Texarkana Chamber Legislative Breakfast

I'm on my way to our annual legislative update with the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, where my Texas-side counterpart and I will discuss some of the latest changes in law (many of which are taking effect today for us). This is normally a time when we'll talk about how we're trying to "erase" State Line Avenue in order to make living in a border city easier to do. Every large change that takes place in Austin or Little Rock can affect residents on both sides of the state line. Even the small citations can affect some folks (see old political cartoon pictured right).

Today, though, the agenda includes several issues being debated on the federal level: health care, EFCA, I-49, and cap and trade. I'll post an update after the breakfast.

Update: 9:50 a.m.: We had a good discussion this morning on an array of issues, including stimulus spending in both states, the budget surplus of both states, and a few federal issues. This might be the only time I've made a speech in the last three months that didn't draw a question on the lottery. Much of the audience was made up of Texans, so I suppose it's possible that they've already debated salaries, multi-state games, etc, and just aren't interested.