The featured speaker at the September luncheon of the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce was Texas State Representative David Spiller.  Spiller, an attorney from Jacksboro, represents District 68 in the Texas House of Representatives.  He won the Republican primary election in March, and has no opponent in the upcoming general election in November, so he will represent District 68 again in 2023-24.  Because of redistricting, Brown County will move into District 68 in January 2023.

Spiller described himself as a “rural conservative,” whose primary concerns are border security, property and water rights, the Second Amendment (right to bear arms), the right to life, law enforcement, and rural schools and hospitals.  He said the Young Conservatives of Texas organization gave him a “Top 10%” rating among Texas conservatives.

Representative Spiller spoke first about water.  He said that because of the fast-growing population in Texas, some projections show a shortage of water by the year 2060.  In Texas landowners also own the rights to the groundwater under their land, unless the land is within ground water conservation district.  But surface water is owned and controlled by the State of Texas and the Texas Council on Environmental Quality.  State and Federal regulations are making it more difficult to build new lakes and reservoirs, a situation he is working to correct.  He commented:  “We have the best business-friendly environment in the country.  But that presents challenges, and one of the challenges is sufficient water.  Our state continues to grow, at about 1000 persons per day.  Those folks are coming not only to urban areas, they are now coming out to more rural areas, much like Brown County, and the counties in District 68.  We have to plan accordingly, not just for infrastructure, but also we have to have water.  Ground water we have, but mainly we need more surface water.  We need to do a better job, not just from the Federal level (which needs to vastly revamp their process to allow us to build more lakes and reservoirs), but there are some things we can do in Austin to help facilitate that and trim down that process.”

Spiller also spoke about border security.  He has introduced a bill in the Texas Legislature called the “Border 1 Bill” that would increase penalties for certain crimes committed by illegal immigrants.  “It is a prosecution related bill.  Basically it gives prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement many more tools than they currently have.  We’ve got to do everything we can to help secure the border.  This bill says for a number of offenses, not just criminal trespass, that if you, in the course of committing that crime, have bypassed a U.S. Port of Entry or checkpoint, then you can be prosecuted as a 3rd degree felony.  That allows prosecutors more time to get ready.  Because now with only criminal trespass, they have only fifteen days.  This bill would allow them ninety days to prepare for trial.  Also the bill says if convicted, it makes it an automatic deportable offense.  So those folks would be deported and would be prohibited from coming back into our country.”

In his remarks Spiller also spoke about property taxes and election integrity.  You may write Representative Spiller at P.O. Box 2910, Austin, Texas, 78768-2910; call his office at 512-463-0526; or email him at [email protected].