Legislators who want to appeal to their conservative constituents may want to take a look at a new legislative agenda released by Young Conservatives of Texas.
Young Conservatives of Texas is a nonpartisan organization founded more than 40 years ago to preserve conservative values in the state. In addition to their work on college campuses, the group publishes ratings for the Texas Legislature at the end of each session. The priorities that they have highlighted for this session will be used when ranking legislators after this session.
YCT’s 10-page legislative agenda for the 87th session covers a variety of topics and details both issues the organization says legislators should support and oppose. The list includes an array of priorities covering fiscal and social issues that conservatives are expecting their legislators to support (or oppose) during the session.
In the agenda, one will find a list of YCT’s top priorities, as well as recommendations for fiscal policy, education, immigration, healthcare, and more.
In all areas of policy, the agenda encourages fiscal responsibility, opposing any new taxes or fees. Additionally, the agenda wants to ensure that future spending is not increased by supporting “a constitutional amendment requiring that no governing entity raises spending more than the combined growth of population and rate of inflation.”
In addition to supporting fiscally conservative legislation, YCT also supports socially conservative policies, such as prohibiting sex transition surgeries for minors and declaring pornography a public health crisis.
The long list of priorities covers a number of issues of interest to conservatives in the state of Texas.
Manfred Wendt, the executive director of YCT, highlights the importance of the list, saying, “Each of our legislative priorities helps preserve conservative values because they are rooted in the conservative philosophy. We should reward the voters by passing the conservative policies they voted for. We hope that our state legislators view our legislative priorities as a roadmap to a successful session.”
YCT’s full list of legislative priorities can be found here.
