By ELSA MALAKOFF MAXEY
A special law enforcement appreciation luncheon at the Sugar Creek Country Club on May 25, with District 18 Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst as guest speaker turned out to be a treat for members and guests of the Sugar Land Rotary Club and the Exchange Club of Fort Bend (ECFB).
The joint meeting turnout was an impressive representation of the community with ECFB’s Dr. Suleman Lalani opening the event about paying tribute to the community’s essential public safety sector.
Darla Alston, Sugar Land Rotary Club President, wrapped up the celebratory event for those answering a call to public service that is demanding with the meaningful and apropos Four Way Test, and the Covenant of Service, inspiring communities to become better places to live, was presented by Exchange Club District President Doug Earle.
Kolkhorst highlighted the work of the 87th legislative session plus the three special legislative sessions held during the term. But not before referring to the mass shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde.
“Crime prevention, law enforcement, and appreciation,” the title of the program, “says a lot,” said Kolkhorst. “I come to you today with a heavy heart,” and she asked those in attendance to pray for the South Texas community of Uvalde, “we grieve for Uvalde.
“Take a moment to pause and ask why does our society have so much evil among us,” she inquired, also stating that she grew up in a time when law enforcement was not part of a school’s operation, and when guns were just as easy to get back then.
“Ask the question, why is our society becoming more evil and dark.” Kolkhorst commended organizations like Rotary, the Exchange Club and many nonprofits touching lives, volunteering, raising money for great causes, “that is part of what we have to do.” Family discussions, she said, are important. “We have to have a family, we have to have someone who loves you, who tells you when you’re right and corrects you when you’re wrong.”
In recognition of “our finest,” Kolkhorst said Fort Bend County stands out as a leader in Texas “and it’s a big county now.” She noted that the last session was important for law enforcement as there were 10 major bills passed, including one having to do with bail reform out of concern for criminals getting out on personal recognizance bonds. Magistrates are now given tools to help them set bail, and there will be a way to follow judges to see what kind of bail they are setting. That was Senate Bill 6.
And Senate Bill 23, not in response to Fort Bend, but in relation to Travis County and cities across the nation wanting police defunding, requires that such action by a city or county seek voter approval to reduce law enforcement. This was accomplished as a bipartisan effort, said Kolkhorst.
HB 133 that both Texas House Representative Jacey Jetton and Senator Kolkhort sponsored with other legislators resulted in Caleb Rule’s Law affecting children of law enforcement and public safety service personnel killed in the line of duty. The family survivors under 25 will receive free college tuition. Another measure was for DPS officers, whose patrol cars will be equipped with bullet resistant windshields to help protect their lives.
Then Kolkhorst spoke about property taxes. They will now have rates that are compressed. That means a city in Texas cannot charge a property owner more than 3.5 percent more than the previous year. Before Senate Bill 2, that number was 8 percent. As for school districts, they can only increase the tax amount 2.5 percent more than the previous year. This will not mean schools get less money, but less will be taken from the homeowner, said Kolkhorst. “Texas will be putting more of its general funds towards that,” she said.
Kolkhorst said she will have two major focuses next session. One is to drive down property taxes. Voters approved a homestead exemption measure increasing the amount from $25,000 to $40,000. “We still have to do better,” she said. For the over 65 years of age exemption, compression will also impact tax amounts.
“The American dream is to own your part of the world and it makes the United States of America and Texas different than the rest of the world. We can’t tax you out of your home,” said Kolkkorst.
She addressed the electrical power grid. “Our number two goal is to increase the base load with thermal production.” She said that means natural gas. Kolkhorst conceded that for those that love green and solar energy, “I’m with you, but when the wind does not blow and sun does not shine,” that’s quite another story. Batteries made from lithium and nickel elements come from China and Russia and are needed for green powered energy.
“Texas is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. They have great crude, we have great natural gas and the technology to increase the base load.” Kolkhorst said there were over 24 bills to address the electrical grid this past session.
She is the Chair of Health and Human Services Committee and said that during the peak of the Covid pandemic, she received consistent calls from caregivers not being able to see their loved ones in nursing homes as they were locked up in keeping with state and federal government directives. She said, “The elderly were dying, not of Covid, but loneliness, they died alone. We are a better society than that.” Kolkhorst, one of the bill’s authors to correct the elderly’s resultant isolation, said that essential caregivers will now have access to long term facilities and the elderly will not go more than 10 days without seeing a loved one. The attention will be aimed at hospitals next.
Border security, a big problem to take nearly $4 billion to secure the border is what Texas has committed to impact what Kolkhorst said is “human trafficking and drug trafficking due to the open border. It’s a modern day version of slavery that we have to address. The nation and current administration is not doing it.” She shared May 11th statistics relating to the open border from the testimony of a Texas DPS Director…all having occurred in her senate district:
In Southwest Fort Bend County, a Honduran was shot 9 times by Gulf Coast cartel operatives for losing two loads of migrants being trafficked.
On May 6, a broken down truck, 90 miles outside of Houston on U.S. 59 in Jackson County, was reported to law enforcement and 70 to 100 immigrants were found in a trailer; 32 were apprehended, many fled towards fields and thermal scopes could not help locate them as they stopped working because of the heat. Kolkhorst said some may have died and could be discovered when the field is harvested. “That is inhumane, they were in the back of a truck with no water. We have to be better.”
On March 28, the Wharton County Sheriff’s Office stopped a vehicle with 15 immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. Fourteen of them were captured.
April 14th stats from DPS indicate that 1,139 pounds of the synthetic opioid drug, fentanyl, were seized; the amount seized was enough to kill 258, 290,372 people. In America there are just over 300 million people. “Just the fentanyl that we seized crossing the southern border in Texas alone was enough to kill 258.2 million people.”
That part is going to take an all out effort to slow that down,” said Kolkhorst.
“Can you image what is happening further south?”
On the legislative scene, school districts in Texas, like Fort Bend ISD with enrollment declines because of the Covid pandemic, will be provided with a “hold harmless” outcome which means that funding for them will not be decreased for the lower enrollment.
As for higher education, the University of Houston at Sugar Land benefitted with the shifting of dollars in its direction in the amount of $52.4 million influenced by Kolkhorst, whose district now includes Sugar Land. And Texas State Technical College in Rosenberg will be getting $41.8 million for campus expansion. She said Texas State Technical College is about skills that will bring back jobs to America.
With redistricting, Kolkhorst said, “I got more of Sugar Land, was sad to lose Katy, Fulshear, Needville, and Wharton County, and Jackson and Colorado Counties.” She said Jackson and Colorado counties went to Senator Joan Huffman.
Ibrahim Khawaja, First Assistant DA, representing Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton, presided over the presentation of the deserving awards at the appreciation luncheon.
“We are here for crime prevention and law enforcement,” he said noting that at Fort Bend’s DA Office, “we champion law enforcement,” and he also added, “we do not believe in defunding police, we believe in properly funding police.”
2022 Program Honorees:
Krystan Rivera, Rosenberg, PD – Public Safety Specialist (TCO)
Detective Charles Willeby – Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office
Officer Daniel Barbarick & Officer Demarcus Mitchell – Sugar Land Police Department
Deputy Timothy Mordecai – Harris County Sheriff’s Office
Officer Amber Khan – Houston Police Department
Sgt. Aaron Kaspar – Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office
Detective Blair Cerny – Memorial Villages PD
Corporal Sidney – Slawson – Angleton Police Department
Ashley Harkness & Craig Priesmeyer – Fort Bend County DA’s Office
Deputy Richard Riden – Brazoria County Pct 1