House District 23 candidates Faircloth, Criss face off at forum

GALVESTON — Susan Criss and Wayne Faircloth agree on at least two things: they think the Ike Dike is a good idea, and school finance is going to take up much of the 184th Legislature’s time next year.

From there, the two candidates for Texas House District 23 fall pretty clearly on either sides of their political lines.

Criss and Faircloth participated in a candidates forum Monday afternoon at Galveston College. The event was sponsored by The Daily News, the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and the Texas City/La Marque Chamber of Commerce.

Late into the hourlong forum, the candidates were asked whether there were any political issues that they would support each other or say they would agree with.

Faircloth, a Republican insurance agent, said that while he and Criss may be split on how to achieve it, both believed that the legislature will have to come up with adjustments to the state’s formula for public school financing.

“I think there are aspects of the policy that we agree on,” Faircloth said. “Our ideology on how that gets funded may differ, but certainly, education and supporting the classroom teachers is number 1, it is the main thing.

“I’ll tell you this, I don’t have any vacation plans for next summer.”

A Texas district court judge ruled last month that the state’s school finance system is unconstitutional, because of inadequate funding and the way it distributes money to school districts. It’s believed that the creation of a new or revised school funding formula will be a focus of the 184th Texas Legislature.

How far those changes will go remains to be seen.

Earlier in the forum, Criss, a Democratic attorney who has previously served as a district court judge, said that she believed the state should restore all of the reductions in education funding made by the legislature in 2011.

“We have an obligation to fully restore all of the budget cuts made to education and provide for future growth we know is coming to our state,” Criss said.

Faircloth was less specific about his intentions, saying the state should convene groups of experts to determine a solution.

“We’re not subject-matter experts,” he said. “We need to (the people who are experts) the tools that they need to get this done.”

Other than that, was there anything else the two agreed with?

“We support the Ike Dike,” Criss said in a short response.

The Ike Dike, the local nickname for a proposed coastal levee and barrier system, got token support from both candidates, who said coastal support was important, but didn’t offer any specifics about how the state could support funding such a project — which is estimated to cost billions and require federal assistance if it is ever built.

Before the questions about their similarities, the two made it clear there were stark contrasts on issues of both local interest and ones of greater state and national implications.

Criss told the crowd of more than 200 people she supported gay marriage rights, thought marijuana should be treated more like alcohol and that national guard troops need not be sent to the Texas border to police illegal immigrants.

Faircloth said that he did not support the increase of Medicaid in Texas and notably declined to support state Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, as the next speaker of the Texas House.

The most striking disagreements between the two came during discussion of the future of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Agency, the state-run insurer of last resort for property owners in coastal counties.

Faircloth advocated for the state to remove itself from the windstorm issue, saying that doing so would foster a more “competitive marketplace.”

“We shouldn’t be placed in a vacuum and be asked to shoulder the burden of everything that is here,” Faircloth said. “The state doesn’t need to be in the insurance business.”

Criss disagreed, saying that abolishing TWIA would leave coastal residents to the whims, and the high costs, of private insurance companies.

“What you’re saying that you want to put insurance companies on the honor system,” Criss said.

Election Day is Nov. 4.