Elect Yantis Green

We need commissioners who listen, are leaders & team players and can get things done.  Commissioners who put you first.  I’ll be that commissioner for you.  My platform is simple; safe neighborhoods, good roads, low taxes.  For over a year now, we’ve been listening to our friends and neighbors and discussing their ideas about improving County Government.  From taking care of County employees to finding creative ways to fund road & bridge maintenance to keeping the tax rate low, we’ve listened to your ideas and incorporated them into our platform.  I have heard you and I will keep listening to you throughout the campaign and while I serve as your Commissioner.  Tom Green County is a special place.  You’ve chosen to make it your home.  With your help, I’ll work to keep it special and make it even better. 

Running for County Commissioner was not my idea.  About five years ago, Kevin Housley was running for State Representative and asked me to manage his campaign.  Kevin and I were serving on the Christoval ISD school board at the time.  I agreed and he promptly signed both of us up for the Texas Farm Bureau campaign school in Austin.  During that school, Kevin decided I had the right experience and background and suggested I run for County Commissioner.  We discussed the idea with family and friends and the idea stuck.  Sheryl & I waited until the kids were grown and on their own and decided this was the right time.  The rest is history. 

I’m excited about the campaign, the team, and the opportunity to serve the people of Tom Green County again.  Thanks so much for your support and encouragement.  We’ll see you on the campaign trail!

I’m so excited that the first day of filing is finally here!  Seven months ago, I announced my candidacy for County Commissioner, Precinct 4 in the March 2nd, 2010 Republican Party primary in Tom Green County.  On Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 8:00 am, I was the first candidate to file for a place on the primary ballot.  My team is ready.  I’m ready.  We can’t hardly wait to walk our neighborhoods and talk to our friends and neighbors about the issues facing the County in the coming years.  While we’ll be looking for support, we’ll also be asking questions about what our friends and neighbors want from their county commissioners and developing plans to address those issues.  This is going to be fun!

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs visited San Angelo to announce her bid for Re-election.

Susan Combs is a native West Texan from Marathon.  She served in the Texas House of Representatives and also was elected Texas Commissioner of Agriculture before becoming Comptroller.  She has visited San Angelo and Tom Green County many times and is a very Conservative Republican.

Yantis Green is running for Tom Green County Commissioner, Precinct 4 in the March 2, 2010 Republican Primary.

Yantis Green will officially file for Precinct four Tom Green County Commissioner in the March 2, 2010 Republican Party Primary on the first day of filing, December 3, 2009 at 8:00 am. Green will file with Tom Green County Republican Party Chairman Russ Duerstine at GOP headquarters, 1201 S. Abe St. in San Angelo. The filing window for the March primary runs from December 3, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Everyone is invited to attend the filing and news conference. Yantis’ platform is simple; safe neighborhoods, good roads, low taxes. Yantis says, “We need Commissioners who listen, are leaders & team players and can get things done; Commissioners who put you first. I’ll be that Commissioner for you.”

 

Our elected representatives in Austin completed their 140 day – biennial task in June resulting in 11 questions before Texas voters.  You and I will choose  November third which of the proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution become law.  I commend San Angelo Representative Drew Darby and Senator Robert Duncan on their hard work during the session and the pivotal rolls they played in these proposals. 

Here’s how I will vote on the proposed amendments: 

No. 1:  Allows cities and counties to use tax dollars to protect & promote the mission of military installations. 

I will vote to APPROVE this amendment because it is good for Tom Green County, San Angelo, and the US military.

No. 2:  Protects the value a residential homestead instead of allowing your home to be appraised on the “highest and best use.”  This is a private property protection.

I will vote to APPROVE this amendment because it is good for home owners, agriculture, and Tom Green County.

No. 3:  Provides for uniform standards and procedures for appraising property for tax purposes. 

I will vote to APPROVE this amendment because it evens the playing field from West Texas to the I35 Corridor to East Texas.  This measure should provide for equal treatment for all properties in Texas.

No. 4:  Establishes the framework for a national research university fund that promotes the expansion of the number of State funded research universities in Texas to compete nationally and globally. 

I will vote to APPROVE this amendment because it allows Texas Tech and Angelo State University to expand educational and research opportunities, attract great students, and compete nationally at a higher level.

No. 5:  Allows adjoining property tax appraisal districts to consolidate appraisal and review services. 

I will vote to APPROVE this measure because it could save taxpayer dollars and provide better service for rural Texas.

No. 6:  Allows the Veteran’s Land Board to maximize funding for mortgages to Texas veterans. 

I will vote APPROVE this amendment.

No. 7:  Allows Texans serving in the military or the State Guard to serve in a civil office.

I will vote to APPROVE this amendment.

No. 8:  Authorizes state funding for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of veterans hospitals in Texas.

VOTE YES

No. 9:  Protects public access to Texas beaches but puts and unfair burden on landowners whose homes are now located on those beaches.  We can do better. 

I will  vote AGAINST this amendment.

No. 10:  Allows for emergency services districts board members to serve four year terms.  This is a major confirmation of local control in Texas.

I will vote to APPROVE this amendment.

No. 11:  Restricts the legislature’s ability to grant the powers of eminent domain by cities, counties, and other political subdivisions.  

I will vote to APPROVE this proposal.

Like most Americans who have health insurance, I’m very happy with the coverage  my family & I have and I really like the doctors, nurses and staff I deal with, but I’m frustrated at  the overall cost, the bureaucracy and the extensive measures taken to avoid lawsuits.  And I know that those of us who do pay for health insurance pay for the health care of those who don’t, and glady so.

The last thing the healthcare industry needs is an injection of federal oversight.  The solutions include tort reform, private competition, eliminating pre-existing condition restrictions, interstate competition, preventative medicine, personal responsibility and keeping the government as far away from health care as possible.

It sickens me to tune into cable TV and see never-ending ads from ambulance chasing lawyers and law firms eager to sue entities and companies over everything from second hand smoke to asbestos manufacturers to medical device companies, etc.

Like most issues, the leadership in Washington, D.C. has this wrong, but there are a number of private options that work for the uninsured, now.  No American who needs treatment of any kind will be turned away at the emergency room.

This country doesn’t need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to take over the health insurance industry.  Instead, the federal government should get out of our pocketbooks, off our backs, find a way to reign in bogus threats from questionable law firms and reduce the threat of malpractice lawsuits against doctors and let the private sector do what it has always done; make the country better by focusing on what individuals need and want by doing what is right.

9/11/2001 changed my life forever. 

The following is my personal recollection of the events of that day, and the effect it had on my family and my life. 

Like many Americans, I was at work, going about business as usual.  I probably knew about the attacks before most; you see, I was a news director at the time.  I had just finished the morning newscasts for KGKL & KELI radio stations.  We had a small tv in the newsroom.  Like all newsrooms, we had the tv to check on our competition; to make sure we had the news first and to check our facts and see how our peers were reporting on the same stories. 

That day was very different.  We were watching the CBS morning news.  They showed video of the first tower smoldering after the first plane hit.  We watched live as the second plane hit the South Tower.  At that point, we knew we were under attack and at war.  The rest of the day was a blur of tv, phone calls, questions, and few answers.  We heard the reports of the hit on the Pentagon, and the plane down in Virginia.  I remember reading that all planes were grounded as we waited to see what was going to be hit next. 

It took hours for the management team to suspend regular programming and go live with the ABC News national feed.  We were glued to the tv, and numb to what was happening. 

We were worried about our President, George W. Bush of Texas, who just a few short months ago was our governor. Where he was, and was he safe? What about the Congress?  Who did this to us? Who had the nerve to attack the greatest nation on earth, the only remaining superpower on her own soil?  The answer came swiftly, Islamic terrorists from the middle east who had attempted to take down the World Trade Center Towers back in 1993.  Al Qaida, Usama Ben Laden. 

I remember hearing for the first time, on that day, we were all New Yorkers, we were all Americans. 

The terrorists didn’t attack just Republicans or New Yorkers or the U.S. Government or even the U.S. Military; they attacked all of us, Americans and our way of life, our freedoms, our Democracy, our Constitution, our successes, everything good we stood for then and now. 

It was that day and the days that followed that led to my decision to leave the field of journalism.  I could no longer stand on the sidelines and be objective.  I was an American, I was a Texan, I had been attacked and I was mad enough to want to fight.   I thought about joining the military, but I was too old.  I donated blood, I was already involved in politics as an elected official (school board trustee) so I concentrated my efforts there. 

Eventually I left the media so I could concentrate on being involved in local, state and national government.  I worked on political campaigns, I wrote letters to the editor, I managed campaigns, I was elected to the Republican Party of Texas Convention as a delegate, and eventually, to the Republican National Convention as a delegate representing the 11th Congressional District of Texas.  An honor I still enjoy today. 

As 9/11 affected me, it also affected my family.  Our oldest son joined the U.S. Marine Corps as soon as we let him.  He recently re-enlisted after serving two tours in the middle east.  I couldn’t be more proud of his service and the Marine Corps family that adopted us.  My son’s service has brought us into the Marine Corps family and allowed us the priviledge of bonding with a family we never would have know otherwise.     

I know that 9/11 changed the lives of all Americans forever.  I know that many families sacrificed much more than mine.  But on this day, I’m proud to say I am a New Yorker, I am an American, and I am a Texan.  And any attack on any part of my country is an attack on me.  Like all Americans, I will stand united with my fellow citizens against all the powers of tyranny.  We are as determined to defend Freedom, Democracy, and the American way as they are to destroy it. 

May God bless every family who lost loved ones on that day and every family who has lost someone since then in defense of us. 

Let us be ever vigilant; let us resolve to be more involved in our government and the defense of our freedoms and the perpetuation of the American Dream. 

Semper Fi.

Since when did speaking your mind at a town hall meeting become a crime in America?  Oh, yeah, I remember now…it was November 4, 2008!

Virtually every poll taken in the last few weeks shows a majority of Americans oppose the current healthcare reform legislation being pushed hard in Congress by the White House and the Democrat Party.  Most Americans like the health care they receive now and understand the U.S. has the best health care system in the world hands down.  President Obama’s administration is using fear and overstated figures about how many people are uninsured to force fundamental change to one of the cornerstones of the economy.  And now that details of the government run plan have doomed the legislation in D.C., the President and Democrat Congressmen are crying fowl when We the People stand up in public and say no to this terrible plan.

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The abrupt resignation of San Angelo’s former Mayor, back in May, has created some headaches for San Angelo residents, city council members, and especially the Tom Green County Elections Administrator and her staff. The San Angelo City budget for this year did not include funding for a Mayoral election this November which has forced the City and the Elections Office to scramble to find ways to reduce the cost of the election.

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I was there when Sarah Palin was introduced to the world at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota last September. I remember telling reporters leading up to the convention that Governor Palin, as John McCain’s choice for Vice President, was just what the party needed; she was an exciting, energetic conservative, pro-life, pro-family, pro-military governor from a western state. The response from grassroots Republicans was phenomenal; most Republicans loved her as the VP choice.

Since the election, Gov. Palin and her family have been the focus of attacks from the media, late night talk show hosts, and left leaning liberals from across the country.

I don’t know why she resigned; but I believe she still has a major part to play in GOP politics.

It seems to me that Palin is a much better person than South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford or any of the other high profile Republicans who have damaged the party through their own weaknesses.

Either way, it is time for grass roots Conservatives to decide who they want to lead the GOP through the 2010 election cycle and beyond. As a party, we must find a clear leader, a clear message, and a clear strategy to take back Austin and Washington in 2010 and again in 2012.