Gov. Rick Perry this morning signed HB4114, a bill eight years in the making that will allow a Tejano monument on the South grounds of the Texas Capitol.
"It's been a long time coming. What? Five hundred years?" he said in a short speech before signing the bill.
In 2001, the Legislature passed a resolution to establish the monument, and in 2007, lawmakers approved $1.086 million to complete the project. The non-profit Tejano Monument Corp., also raised about $600,000 in private donations.
Construction of the monument will begin after the State Preservation Board approves a site for it on the Capitol grounds.
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, one of the bill's sponsors, said the historic Capitol grounds are the appropriate place to honor the historic role of Tejanos.
"It's not just Tejanos, it's American history," he said.
Perry signs the Tejano monument bill, as supporters and the bill's sponsors, state Rep. Martinez Fischer and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, look on.
A small version of the Tejano monument designed by artist Armando Hinojosa.
"The budget passed on a 31-0 vote with no debate, but state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, insisted later that he had voted against the bill.
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The budget would allocate about $65 million to fund startup operations and new clinical faculty at Texas Tech's Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso."
So Shapleigh would have voted against a budget that provides for our medical school funding?
Posted by: Joe | May 29, 2009 at 02:30 PM