Springer hosts town hall

State Representative Drew Springer visited Jacksboro for a town hall last week.
Springer held the meeting at 8 a.m. in the hospital board room with seven citizens in attendance and spoke on recent legislation affecting rural residents.
He said the 85th Legislature increased funding for rural hospitals.
He said the legislators funded $250 million for county roads as much of the severance tax is driven by oil and gas. Springer believes Jack County will see about $500,000 of that.
Retired teachers will not see an increase in their health care premiums and will receive a “13th check” amounting to about a $2,000 bonus.
He pointed out the tax reform generating an automatic rollback election for a tax increase exceeding 3.5 percent will not affect Jack County as its population is below 30,000.
Springer said all schools will benefit from an additional $11 billion in funding for education.
“If you have more economically challenged students, you’ll see more money,” he said. “More ESL (English as a second language), more money and we put more in transportation.”
Coming up, Springer said look for a constitutional amendment on the November ballot regarding greater requirements of legislative and voter percentages to institute a state income tax.
Springer presented a bill requiring air ambulance service subscriptions to be reciprocal. The bill was vetoed, but Springer said he believes air ambulance service billing may fall under the law that was passed during the session protecting patients from surprise medical bills.
“It’s not a free market when you don’t get to decide who you hire,” Springer said.