people have their voice heard through citizen-led referendums.
There's so many things I think that we might vote on.
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Number one, of course, would be allowing for safe legal abortions.
You know, I think why are we as legislators making the decision of what doctors
can do with their patients?
Absolutely. Right now, doctors can't even tell their patients what all their options are.
And I just read a story about ectopic pregnancies. Yeah. I want to get into that in just a second.
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But to finish up on that other topic about the referendums and the ballot initiatives, initiatives.
You were saying, you know, a lot of people are discouraged and that's why they don't want to vote.
And of course, that all comes back to Texas being more of a non-voting state.
And I think that's the reason, the frustration.
Yeah, I agree. I think so. And so, yeah, I'm going to file that bill.
And hopefully, again, if people show up at the Capitol, I always tell people
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it does make a difference when you show up at the Capitol.
And if we have a lot of people show up in favor of that type of initiative,
I think it will have a better chance of passing. Right.
So the constitutional change, one of the items that you're working on,
constitutional change to allow for safe legal abortions.
Two Texas women have asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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to investigate Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital in Round Rock and Texas Health
Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington,
alleging violation of a federal law that guarantees a hospital provides care
to stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions.
Both women had ectopic pregnancies and now have permanent damage to their reproductive system.
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So obviously unintended consequences
because of fear over the law from medical professionals. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, when your doctor is faced with life in prison or huge fines
or their license being removed, they that has a very chilling effect on what
they're going to be willing to do for their patient.
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And that's just wrong.
It's not allowing them to do what they have set out to do to,
you know, to take care of their patients.
Yeah, it almost seems like in cases like this or in legislation like this,
they pass maybe what could be termed feel-good legislation,
and then, well, we'll sort out the details later, and they don't break it down or look at it.
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The consequences, the after effects of what can happen. Yeah. Yeah.
And now we've seen the consequences and I'm still not seeing a lot of movement
from many of the Republican representatives to say, oh, wow,
you know, people are getting hurt by this, which is really unfortunate because
women are being hurt and it's a terrible thing, you know?
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Yeah, it is. It is. What other kinds of things are you working on?
How do you feel about the upcoming election?
Are you, you know, hearing a lot of positives, negatives from where you are?
Oh, you know, the last few weeks, things have been very positive.
There's so much energy. I have been traveling and seeing groups come together,
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wanting to volunteer, wanting to help candidates.
You know, since the new ticket of Paris Falls has emerged, there's just been
so, so much excitement, and it's really heartening.
I'm feeling very positive about this election cycle.
I appreciate all the new people who've come out to volunteer.
I think she has inspired younger people, people of color to,
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you know, get more involved and do what they can to help her and other candidates.
So it's very exciting. It is. Yeah. It seems like there's just been a ton of
momentum and enthusiasm.
At least in the polls. And, you know, how accurate can those be?
I know it's always like plus or minus three points, right?
Yeah. But yeah, the polling looks good. I heard on the radio this morning someone
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saying, when will the honeymoon end?
Because, you know, new candidates always have kind of that honeymoon period.
But I still see just a lot of excitement. And she's done so much in her past.
I think there had been criticism. But really, as we learn more and more about
what she's done in her past.
I think there's a lot of appreciation for the hard work that she's done previously, too.
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Yeah, I think the honeymoon will end on November the 6th.
But even then, you know, we'll be very optimistic about the future.
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, people can, you know, try to stay on top of
what's going on and get involved.
Yeah, Yeah, like you said, we have seen a lot of, I know in the local,
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in the Kamal County Democratic Party, there's been a lot of enthusiasm,
more people stepping up and wanting to get involved.
And it seems like it's statewide as well.
Yeah, yeah. When you asked, too, what other things that I'm working on, water planning is.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I did want to ask you about that. With so much growth,
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I mean, this area has had undergone and is still undergoing tremendous growth.
So obviously, one of the side effects is resources like water.
And we have enough trouble with that as it is.
Yeah, yeah. You know, as I drive around, I tell my husband, the state is under
construction. There are cranes everywhere.
There's dirt, big, huge piles of dirt everywhere as they're building roads.
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And it's just, it's incredible.
We are a growing state. And that means that we need to do better planning for water and energy.
A lot of times people would say, did we fix the grid?
As we grow, there's no stopping the need for more power, the need for better transmission.
You know, after Beryl came in and knocked out power in Houston for a week,
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there's a need for our power companies to do a better job of pre-planning.
You know, we react to these emergencies, these weather emergencies,
as though we didn't have any warning.
And we do. We know that we're going to continue to have extreme weather.
We need to be planning both for water and for power. So as I traveled the state,
one of the cities I went to was Wichita Falls, and they actually came within
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30 days of running out of water for drinking or anything.
And so they had to figure out, what do we do? What they ended up doing is they
cleaned their wastewater to a level that is drinkable.
And so one of the bar owners there made T-shirts that said, Wichita Falls,
where the water is the shits.
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That's good. Anyway, we have to be resourceful. We have to be thinking about
these things so it doesn't become an emergency.
My district surrounds Lake Travis, which is our drinking water supply,
and it has been low for quite a long time.
It sat at 40% full for a long time.
And so a lot of people have said, what about putting water into aquifers?
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It's aquifer storage and recovery.
That is certainly an idea, but it takes a lot of science to figure it out and do it right.
And so we should be putting more emphasis on water planning and power planning.
Yeah, and so many builders, I know like where we are in Kamal County,
neighborhoods popping up left and right.
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Are they, the builders, have to meet certain guidelines to ensure or at least
try to ensure that there will be enough water?
Well, they do to some extent. I know actually Dripping Springs put a moratorium
on building for a short period of time because they were saying,
where are you getting your water from?
And so the developer had to find a source and prove that he had the ability
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to bring the water to that neighborhood.
So there's always ways. They can go buy water out of an aquifer or there's a
lot of idea around desal being where we might get water.
You know, the east eastern part of the state has more water than they need.
The western part of the state doesn't have enough.
So there's an idea of what what about pipelines?
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All of this can be done, but it does get expensive. It does cost money.
Yeah, and there's a lot more we could do around conservation.
And that's one of the things I've been working on, actually,
at the Capitol, because the Travis County has brought purple pipes to the Capitol
to the edge of the property,
which we could tie into and use that water to water the landscaping.
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You know, there's a lot of grass and trees around the Capitol that gets watered.
So why not be conservative and use the reused water, the purple water?
Of water from the purple pipes, I mean.
And similarly, there's an idea of using AC condensation and some of the office
buildings here in Travis County do that to save water.
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So we're looking at a lot of different ideas on conservation too.
Sure. And I know we've got, you know, living in a rural area,
a lot of people have wells and I know people that their wells have gone dry,
you know, over the summer.
That brings it top of mind when you run out of water.
I've had some real estate clients that ran out of water a number of years ago
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and, and it, it really hits home at that point in time. You know,
why, why are we running out of water? We need to make sure we're planning.
As far as the power grid, I know we talked a little bit about that,
but has ERCOT taken any steps?
I thought that they were taking a task on it a couple of years ago,
but they never really did anything. Is that right?
(30:43):
Well, they incentivize the building of more gas power plants.
And so I think there may be some of those in the works, but they haven't.
The rate structure kind of incentivizes not having enough in reserves.
So I think we haven't quite gotten to where we need to.
There's also a lot in the news about cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence
(31:08):
being huge consumers of a lot of energy.
And so needing to make sure that we are very thoughtful in making sure homes
are getting the power that they need and businesses that can't be shut down immediately. Right.
So and then we should learn something from Beryl in that the power being out
for so long, was there a way to have brought it on quicker?
(31:32):
So after a previous storm, the power company went out and bought this these
huge generators with the idea that if neighborhoods power was knocked out,
they could take that generator,
plug it in closer to the homes and get their power back on.
Well, it turns out these generators were so huge, they didn't have a way to
(31:52):
move them, and they were useless.
But the reason CenterPoint bought them is that they got reimbursed plus 10%
of the cost. These were $800 million.
So there was a huge financial incentive for them to do that,
as opposed to doing the vegetation management that was needed to get limbs away
from power lines. Right.
(32:14):
Where they would have only been reimbursed cost, no addition on top.
So in other words, their financial incentive was to buy these generators.
Now, they should have bought smaller generators or generators that were proven
to work in a storm rather than, I don't know, whose idea it was to buy generators
that were too big to move, but that was obviously a failure.
(32:34):
Yeah, you would think. Yeah, I was talking on a recent podcast,
we had an economist, as well as somebody that works in the financial field talking about that.
And despite the states or the Republican-led anti-climate change stance and,
you know, pro-oil, pro-oil, drill, drill, drill, we actually lead the nation,
(32:57):
I think, in solar power and wind power in the state of Texas.
So there is positive news in that aspect.
Yeah. Yeah. The legislature is always trying to
make it more difficult for solar and wind
so you don't hear us you
know praising the wind and solar but we do have
a lot of it here yeah that's and that's a good thing it's clean power it's you
(33:23):
know yes we need we need more of that we need more of that on our rooftops yeah
absolutely well on the line of the power and solar and renewable one of the
initiatives i have for next session is my stewardship amendment.
And again, this would be an amendment to our constitution, just saying that
we, the people of Texas, have the right to clean air, clean water, and healthy soil.
(33:46):
Very, very simple idea. But we have so many rights in our Texas constitution,
but we don't have the right to clean air, clean water, and healthy soil.
Oh, now you sound like a radical.
I know, I know. Isn't that crazy? Well, and the thing is, sometimes TCEQ doesn't
do its job to make sure these.
Industries aren't dumping, you know, pollutants into our rivers, things like that.
(34:11):
Well, if we had that constitutional amendment, an individual could say this
company is dumping and, you know, stepping on my right as a citizen of Texas.
So that's that's another initiative I'm going to work on.
And I think oftentimes our environment kind of gets lower down in the priorities
(34:31):
that really, you know, as they say, we only have one planet unless you're Elon
Musk and you want to go live on Mars or something.
But I personally want to stay here. Well, he's welcome to go live on Mars as far as I'm concerned.
Likewise. Yeah. But so I think our environment is really important and particularly
(34:51):
for the young people who wonder, you know, what is it what's going to be here in the coming decades?
You know, it's something we really need to pay attention to now.
It really is. Yeah, especially now.
And I know you're planning to run for lieutenant governor in 2026.
Boy, could we welcome a change there? Yeah, our Republicans have been in charge
(35:14):
for 30 years, and I think it's time for a change.
There are so many reasons, but, you know, I feel very strongly about having
strong public schools, about having good access to health care that doesn't
send you into financial ruin. And I think we should have, you know, a healthy environment.
We should do better planning, sensible gun violence prevention.
(35:36):
You know, so, so many things that our current leadership is not interested in.
They're paying attention to getting rid of DEI and CRT.
You know, they're diverting our attention onto things that certainly matter,
but aren't helpful. Yeah, they're certainly not issues that affect the daily
lives of our citizens. I don't need to tell you.
(35:59):
Right. Yeah. So I'm excited. I've been talking to people and I feel like there's
some desire to have a change in our top leadership.
And so I will continue to work on that. Okay, awesome.
Is there a place where we can find about your campaign, find out,
you know, your position on all the issues for the upcoming election?
(36:19):
I'm sure you have a website. site? Oh, absolutely.
It's real simple. It's just my name, VickiGoodwin.com.
My name is spelled different than most Vickis though. It's V-I-K-K-I and then Goodwin.com.
Okay. That's what we're looking forward to, a good win.
That's right. That's right. A good win for Texas. Bet you no one's ever said that to you before.
Oh man, I used that as my slogan when I ran the first time. Oh, there you go.
(36:45):
Okay. Well, good luck. I think, you know, like I said, we've got a lot of momentum
and, you know, it'd be so nice to be able to turn this state blue once again.
Thanks again, Vicki Goodwin, and good luck in November.
And just as a side note, if for some reason you're not reelected, you'll still run in 26?
(37:07):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I feel pretty I feel pretty good about my election this November.
But even if not, I'm committed.
In your previous victories, were they pretty substantial wins or?
Well, so in 2018, when I ran the first time, I flipped the seat and people didn't
expect that I would be able to because it was drawn for a Republican.
(37:31):
But I won with 5,000 votes.
It was four and a half percent, which I was happy with that.
2020 was tough because we couldn't campaign in the same way with COVID.
And also, I had an Austin police officer running against me and he was saying,
oh, those Democrats want to defend the police.
(37:51):
And so that was a tight race. But again, I won with 1,300 votes.
And then last cycle after redistricting, they took out Lakeway out of my district.
And so I won with 61%, which was a much wider margin of victory.
That's huge. That's huge. Okay. Well, hopefully you'll win again and,
you know, we'll be pulling for you if you, you know, we'd like to maybe have
(38:14):
you back on sometime, maybe after the election.
And that sounds great, you know, based on how things go or whatever.
But anyway, thanks for being here again. Thank you. You have a great day.
Your family, your future, your vote. Conversations from the Hill Country is
a production of the Kamal County Democratic Party Precinct 204.
Precinct Chair and Podcast Director, Teresa Patrick.
(38:38):
Deputy Chair and Podcast Executive Producer, Donna Kelter. Music provided by John Mullane.
Online at j-o-n-m-u-l-l-a-n-e dot bandcamp dot com.
We welcome your comments. I'm Adam West. Thanks for listening.
Music.
Music.
(00:18):
Family, your future, your vote. Conversations from the Hill Country, the podcast.
I'm Adam West. Today, we spent some time talking to Vicki Goodwin,
representative from the Texas House, District 47 in Travis County,
currently serving her third term and running for re-election this November.
We talked about her legislative record and the issues she's working on for the
(00:40):
next legislative session and beyond.
Vicki Goodwin, Democratic candidate for re-election to the Texas Texas House
of Representatives, District 47, currently serving your third term.
Welcome to the podcast, Vicki. How are you?
I am super. Thank you for having me. Well, we really appreciate you taking the
time out of your busy schedule to talk to us and let us know what's going on
(01:05):
in Texas politics and in the state legislature.
You are a broker and owner of Goodwin & Goodwin Real Estate.
That's correct. Therefore, you have firsthand knowledge of housing and affordability
issues in the greater Austin area.
And it's certainly been not just Austin, but San Antonio and the whole area
(01:27):
has had its ups and downs in recent years real estate wise, correct?
Yeah, mostly up, to be honest. But this year has seen a change.
So we're now starting to see some prices come down, which is the first time
in a long time that's happened. Right now, I've seen, yeah, where interest rates
now just started going down a little bit.
But one issue that I know has been a problem is rentals.
(01:51):
And I know the Austin area, because one of our boys lives there,
is very high and hard to find affordable housing, especially like for college
age kids, right? Yeah, definitely.
We have seen rents go up a lot and hear often that people have to move further and further out.
And of course, if you're trying to go to college, that's challenging.
(02:12):
You want to be close to school. So I do have...
Proposal that I call the Fair Rent Incentive Act. And you may be aware of the
Property Tax Relief Act we passed recently that did help to put downward pressure
on property taxes, but it didn't do anything for our renters.
However, there is one small piece of that. It's a pilot project set up for three
(02:36):
years where property owners or landlords that have properties that are worth
$5 million or less get an automatic assessment cap,
which would keep their property taxes lower than if they didn't have that assessment cap.
But there's no strings attached to that. And so my proposal would simply add
a string to that saying that the landlord would get that assessment if they
(02:58):
are charging fair market rent.
And fair market rent is already determined by HUD.
There's a table. If you Google fair market rent, you can find the table by zip
code and by number of bedrooms.
And it would tell the landlord what rent he would need to be charging in order
to be able to get that assessment cap.
And it would be simple, just like the homestead exemption that homeowners fill out.
(03:21):
It would be a one-page document where the landlord would say,
I am charging fair market rent or below, and he would turn that into the appraisal district.
So fairly simple process, but it would, again, put a string to that incentive
so that landlords would have an incentive to keep rents lower.
Well, sure. Yeah. I mean, there should be some some control,
(03:42):
you know, to keep it from getting out of hand. Right. Yeah.
You know, we are seeing a little bit of a softening of the market because more
apartments have been built.
But this would be a long term measure that I really think would help both parties,
the landlord and the tenants.
And, you know, the enforcement mechanism would be the tenants paying attention to what their rent is.
(04:04):
And all of this is public information.
They can look up and see if the landlord is getting that assessment cap.
And if their rent does not fall within fair market rent, then they could reach
out to the appraisal district and let them know.
Well, that's a good way to go about it. A lot of renters, I think,
maybe feel like they're at the mercy of the landlord, though,
(04:24):
and may not be aware or know how to deal with a situation like that.
Yeah, there are there's some organizations, though, that do help renters.
It would be an educational campaign to let renters know that they need to pay attention to that.
Absolutely. Talking a little bit about your time in the legislature,
you've passed laws that deal with safety like drowning prevention and violence prevention,
(04:47):
food security, creating a commission to address food security and mental health.
What are some of those things and how has that gone so far?
You know, very well. Again, it's about letting the public know what has happened.
And we've done some press conferences. For example, on the drowning prevention
(05:08):
bill, we had a press conference with the YMCA because they run a lot of the pools around the city.
We also went down to Laredo and had a press conference right at their city-operated
pool and let people know about the law.
Basically, child care providers have to find out from parents if the kids in
their care can swim or not.
(05:29):
And if the child can't swim and the child care provider is taking them to a
pool, then they have to put a life jacket on them.
So fairly simple. But again, it's just to raise awareness.
I personally wasn't aware of how many children die by drowning.
It is a fast, silent, and preventable.
And so we just wanted to let parents and child care providers know that really
(05:51):
we want to prevent drowning and, you know, be aware of taking safety measures. Sure.
Sure. It's something you don't think about that often, really. Yeah.
So the parents had lost their daughter and they didn't want any other parents
to have to go through that. So, you know, they've also set up a foundation where
they raised some money and bought some life jackets to give to child care providers.
(06:15):
So they've they've done a lot
of work to make sure other families don't go through that same tragedy.
Oh, very cool. And then another one I'm really proud of is our mental health
bill that expanded access to a procedure called AcuDetox.
It's similar to acupuncture, five needles in the ear. Right.
In prior state law, it could have been used for people that were diagnosed with a chemical dependency.
(06:38):
Now, with the expansion, yeah, it can be used for anything.
And of course, we still want it to be used for those people that need to kick chemical dependency.
But we also like the fact that it can be used for stress, anxiety,
PTSD, depression, sleep issues, all sorts of things.
Wow, that covers pretty much everybody I know.
(07:01):
Some form of stress, right? I mean, it's tough these days. Yeah, for sure.
So I think everybody can use some relief like that. The providers that we worked
with had so many ideas of how it could be used.
And so right now, they're trying to expand awareness to other providers to get
them trained on how they can use it.
You know, it could be used for first responders. It could be used for teachers.
(07:26):
It different ways. And so we're very happy with that bill.
But we also just heard from the two providers that they're looking forward to
working with us again to do even more change to the law next session.
Okay. You did also pass a law on violence prevention.
Now, is that dealing with all forms of violence or was that gun violence or how was that?
(07:48):
Well, that also came about through a tragedy. There was a 21-year-old Houston
Tillotson student who was shot and killed.
So in her case, it had to do with
with violence with a gun. What we found is that in her case,
she did call the police and they came to her apartment after this man had threatened her.
(08:09):
Now she had dated him twice, but didn't really want to go out with him again.
He came to her door and threatened her when she wouldn't open the door with a gun.
She called the police and they came out, but then he had already left by the
time they got there. And then the police left.
Nothing really happened. And five days later, He came back. This time he was
(08:29):
successful in getting into her apartment and he shot and killed her.
We asked the parents some questions about the situation and wondered if the
police had given her information that could have helped her.
For example, there are a lot of organizations that will help women that are
in domestic violence situations.
In Austin, it's Safe Alliance.
(08:51):
The police have a pink card that they give to people who have experienced domestic
violence. And it does provide information and phone numbers to organizations like Safe Alliance.
But in this case, they hadn't given it to her. We wanted to make sure that people
are getting that information that can keep them safe.
So we turned to the Health and Human Services Commission to provide a one-page
(09:14):
document that can be handed out at universities, at health care providers.
You know, just really anywhere.
Anyone can download it off their website. site, but I've been going around to
some universities to let professors know and let students know,
here's some information that could keep you safe.
The one pager tells them that you can get a protective order.
(09:35):
And if you don't have money for an attorney, there are resources out there.
It lets them know what organizations will help. And it also lets them know that
they can exit their lease agreement.
So if they are in a housing situation where they don't feel safe,
they can go to their landlord and let the landlord know they're not safe and
they can in their lease agreement.
There's still some stipulations in Natalia Cox's case. She did go to her landlord.
(10:00):
They made it somewhat difficult by saying she'd have to pay a new application
fee and pay a new security deposit.
They just fit too many hoops in front of her. So we're going to look at trying
to address that piece of it next session.
Maybe having a pot of money that landlords could use rather than having the
tenant pay the last 30 days, because that can be a barrier if they don't have
(10:23):
the money to move right away.
And we certainly don't want it to be a barrier. In this case, it.
Didn't end well for Natalia Cox, and we want to try to prevent that.
Yeah, yeah. I know one of the items you're focused on for the next legislative
session along those lines, sensible gun safety regulations and surveys with NRA members, even.
(10:46):
A majority of gun owners are in favor of sensible regulations.
I think some of that also includes, do they call it a red flag, is it?
Yeah. So basically, if someone has a gun and they have been in a fight,
an altercation, they've assaulted somebody, they go before a judge,
and the judge says, you seem to be a threat to yourself or others.
(11:07):
I'm going to have your gun removed for a period of time.
That's one red flag law, basically allowing a judge to remove a gun from someone
that they deem to be a threat to themselves or others.
Right now, that law can be used.
However, judges aren't always using it because there's not a lot of knowledge
(11:29):
about what's the process and procedures.
So my bill that I filed last session and will again file this next session would
have the Office of Court Administration provide that process and the procedures.
So in other words, who goes and picks up the gun? Where does it get stored?
What form is filled out? Can they have a family member hold on to the gun?
(11:50):
Just answering all those questions that are in the gray area right now so that
judges feel more comfortable with
using this ability to remove a gun from someone who is giving red flags,
indications that they might use that gun to harm somebody.
Sure. And in a lot of those cases, it's a domestic violence situation.
(12:10):
Correct. Yeah, a lot of times it is. And in fact, in the Natalia Cox case,
the man who threatened her had done, I think He had assaulted somebody previously. And so again...
If this law was being used more often, perhaps his gun might have been removed.
You know, that's the hope. Sure. And that's a tough battle in a state like Texas.
(12:33):
It is. But I do feel like we moved the needle a little bit last session.
We did have two of the Republican representatives who voted to get the raise the age bill out.
So raising the age to buy assault style weapons from 18 to 21.
Yeah, yeah. And there was the idea that that might have passed the house.
Their young minds aren't fully formed. And the idea that we're allowing them
(12:58):
to buy these types of weapons before they're 21, I think there's a lot of people
who feel like that could change.
Right now, we don't allow 18-year-olds to buy handguns, but we do allow them
to buy assault-style rifles.
So that seems like something we might change. Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me.
Right. Well, we'll continue to try to get that passed.
(13:19):
Yeah, certainly. And strengthen background checks. You know,
I think there are a few people object to strengthening our background checks.
It just makes sense that we're making sure people who are going to buy guns
don't have, you know, an assault on their record or something like that.
It just makes sense to make sure we're not letting criminals buy guns.
(13:41):
Yeah, it is perfectly common sense.
I mean, the regulations are just background checks.
Nobody's coming to take your guns. Well, and the interesting thing on the gun
safety initiatives is that the last session, the House did pass two good gun
bills that were authored by Republicans.
(14:03):
One was a former Dallas police officer who filed a bill to ban Glock switches,
which are the mechanisms that allow guns to rapid fire. Right,
right. That was a huge priority for the Dallas Police Department,
and it did pass the House.
So, again, you know, there are some sensible gun safety initiatives,
but unfortunately, that did not pass the Senate.
(14:25):
Similarly, we had a straw purchase bill also authored by a Republican who lives on the border.
That's how a lot of guns get into the hands of cartels in Mexico,
through straw purchases.
So, if that bill had passed as a state law, it would...
Allow our local law enforcement better ability to investigate and prosecute the crime.
(14:46):
Sure. The fact that Texas, you know, is an open carry state and you don't need
any kind of training, that just seems so counterintuitive to me. Yeah, I agree.
We should absolutely have training. And part of that training should be making
sure people understand what the law is around guns.
It's very complicated where you can and can't carry, where, you know.
(15:09):
And so, but how to use the gun, how to be safe with the gun.
One of the things that we have done, which I'm very proud of,
is a safe storage, public safety awareness campaign.
I think we could probably take that a step further.
But so many gun accidents happen when young children get a hold of guns that
(15:30):
are in their own homes. So we are trying to let parents know that that is a
huge factor in many deaths of children.
If they have a gun in the home, they really need to take that step to store
it safely in a gun safe or with some type of a gun lock trigger mechanism. Yeah.
And as far as open carry goes, I just read this morning that the GOP wants to
(15:54):
allow people to carry guns at the state fair, which, sure, sure.
Let's have a crowd, a big crowd of people all drinking and, you know,
not worry about the guns, right?
Well, and, you know, I heard that same thing on the radio this morning and I
told my staff, I think maybe we should file a bill that says event organizers,
when they're planning a large event like that with so many people,
(16:17):
they can make the decision of whether or not to allow guns to their event.
Because the state fair decided after what happened last year,
a shooting there at the fair, they were not going to allow guns on the premise.
That just makes all the sense in the world.
And here is our attorney general going after them saying that's not legal.
So let's change the law, make sure that they have that ability to make decisions
(16:40):
that they believe will bring about more safety.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, got a long way to go on some of those issues for sure.
One of your goals is to work on defeating vouchers again.
What is the best way to do that? I just read recently that now recent surveys
show a majority of Texas residents are in favor of vouchers,
(17:05):
which they didn't used to be.
It was a vast minority before. Well, I've had a UT professor who said that was
junk science, and he said that the respondents of that poll,
it was not a random sample. Okay.
I believe that. And so we're still trying to dig into where did the list of
respondents come from, who paid for this survey, but it's been called into question.
(17:29):
It's unfortunate that all of the major newspapers put out that headline. line.
In my conversations, and I have been traveling the state recently talking to
a lot of people, I never hear people say, I really want, I'll take that back.
Occasionally, there is that person that says they want the money to follow their child.
(17:49):
But the vast majority of people say we support our public schools.
And even folks who are Republicans will say, hey, if someone wants to send their
kids to private school, that's fine, but they need to pay for it.
That's how we've always done it. It's work. Why change the system?
Currently, we're not funding our public schools the way that we need to.
You know, so many teachers, so many teachers are leaving the profession because
(18:12):
they don't feel respected and they're not earning the pay that they can somewhere else. Sure.
And the majority of the population depends on public education.
And there's so many areas where people couldn't afford probably even with voucher
money to send their kids or it's just not practical to send them to a private school.
(18:32):
So, how does it make sense to take money away from public education to allow
people to... And even if they choose to homeschool, which in a lot of cases,
There are no standards. There's no regulation on that. Right. Yeah.
There's no accountability that we've seen from other states who have passed
(18:52):
vouchers for homeschoolers that sometimes that money gets spent in ways that
really was not intended.
So you also asked, how do we stop vouchers from passing?
Yes. Because it is such a huge priority for the governor and lieutenant governor.
I think elections have consequences.
If we have some of our public school supporting voucher opposing candidates
(19:14):
win races against the opposite, against either incumbents or candidates who
are in favor of vouchers, that will be very telling.
So really, I think this November's election cycle, that is a huge issue that's up for election.
You know, people that go and vote, they really need to pay attention to the
candidate in their area.
(19:36):
Does that candidate truly support the public schools or are they going to vote for vouchers?
And I think that'll have a big impact in some of these statehouse races. Right.
Would citizen-led referendums and ballot initiatives alleviate a lot of these
issues that seem to be not really supported by legislators' constituents in a lot of cases, right?
(19:58):
I mean, it seems like... Yeah, yeah. And how would it take, what would it take
to make that a thing in the state of Texas?
I know there's, I forget how many states are allowing that right now.
For example, in, oh, where did I just read in the paper this morning,
where they got the initiative on the ballot for the fall to eliminate the abortion
restrictions in that state.
(20:19):
And it's a red state, if I'm not mistaken.
But at any rate, you know what I'm talking about.
Yes, absolutely. I read the same article. Is it Utah? I'm not absolutely sure what state, but yeah.
Okay. Well, I am going to file a bill that would allow for citizen-led referendums.
Basically, if there were 8% of active voters signed a petition,
(20:40):
they could get whatever the item
was onto the ballot for the rest of the citizens of the state to vote on.
I think that is democracy, right?
When you're letting the people have direct input on the regulations that they fall under.
So, you know, Texas has not allowed that in the past.
I think it will be a hard thing to get past, but I do think that's what we need to do.
(21:05):
So many people feel like their voices aren't heard and they feel defeated.
Why bother voting when what I want never seems to happen? Our representatives don't do this.
So let's let the people have their voice heard through citizen-led referendums.
There's so many things I think that we might vote on.
(21:25):
Number one, of course, would be allowing for safe legal abortions.
You know, I think why are we as legislators making the decision of what doctors
can do with their patients?
Absolutely. Right now, doctors can't even tell their patients what all their options are.
And I just read a story about ectopic pregnancies. Yeah. I want to get into that in just a second.
(21:46):
But to finish up on that other topic about the referendums and the ballot initiatives, initiatives.
You were saying, you know, a lot of people are discouraged and that's why they don't want to vote.
And of course, that all comes back to Texas being more of a non-voting state.
And I think that's the reason, the frustration.
Yeah, I agree. I think so. And so, yeah, I'm going to file that bill.
And hopefully, again, if people show up at the Capitol, I always tell people
(22:10):
it does make a difference when you show up at the Capitol.
And if we have a lot of people show up in favor of that type of initiative,
I think it will have a better chance of passing. Right.
So the constitutional change, one of the items that you're working on,
constitutional change to allow for safe legal abortions.
Two Texas women have asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(22:31):
to investigate Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital in Round Rock and Texas Health
Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington,
alleging violation of a federal law that guarantees a hospital provides care
to stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions.
Both women had ectopic pregnancies and now have permanent damage to their reproductive system.
(22:52):
So obviously unintended consequences
because of fear over the law from medical professionals. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, when your doctor is faced with life in prison or huge fines
or their license being removed, they that has a very chilling effect on what
they're going to be willing to do for their patient.
(23:15):
And that's just wrong.
It's not allowing them to do what they have set out to do to,
you know, to take care of their patients.
Yeah, it almost seems like in cases like this or in legislation like this,
they pass maybe what could be termed feel-good legislation,
and then, well, we'll sort out the details later, and they don't break it down or look at it.
(23:40):
The consequences, the after effects of what can happen. Yeah. Yeah.
And now we've seen the consequences and I'm still not seeing a lot of movement
from many of the Republican representatives to say, oh, wow,
you know, people are getting hurt by this, which is really unfortunate because
women are being hurt and it's a terrible thing, you know?
(24:00):
Yeah, it is. It is. What other kinds of things are you working on?
How do you feel about the upcoming election?
Are you, you know, hearing a lot of positives, negatives from where you are?
Oh, you know, the last few weeks, things have been very positive.
There's so much energy. I have been traveling and seeing groups come together,
(24:20):
wanting to volunteer, wanting to help candidates.
You know, since the new ticket of Paris Falls has emerged, there's just been
so, so much excitement, and it's really heartening.
I'm feeling very positive about this election cycle.
I appreciate all the new people who've come out to volunteer.
I think she has inspired younger people, people of color to,
(24:43):
you know, get more involved and do what they can to help her and other candidates.
So it's very exciting. It is. Yeah. It seems like there's just been a ton of
momentum and enthusiasm.
At least in the polls. And, you know, how accurate can those be?
I know it's always like plus or minus three points, right?
Yeah. But yeah, the polling looks good. I heard on the radio this morning someone
(25:07):
saying, when will the honeymoon end?
Because, you know, new candidates always have kind of that honeymoon period.
But I still see just a lot of excitement. And she's done so much in her past.
I think there had been criticism. But really, as we learn more and more about
what she's done in her past.
I think there's a lot of appreciation for the hard work that she's done previously, too.
(25:29):
Yeah, I think the honeymoon will end on November the 6th.
But even then, you know, we'll be very optimistic about the future.
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, people can, you know, try to stay on top of
what's going on and get involved.
Yeah, Yeah, like you said, we have seen a lot of, I know in the local,
(25:50):
in the Kamal County Democratic Party, there's been a lot of enthusiasm,
more people stepping up and wanting to get involved.
And it seems like it's statewide as well.
Yeah, yeah. When you asked, too, what other things that I'm working on, water planning is.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I did want to ask you about that. With so much growth,
(26:11):
I mean, this area has had undergone and is still undergoing tremendous growth.
So obviously, one of the side effects is resources like water.
And we have enough trouble with that as it is.
Yeah, yeah. You know, as I drive around, I tell my husband, the state is under
construction. There are cranes everywhere.
There's dirt, big, huge piles of dirt everywhere as they're building roads.
(26:35):
And it's just, it's incredible.
We are a growing state. And that means that we need to do better planning for water and energy.
A lot of times people would say, did we fix the grid?
As we grow, there's no stopping the need for more power, the need for better transmission.
You know, after Beryl came in and knocked out power in Houston for a week,
(26:58):
there's a need for our power companies to do a better job of pre-planning.
You know, we react to these emergencies, these weather emergencies,
as though we didn't have any warning.
And we do. We know that we're going to continue to have extreme weather.
We need to be planning both for water and for power. So as I traveled the state,
one of the cities I went to was Wichita Falls, and they actually came within
(27:22):
30 days of running out of water for drinking or anything.
And so they had to figure out, what do we do? What they ended up doing is they
cleaned their wastewater to a level that is drinkable.
And so one of the bar owners there made T-shirts that said, Wichita Falls,
where the water is the shits.
(27:43):
That's good. Anyway, we have to be resourceful. We have to be thinking about
these things so it doesn't become an emergency.
My district surrounds Lake Travis, which is our drinking water supply,
and it has been low for quite a long time.
It sat at 40% full for a long time.
And so a lot of people have said, what about putting water into aquifers?
(28:06):
It's aquifer storage and recovery.
That is certainly an idea, but it takes a lot of science to figure it out and do it right.
And so we should be putting more emphasis on water planning and power planning.
Yeah, and so many builders, I know like where we are in Kamal County,
neighborhoods popping up left and right.
(28:27):
Are they, the builders, have to meet certain guidelines to ensure or at least
try to ensure that there will be enough water?
Well, they do to some extent. I know actually Dripping Springs put a moratorium
on building for a short period of time because they were saying,
where are you getting your water from?
And so the developer had to find a source and prove that he had the ability
(28:50):
to bring the water to that neighborhood.
So there's always ways. They can go buy water out of an aquifer or there's a
lot of idea around desal being where we might get water.
You know, the east eastern part of the state has more water than they need.
The western part of the state doesn't have enough.
So there's an idea of what what about pipelines?
(29:13):
All of this can be done, but it does get expensive. It does cost money.
Yeah, and there's a lot more we could do around conservation.
And that's one of the things I've been working on, actually,
at the Capitol, because the Travis County has brought purple pipes to the Capitol
to the edge of the property,
which we could tie into and use that water to water the landscaping.
(29:37):
You know, there's a lot of grass and trees around the Capitol that gets watered.
So why not be conservative and use the reused water, the purple water?
Of water from the purple pipes, I mean.
And similarly, there's an idea of using AC condensation and some of the office
buildings here in Travis County do that to save water.
(29:59):
So we're looking at a lot of different ideas on conservation too.
Sure. And I know we've got, you know, living in a rural area,
a lot of people have wells and I know people that their wells have gone dry,
you know, over the summer.
That brings it top of mind when you run out of water.
I've had some real estate clients that ran out of water a number of years ago
(30:21):
and, and it, it really hits home at that point in time. You know,
why, why are we running out of water? We need to make sure we're planning.
As far as the power grid, I know we talked a little bit about that,
but has ERCOT taken any steps?
I thought that they were taking a task on it a couple of years ago,
but they never really did anything. Is that right?
(30:43):
Well, they incentivize the building of more gas power plants.
And so I think there may be some of those in the works, but they haven't.
The rate structure kind of incentivizes not having enough in reserves.
So I think we haven't quite gotten to where we need to.
There's also a lot in the news about cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence
(31:08):
being huge consumers of a lot of energy.
And so needing to make sure that we are very thoughtful in making sure homes
are getting the power that they need and businesses that can't be shut down immediately. Right.
So and then we should learn something from Beryl in that the power being out
for so long, was there a way to have brought it on quicker?
(31:32):
So after a previous storm, the power company went out and bought this these
huge generators with the idea that if neighborhoods power was knocked out,
they could take that generator,
plug it in closer to the homes and get their power back on.
Well, it turns out these generators were so huge, they didn't have a way to
(31:52):
move them, and they were useless.
But the reason CenterPoint bought them is that they got reimbursed plus 10%
of the cost. These were $800 million.
So there was a huge financial incentive for them to do that,
as opposed to doing the vegetation management that was needed to get limbs away
from power lines. Right.
(32:14):
Where they would have only been reimbursed cost, no addition on top.
So in other words, their financial incentive was to buy these generators.
Now, they should have bought smaller generators or generators that were proven
to work in a storm rather than, I don't know, whose idea it was to buy generators
that were too big to move, but that was obviously a failure.
(32:34):
Yeah, you would think. Yeah, I was talking on a recent podcast,
we had an economist, as well as somebody that works in the financial field talking about that.
And despite the states or the Republican-led anti-climate change stance and,
you know, pro-oil, pro-oil, drill, drill, drill, we actually lead the nation,
(32:57):
I think, in solar power and wind power in the state of Texas.
So there is positive news in that aspect.
Yeah. Yeah. The legislature is always trying to
make it more difficult for solar and wind
so you don't hear us you
know praising the wind and solar but we do have
a lot of it here yeah that's and that's a good thing it's clean power it's you
(33:23):
know yes we need we need more of that we need more of that on our rooftops yeah
absolutely well on the line of the power and solar and renewable one of the
initiatives i have for next session is my stewardship amendment.
And again, this would be an amendment to our constitution, just saying that
we, the people of Texas, have the right to clean air, clean water, and healthy soil.
(33:46):
Very, very simple idea. But we have so many rights in our Texas constitution,
but we don't have the right to clean air, clean water, and healthy soil.
Oh, now you sound like a radical.
I know, I know. Isn't that crazy? Well, and the thing is, sometimes TCEQ doesn't
do its job to make sure these.
Industries aren't dumping, you know, pollutants into our rivers, things like that.
(34:11):
Well, if we had that constitutional amendment, an individual could say this
company is dumping and, you know, stepping on my right as a citizen of Texas.
So that's that's another initiative I'm going to work on.
And I think oftentimes our environment kind of gets lower down in the priorities
(34:31):
that really, you know, as they say, we only have one planet unless you're Elon
Musk and you want to go live on Mars or something.
But I personally want to stay here. Well, he's welcome to go live on Mars as far as I'm concerned.
Likewise. Yeah. But so I think our environment is really important and particularly
(34:51):
for the young people who wonder, you know, what is it what's going to be here in the coming decades?
You know, it's something we really need to pay attention to now.
It really is. Yeah, especially now.
And I know you're planning to run for lieutenant governor in 2026.
Boy, could we welcome a change there? Yeah, our Republicans have been in charge
(35:14):
for 30 years, and I think it's time for a change.
There are so many reasons, but, you know, I feel very strongly about having
strong public schools, about having good access to health care that doesn't
send you into financial ruin. And I think we should have, you know, a healthy environment.
We should do better planning, sensible gun violence prevention.
(35:36):
You know, so, so many things that our current leadership is not interested in.
They're paying attention to getting rid of DEI and CRT.
You know, they're diverting our attention onto things that certainly matter,
but aren't helpful. Yeah, they're certainly not issues that affect the daily
lives of our citizens. I don't need to tell you.
(35:59):
Right. Yeah. So I'm excited. I've been talking to people and I feel like there's
some desire to have a change in our top leadership.
And so I will continue to work on that. Okay, awesome.
Is there a place where we can find about your campaign, find out,
you know, your position on all the issues for the upcoming election?
(36:19):
I'm sure you have a website. site? Oh, absolutely.
It's real simple. It's just my name, VickiGoodwin.com.
My name is spelled different than most Vickis though. It's V-I-K-K-I and then Goodwin.com.
Okay. That's what we're looking forward to, a good win.
That's right. That's right. A good win for Texas. Bet you no one's ever said that to you before.
Oh man, I used that as my slogan when I ran the first time. Oh, there you go.
(36:45):
Okay. Well, good luck. I think, you know, like I said, we've got a lot of momentum
and, you know, it'd be so nice to be able to turn this state blue once again.
Thanks again, Vicki Goodwin, and good luck in November.
And just as a side note, if for some reason you're not reelected, you'll still run in 26?
(37:07):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I feel pretty I feel pretty good about my election this November.
But even if not, I'm committed.
In your previous victories, were they pretty substantial wins or?
Well, so in 2018, when I ran the first time, I flipped the seat and people didn't
expect that I would be able to because it was drawn for a Republican.
(37:31):
But I won with 5,000 votes.
It was four and a half percent, which I was happy with that.
2020 was tough because we couldn't campaign in the same way with COVID.
And also, I had an Austin police officer running against me and he was saying,
oh, those Democrats want to defend the police.
(37:51):
And so that was a tight race. But again, I won with 1,300 votes.
And then last cycle after redistricting, they took out Lakeway out of my district.
And so I won with 61%, which was a much wider margin of victory.
That's huge. That's huge. Okay. Well, hopefully you'll win again and,
you know, we'll be pulling for you if you, you know, we'd like to maybe have
(38:14):
you back on sometime, maybe after the election.
And that sounds great, you know, based on how things go or whatever.
But anyway, thanks for being here again. Thank you. You have a great day.
Your family, your future, your vote. Conversations from the Hill Country is
a production of the Kamal County Democratic Party Precinct 204.
Precinct Chair and Podcast Director, Teresa Patrick.
(38:38):
Deputy Chair and Podcast Executive Producer, Donna Kelter. Music provided by John Mullane.
Online at j-o-n-m-u-l-l-a-n-e dot bandcamp dot com.
We welcome your comments. I'm Adam West. Thanks for listening.
Music.
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