Rep. Tan Parker wears many hats: tax relief, economic development, job creation, technology and foster children.
State Representative Tan Parker chuckles as he recounts the end of a recent week. After a long Thursday at the capitol engaged in floor debate on legislation and presenting various bills before house committees, Parker managed to tell his daughters good night over the phone before grabbing a few hours of sleep himself. Then he was up and back at it again the next Friday morning.
Except that Friday the Texas House was taking up the $178 billion dollar state budget and the some 400 floor amendments that accompanied it. 19 hours later Parker walked out of the capitol at 4 a.m. Saturday morning after voting for a comprehensive state budget which was $4 billion dollars lighter than the Senate version, thus reducing general revenue spending by 2.5 percent. Was it over from there?
“Of course not,” Parker jokes. “Leaving the capitol early Saturday morning, I barely had time to grab a shower, put on a fresh suit and catch the first flight back for a business meeting.”
After that, Parker smiles as he recounts his Saturday: his youngest daughter’s soccer game, dinner with his whole family and then that night’s slumber party hosted for friends of his two daughters. Then his smile grows a little bigger as he explains that he was finally able to catch some solid sleep around 11 p.m. or so that Saturday night.
It sounds overwhelming, but as Flower Mound’s first resident member of the Texas House explains, it’s all in a day’s work.
“At times it can be challenging,” Parker admits. “The reality is that during session, I am constantly in Austin conducting state business while staying close to my family and constituents back in Denton County, and also trying to support my family. It keeps me moving, but this is an incredible honor and I truly feel blessed to have the opportunity to serve.”
When asked how he balances it all, Parker elaborates. “Every morning I’m up early making business calls before arriving at the Capitol. Then for the next ten to twelve hours, I am focused on the people’s business and serving my constituents. After my day at the Capitol is concluded, I might try to make a few more business calls or, if it’s feasible, fly back home to spend some time with my family before returning to Austin early the next morning.”
It’s a lot of hard work, but work that has paid off for Parker, who is serving his second term in the State House. During the 2007 session, Parker earned accolades from such conservative groups as the Heritage Alliance, Young Conservatives of Texas, Eagle Forum, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and the Texas Association of Business. However, as Parker is quick to point out, that was then. Today, he is focused on the now.
“Every session is a new fight,” Parker adds. “We only have 140 days every other year to get the job done. Needless to say there is no time to sit around and discuss past accomplishments.”
Parker speaks passionately about the challenges he sees before Texas today, and his own legislative initiatives. In the 37-year-old lawmaker’s own words, focusing on job growth and economic development to help take us past this recent downturn is job number one.
“Forbes magazine recently came out with their top five cities for employment opportunities, and they were all in Texas,” Parker adds. “Texas is weathering this national downturn quite well, but the truth is that there are still many hard-working Texans trying to find good jobs to support their families, and I want to be a part of developing new job opportunities for them.”
Parker is using his Vice-Chairmanship of the House Technology, Economic Development and Workforce committee to do just that, passing a Manufacturing Workforce Development and Job Creation Incentive bill through his committee. If successfully passed into law, House Bill 4525 will offer tax rebates to new, large-scale manufacturing projects in Texas, creating new employment opportunities for job-seeking Texans. This committee assignment utilizes Parker’s considerable knowledge in the technology area: He is currently an Executive Vice President with Trivac Ltd., the nation’s premier learning management solutions firm.
“Texas lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs from 2001 to 2007,” Parker says in explaining his bill. “And when you also consider that for every manufacturing job we create, four more jobs are created elsewhere, you see how important breathing new life into our manufacturing base is to our overall state’s economy.”
His plan for economic prosperity doesn’t stop there. Parker goes on to explain how important lowering taxes is to a strong economy, offering as an example California, which has the nation’s highest state income tax and subsequently the nation’s highest budget deficit as well. Included in Parker’s tax reform plan are measures to: dedicate portions of budget surpluses directly to property tax relief; appraisal reform that provides relief to property owners; raising the small business exemption to $1.5 million; and removing monetary penalties property owners face when they elect to develop land previously designated for agricultural use.
With the bell calling lawmakers to the House Floor ringing, Parker explained what else he wanted to discuss from his bill package. “Two words,” he says, “foster children.”
Parker also is pushing House Bill 2225, which, for the first time in Texas history, creates an external appointed committee to formally study and make recommendations on how to expedite Texas’ adoption process and get more children into permanent homes with loving families.
“The challenges that children who “age out” of the state’s care face are enormous. The majority are living in poverty within four years, 40 percent never graduate from high school and they make up 88% of incarcerated youths and young adults. Our adoption process in Texas needs an overhaul,” Parker goes on to explain, “but instead of blindly throwing solutions up against the wall and seeing which ones stick, we need to first take a step back and study the process holistically, identifying all opportunities for improvement.”
As he concludes, the bell rings again and it’s time for Parker to head to the House Floor. As much as he has on his legislative plate between now and when the session adjourns on June 1st, he adds in a down-to-business tone, “Oh, that’s not all of it. Don’t forget the weekend soccer games and the slumber parties. Those are important to me as well.”
It will take a lot of effort to accomplish all this in the next six weeks, but as Parker has exhibited in his personal, professional and public life, he’s no stranger to putting in the work and getting the results.
