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Texas This Week: Scott Milder, Candidate for Texas Lt. Governor

Businessman Scott Milder is challenging Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in the Republican Primary Election.

AUSTIN — Scott Milder, a Republican businessman and co-founder of the non-profit Friends of Texas Public Schools, wants to be the next Lieutenant Governor of Texas. He's challenging Lt. Governor Dan Patrick in the Republican primary.

Milder sat down with Ashley Goudeau to discuss his campaign.

Question: Tell our viewers a little bit about yourself and why you're running for Lieutenant Governor.

Milder: "Well my name's Scott Milder, I'm running for Texas Lieutenant Governor on the Republican primary ballot. Grew up here in Austin, Texas. Graduated from what was Johnston High School at the time. Grew up just up the street here. Went to college at the University of North Texas and, gosh, there's just so much. I got a degree in journalism and public relations and then I went into, I was in the media relations office for two different school districts and I've been working for a private sector architectural firm for the last 20 years."

Q: Why do you want to be the next Lieutenant Governor?

Milder: "I have to admit that I actually never had aspirations to be Lieutenant Governor, but over the course of the 2017 legislative season, I just saw a lot of frustration with the direction that our current leadership was taking our state. And that the political agenda was out of sync with Texas values and the real priorities of the State of Texas. And I really felt like Texans wanted a choice on the ballot. I've sensed a lot of frustration all over the state, I've talked to a lot of people in my travels and many, many people had encouraged me to throw my name in the hat."

Q: You do have some political experience, having served on the City Council for the City of Rockwall. Talk to us about why you felt this was the next logical jump for you. Because you're not currently on the council, so to go from council to Lieutenant Governor.

Milder: "Yes, well I didn't. I'm not naive. I know it does not seem like a logical jump from City Council to Lieutenant Governor but what logical step is there? Our current Lieutenant Governor jumped right in from a radio show to state Senate just like that. He didn't have any political experience whatsoever.

And the fact of the matter is I've spent a career of more than 20 years working with diverse groups of people, with diverse opinions and bringing them together to find common ground on very complex issues, and so I really feel that experience is something I can bring to Austin and bring to Texas that frankly has been missing here of late in our legislature. There just has not been an appetite to find common ground."

Q: You and your wife also formed an educational organization. Tell our viewers a little bit about that.

Milder: "Yeah, my wife's a high school teacher and she expressed frustration over the years early in our marriage about the negative attention our public schools got, that there was a lot of disrespect and mean-spirited criticism of our public schools when the reality is there's great things happening in our public schools everyday. We have wonderful people working in our public schools and for every one negative story we hear about, there's thousands and thousands of things in our public schools that just quietly work. And we wanted to start an organization that shed light on all the things that are right with our public schools. And so we started an organization called Friends of Texas Public Schools and the mission is to restore pride and optimism and respect for the public schools of Texas and for those who dedicate their lives to serving our students."

Q: Facing off against Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is not an easy feat. He has a strong following. He also has a large war chest. What makes you feel like you can defeat him in this primary?

Milder: "Well, first of all I'm running a very non-traditional, unconventional campaign because I don't think we can beat Dan Patrick at his own game, so we have to do something very different and we are. He has a lot more money than I do, you can see that. He's got commercials running all over television. I'm not doing that. I'm running a very different campaign and it's very grassroots. But there are many, many Texans all across the state, I sense it, I hear it, I feel it, that there's this ground swell of anti-Patrick sentiment moving about Texas. And for the rational Texans out there, I call myself a rational republican. I think they're frustrated with the direction our Lieutenant Governor's been taking Texas."

Q: What do you think the big differences between you and Patrick are?

Milder: "Wow, there are so many differences. We agree on a lot of the fundamental issues that are near and dear to the Republican party and to the conservative movement. I am pro-life. I carry, I have a CHL, I carry, you know I have guns they're locked up in the house. I believe in gun rights so we agree on some of those fundamental issues but he's taken the intent of the Republican Party, conservative movement to an extreme where it's not even conservative anymore. Many of the things that he's in favor of is counter to the conservative movement. For example, he has demonstrated a strong liking for state control over local control. And that's one of, I mean, that's one of the great tenants of the Republican Party is limited government and allow the locally elected leaders to make as many decisions as possible that are in the best interest of their local communities."

Q: One of the other big things he came out in favor of was the bathroom bill. Where do you stand on that issue?

Milder: "Well I'm against the bathroom bill. It's just an unnecessary path and I think it's emotionally charged and he's wired, he's wired that way to draw emotion out of people. The fact is that you talk to the police chiefs around Texas, you look at the statistics and there's not a problem. There is no problem with transgender use of public restrooms. And so really this is a solution without a problem. It's a politicized issue and it's one that he's using to win political points and it's disappointing to see our Lieutenant Governor go down that path when there's so many more pressing issues that the state ought to be addressing."

Q: When you go out and you talk to people and you ask them what they want to see changed, what they want the legislature to do a lot of them say you've got to do something about property taxes. You've got to address this. What are your thoughts and ideas on how we give homeowners a break?

Milder: "Well I think it's much more complicated than a simple political solution saying 'Hey, let's just squeeze the local's ability to raise revenue.' That's not a conservative republican principal at all. We need to let local officials make that determination on their own. When I was on City Council in Rockwall, we were very conscious about decisions that did not increase local taxes. And, because that's what our voters elected us to do."

"Addressing property taxes is probably the most important thing for us to do right now. People are getting taxed out of their homes. Our tax bills are going up every year but unfortunately it's been the making of our Lieutenant Governor largely and his leadership that has caused some of that because you cannot separate funding for public schools from the property tax crisis. One of the primary reasons we have property tax trouble is because our pubic schools have not been funded adequately by the state of Texas. With each passing year, the state pulls back on how much percentage it provides for public education, and then that leaves the local tax payers to supplement the state's share of public school funding. And so if the state would actually fund public schools appropriately, that gives local leaders the wiggle room and the ability to adjust its taxes accordingly to help mitigate some of those ebbs and flows and, it's all rising it seems lately, but it allows local leaders to make adjustments accordingly."

Q: Where would you like to see money taken from to put into public schools? How do we get more money for that funding?

Milder: "That's a great question. The money is there. I'm not advocating for any tax increases but the money is there. We have a system in Texas where public school tax collections are a huge revenue stream for the State of Texas. To the tune of $2.8 billion this year, they've collected from our public schools and then allocated into the General Fund and out of the General Fund into other programs that aren't education related. So I would say let's start there. Lets keep that $2.8 billion in public education. Whatever those other programs are can have the funding problem."

Q: Are you talking about recapture?

Milder: "Yes."

KVUE News verified Milder's claim with the Legislative Budget Board. According to the communications officer, Section 41.094 of the Education Code specifies recapture revenue can only be used for school funding, written in the law as "foundation school program purposes."

Milder: "Another thing I want to do is, I want to look at all of our unfunded state mandates that have been passed, lets say over the last 30 years. There's a lot of them. Thousands of unfunded mandates that strap our local school leaders and they're forced to comply and that costs money to comply with these mandates. And so let's look at them, review them and decide, decide which ones have no relevance to the classroom or relevance to learning and repeal them and create a whole lot of wiggle room in the existing funding mechanism. So that's just a couple of places to start."

Q: During this past legislative session we saw things get very contentious. Not only between the parties but even within the Republican Party. What are you going to do to work together?

Milder: "Well first of all, there has to be an appetite to work together in the Lieutenant Governor's office and the Lieutenant Governor has demonstrated that his style is 'my way or the highway.' He doesn't have any interest in compromise. He had some, he had a great chance to come to a compromise with the House on his property tax reform recommendation. And the House said, 'You know, we're not willing to go there, but we'll go here,' and then he said, 'No, we're not dong that. You do what I want to do or we do nothing at all.' And that's all on the Lieutenant Governor. And so, first and foremost, there has to be an appetite within both House and Senate to work together and I really believe strongly in collaboration, working with everybody, trying to find good thoughtful solutions, compromise. I think Texas, we've got all the solutions ready to go, we've got very smart people, we just have to remove the politics and and debate with civility and respect for each other. And we can disagree all day long but there's no reason to get hostile and demonize each other."

Q: Give our viewers some final thoughts on why they should vote for you during this primary.

Milder: "Well like I said, I'm a rational, regular Texan. I work everyday. I ironed my shirt this morning, so I'm relatable and I have a genuine desire to serve all Texans. I have no desire to serve special interests, to serve a handful of billionaires and millionaires who are going to want to buy my time and my agenda. That's not, that's not in it for me and, when I get elected, I'm going to be there to do the job. I'm not going to be there to keep the job like so many politicians. That's not what it's about. It's about doing right by Texas. It's about doing right by Texas public schools. It's about doing right by Texas communities, large and small, urban, suburban and rural. We can't just focus on where the most votes are. Texas is a great state and what makes it great is every community is a cog in the great system of Texas. And if we ignore one of those communities and one of those cogs stops, guess what happens? The rest of the state starts, the state just stops working. Everybody plays an essential role in this state and so we have to honor that and just restore that civility to governance and the pride that we have as a state needs to be reflected within our leadership, particularly in our Lieutenant Governor's office."

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