Why should voters choose you in 2018?
When I first took office, the TDA was not fulfilling its proper role. Today it is. Fuel pump inspections were being done only once every eight years. Today, we inspect every pump at least once every two years. We have added a credit card skimmer inspection program, and we reduced the number of fuel inspectors by sixteen. The Organic Certification Program had a two and half year waiting list. That was fixed in ninety days and today there is no waiting list. I repealed every mandate that previous Commissioners had placed on the Texas School Nutrition Program and returned control back to local schools. Today, we are making school lunches great again. I discovered that many Texas businesses were unregistered and operating illegally. As a result, I initiated “Operation Maverick” which rounded-up illegal operators and registered over 7,000 illegal scales in the state. I canceled our logistics contract used to schedule our inspectors saving taxpayers $300,000. I reorganized our inspection program so that today our inspectors drive 750,000 fewer miles per year while, at the same time, they are performing 40 to 60% more inspections each day. Prior to my taking office, Texas taxpayers were subsidizing 50% of the registration costs for farmers and businesses. I took the hard stance of raising fees forcing farmers and business to pay their own way. In doing so, we eliminated taxpayer subsidies completely and, as a result, the TDA is now a 100% cost recovery agency and pays its own way with no taxpayer funded appropriation.