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Opportunity.

At the core of the Texas Democratic Party is the belief that all people have the fundamental right to a fair and equal chance of living the American Dream. All Texans who work hard and play by the rules deserve the opportunity to reach their God-given potential.

Responsibility.

Opportunity is not free. Responsibility and accountability are expected and demanded from every citizen. Personal responsibility as well as corporate and governmental responsibility are necessary to ensure that the American Dream is real for all people. As the Party of fiscal responsibility, Texas Democrats believe in smaller, more efficient government that provides outstanding services to Texas families.

Family and Community.

We champion the achievements of individuals. We also believe that our communities, state and nation are stronger when we work together to meet common challenges. Strong communities are bound by the tradition of neighbor helping neighbor. The family is the bedrock of community and we support policies that strengthen and value Texas families.

Freedom and Fairness.

We respect the dignity of individuals and the right of all Texans to exercise control over their own lives. All Texans should be able to rise as high as they can on their own merits without being held back by stereotypes. The most humble and the most privileged citizen should have an equal voice in public affairs and public policy.

"Strong Families for the 21st Century."

In 1998, Texas Democrats are working to build a future that is better than anything we have known in the past. Our vision is clear. We want a Texas where all people have the chance to live out their dreams and achieve their God-given potential.

Texas Democrats are offering new ideas based on our most enduring and sacred American values -- opportunity, responsibility, family and community, freedom and fairness. These values guide our efforts to help every Texas family succeed in the 21st century.

Our core Democratic values shape policy that:

educates and protects our children;

protects families from gangs, drugs and crime;

honors work and helps workers succeed in a thriving economy;

demands personal responsibility;

promotes healthy families;

protects our environment and preserves our natural resources;

promotes the success of Texas businesses; supports limited government that is effective and efficient; and

respects the rights of individuals and demands fairness for all citizens.

In 1998, Texas Democrats are putting these mainstream values into action. Our new Agenda to Strengthen Texas Families calls for a quality public education for every child, a Patient's Bill of Rights to give all Texans the right to choose their own doctor and a ban on sales taxes on food and medicine to guarantee that Texans do not pay higher taxes on the necessities of life.

Texas Democrats believe that issues matter because public policy affects our daily lives. Where others favor partisan politics and special interests that help only a few Texans, Texas Democrats are working to give all families the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century. Where others seek to have government impose their version of "family values" on everyone, we offer common sense policies that value all our families.

Texas Democrats respect each person's viewpoint and recognize that we can disagree yet continue to work for a positive future that benefits us all. United by a sense of purpose and guided by our core values, we are carrying out our mission to win in 1998 and beyond by working to elect public servants who will build a better state and nation for our families and children for generations to come.

Issue Papers

In addition to the values and principles established here, these issue papers describe the commitments of the Party adopted by its convention to put our principles into practice.

EDUCATION

The Democratic Party of Texas believes public education is the key to economic opportunity and effective participation in our democracy. We believe that family, school, and community share responsibility for providing every child with a quality public education in a safe, secure school.

Texas Democrats have led the fight to improve public education while others have sought to weaken or destroy it. Through reforms devised and passed by Democrats over Republican opposition, we have:

Reduced class sizes in the crucial early grades;

Curbed campus violence and disruption;

Raised student performance;

Lowered dropout rates;

Provided parents and communities much more information and input into the operation of our schools;

Established kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs; and

Developed a strong state accountability system.

We find no cause for complacency in our accomplishments. Much remains to be done: Our teachers need more help combating violence and disruption in our schools. Too many students are automatically promoted from one grade to the next. Too many students are taught in overcrowded classrooms, because waivers are routinely granted allowing exemptions from the 22-to-1 student-teacher ratio. Too many students are taught by teachers required to teach subjects in which they are not certified, because of shortages of specialists in everything from early childhood education to English, math, science, reading, and bilingual and special education. Too many teachers are abandoning the profession because teacher pay ranks 38th in the nation, well below the national average, and local school districts cannot compete with private industry to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Additionally, we have a huge backlog of unmet needs for new and renovated classrooms, forcing too many students into temporary buildings and other inadequate facilities.

A Special Commitment: Safe Schools for Every Child

Texas Democrats do not tolerate violence and serious disruption in our schools. Protecting people on school property and at school functions from acts of violence is a fundamental responsibility of school officials. We support swift and sure enforcement of safe-schools laws and appropriate legal penalties for violence and terroristic threats against teachers, school employees, and students. School campuses and functions must be weapon- and drug-free zones. We must back up our teachers when they exercise their right to take a disruptive student out of the classroom;

We call for additional counselors to help students resolve conflicts before the conflicts become crises; we believe counselors' time should be spent helping kids; and

Our children have a right to attend school in facilities that are physically safe and free of environmental hazards.

A Quality Public Education for Every Child

Every Texan knows that our children come first. To make our state's education policy reflect that number-one priority, we should:

Raise teacher pay to at least the national average, to help recruit and retain first class teachers;

Provide extra economic incentives for college students to enter the teaching profession and teach in our public schools;

Provide the funds needed to guarantee that every class has a teacher certified to teach the subject of that class;

Enforce class-size limits, use the state's resources to get our children out of portable classrooms and into permanent schools, equip all our schools with up-to-date learning technology, and end overcrowding;

Ensure that our school-finance system provides adequate funding so that every child receives the educational services he or she needs to succeed;

Assure equal opportunity by equalizing school funding from the bottom up, not by leveling the top down;

Commit the necessary resources to early-intervention programs so that every child can read by the end of third grade;

Use the TAAS test as one measuring stick of success, not the sole factor in determining whether a child passes from one grade to the next, and rely on the classroom teacher's judgment of the child's overall performance to determine whether a child advances to the next grade;

Reward good work in high school with a scholarship to Texas' public universities and colleges for any student who graduates and maintains a high grade point average;

Involve parents in education with innovative and appropriate measures, including programs to let parents choose public schools that best meet the needs of their children;

Support the continuing efforts of school districts to lower dropout rates;

Strongly encourage the recruitment of teachers who reflect the state's diversity because Texas is a multi-ethnic state, and education is enriched through diversity;

Ensure teacher input into local educational decision-making, because teachers' experience and expertise in the educational process are vital;

Respect and safeguard the rights and benefits of education employees, so that we can recruit and retain our best;

Support bilingual education to facilitate the transition of students to English-language instruction, and reject Republican efforts to destroy bilingual education because this would deny the American dream to thousands of Texas schoolchildren; and

Oppose any form of private school vouchers because vouchers would drain resources essential to guarantee a quality public education for all our children.

Post-Secondary Education

The Texas Democratic Party believes all Texans must have the opportunity to attend public universities and colleges, and we support innovative approaches to ensure diversity in every Texas institution of higher education. For example, Texas Democrats in 1997 passed a law to guarantee that high-school graduates in the top 10 percent of their class are assured of admission to a public institution of higher education. The Texas Democratic Party also supports efforts to reverse the Hopwood decision.

Higher education provides the higher-level skills that are crucial to competitiveness in a global economy marked by rapid technological change. Texas Democrats:

Support additional funding of higher education to assure financial aid and access for all students; adequate compensation, security, professional status and benefits for faculty; and research to spur economic development;

Support the role of community colleges in providing lifelong educational opportunity;

Support innovative programs that give families an opportunity to pre-purchase college tuition, as well as other student assistance programs that assure access to higher education for academically capable Texans whose families could not otherwise afford it;

Encourage enhanced support for Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern and for higher-education opportunities in South Texas and all border communities; and

Condemn racial and religious intolerance on Texas campuses and encourage universities to develop and offer culturally diverse curricula, student activities, and student-faculty recruitment policies that promote understanding and tolerance.

STATE FISCAL POLICY

Government exists to help us achieve as a community what we cannot achieve as individuals. Good, responsible government need not cost more. In fact, it can cost less. Texas Democrats continue working to make state government operate more efficiently and effectively through the efforts of well-trained, well-paid state employees at all levels.

Since 1991, Democratic leaders, through the Texas Performance Review, have identified and eliminated administrative waste and inefficiency totaling more than $8.5 billion, helping to avoid a state income tax, protecting workers who deliver vital services, and making state government more "user-friendly".

The Texas Democratic Party believes all Texans should share in tax cuts. The Republican leadership, supported by a majority of Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives, attempted to abolish all corporate franchise and property taxes while raising the sales tax to 11 percent on basic necessities, including food and medicine. This proposal failed because no Democratic legislator voted for it, highlighting our opposition to regressive sales tax increases that unfairly target fixed and middle income families. Additionally, the Republican governor proposed an increase in the tax on cars and a general sales tax increase to pay for tax breaks which provided the biggest benefits to the wealthy -- a proposal rejected, modified, and made much more fair in the property tax relief passed by the Democratic leadership.

The Texas Democratic Party believes:

The Texas Legislature should pass a constitutional amendment banning a sales tax on food and medicine;

Texans should not be subjected to a state income tax; and

The sales tax on the purchase of cars and other necessities of life should be reduced or eliminated.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The Texas Democratic Party believes that it is a fundamental duty of government to protect its citizens. Criminals must be punished. The rights of victims must be ensured. Restitution should be made to victims and society. All Texans are entitled to be safe and secure, free from the fear of criminal violence in our homes and on our streets. This must be true everywhere, in cities and rural areas, inner cities and suburbs, and in all neighborhoods regardless of their ethnic makeup.

The Texas Democratic Party believes that most Texas families don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods. Texas ranks 2nd among all states in reported gang activity. Between 1994 and 1996, 237 juveniles were arrested for murder. The number of paroles has increased under a Republican governor. Moreover, sex offenders continue to receive probation or deferred adjudication since he took office.

The Texas Democratic Party believes that we aren't doing enough to make our neighborhoods safer. Because our Republican governor failed to keep his promise to end mandatory early release retroactively, more than 60,000 felons will get out of prison early by the end of his current term.

Juvenile Justice

We believe prevention is the best solution to the problem of juvenile crime. We support:

Programs that help high-risk kids stay in school and stay positively involved in their communities;

Drug prevention programs in our schools, including school-based clinics to provide our children with access to drug counseling, education and outreach programs that stop drug addiction before it begins; and

More severe punishment of individuals or groups who corrupt our children by recruiting or enticing them to commit crimes.

The juvenile justice system must teach young people drawn into a life of crime at an early age that they will be held accountable and responsible for their actions. We support:

Tough but appropriate punishment for juveniles who commit crimes;

Teaching responsibility to nonviolent juvenile offenders through programs such as boot camps, work camps and restitution centers; and

Keeping handguns and other weapons away from children.

Parents and communities must be involved in solutions to juvenile crime. Efforts to prevent abuse and provide treatment for victims and perpetrators will realize long-term cost saving by reducing prison populations and assuring safer, healthier families.

Adult Corrections

To continue the fight against crime so that our streets and our homes may become safe again, Texas Democrats support tough and smart policies including:

Retroactively ending the mandatory early release of criminals and aggressively appealing any judicial decision which questions the constitutionality of such a statute;

Sensitive treatment for the victims of crime and stronger emphasis on compensation to crime victims by the criminals themselves;

Severe punishment for repeat and violent offenders, including longer sentences for drug dealers;

Doing away with deferred adjudication and probation for sex offenders;

More police officers on the streets to fight a real "War on Gangs";

Tracking known Texas gang members through a central registry;

Crime prevention programs addressing drug and alcohol addiction, the need for educational opportunity, and other root causes of crime;

Expansion of the prison system in order to prevent early release of parolees by ensuring availability of adequate prison space;

Effective supervision of parolees and probationers, with a certainty of sanctions for violators;

Tough anti-stalking laws and laws to protect witnesses and parties from harassment and retribution;

Stronger enforcement of Texas' DWI laws;

Recognition that rape and domestic violence are crimes of violence, that victims and their families need counseling and support, and that sexual assault and abuse prevention programs for adults and children are needed;

Laws that severely punish hate crimes;

Strong enforcement pertaining to and punishment of white collar and corporate criminals;

The right of a person to be tried by a jury that broadly reflects the ethnic makeup of the community;

Expansion of community anti-crime programs; and

Improved pay and benefits for law enforcement and corrections officers who put their lives on the line every day.

JOBS & WORKPLACE ISSUES

The creation and retention of private sector jobs and development of the full potential of the Texas workforce remain essential to our economic security. We support:

Trade policies that take into account Texas' interests in generating jobs, affording dignity to working people and protecting the environment. While encouraging global trade that meets these goals, a trade policy should oppose tactics that ignore these goals, such as child or slave labor, unconscionably low wages, environmental degradation;

Preference for United States/Texas products and protection for local wage standards in government contracts;

Accountability for performance. We recognize that competition has a place in state government, but we oppose wholesale privatization schemes that could result in less competition and less accountability in the delivery of services;

Programs for retraining workers who are victims of layoffs and improving and updating the skills of workers who want to advance their careers;

Programs training welfare recipients to build skills and allowing them to enter the workforce without pitting welfare-to-work participants against other workers in a drive for low wages;

Prison industries that train prisoners for productive careers while avoiding interference with the free-world job market;

A strong space program, including continuation and expansion of the manned space station program, as a cornerstone of investment in scientific research that is essential to our economic future;

The right of every employee to a safe workplace, free from injury and exposure to harmful materials, plus meaningful sanctions against employers who expose workers to injuries or death;

A workers' compensation system that provides affordable coverage for employers, meaningful compensation to injured workers, incentives for employers to retain injured employees and due consideration for the rights of workers within the legal system;

The right of all employees, public and private, to organize, collect dues, designate their income voluntarily to organizations and agencies of their choosing, and to negotiate freely with their employers through their elected agents;

The right of unions to engage in political activity based on majority rule within the union and free of partisan attempts to limit the ability of unions to participate in the political process;

Freedom from discriminatory employment practices;

A meaningful increase in the federal minimum wage aimed at giving all full-time workers the ability to live dignified lives, plus an increase in the $3.35 per hour state minimum wage to guarantee that all farm workers are afforded that same dignity; and

Secure public or private pensions that honor the principle that a lifetime of honest work should be rewarded with at least adequate retirement income.

RURAL TEXAS & AGRICULTURE

Rural Texas is undergoing fundamental restructuring in the face of severe economic challenges -- challenges that threaten a way of life that provided the livelihood for generations of Texas families and forged the basic values Texans still share today. We are committed to supporting the special needs of rural Texas.

Agriculture is unique among the economic sectors of Texas in terms of its form of organization, its vulnerability to uncertainty, its lack of control over pricing of its products, and its importance to domestic and international trade. We are committed to maintaining the world leadership role of Texas farms and ranches by:

Working for systems that ensure the safety of imported foods not covered by the regulations against dangerous chemicals and pesticides that apply to food grown in the United States;

Protecting Texas food producers from unfair competition with foreign producers who use chemicals banned in this country to increase their yields at the expense of the purity of the product;

Recognizing that a large number of family farmers and ranchers are as important to food and fiber production as large corporations and conglomerates; and

Supporting efforts of Texas farmers and ranchers to promote federal legislation that would:

Establish appropriate minimum price support levels and restore the economic safety net for family farmers and ranchers which Congress effectively eliminated with the passage of the 1995 Farm Bill;

Utilize marketing quotas and market management programs adopted through producer referenda;

Maintain an adequate national emergency reserve, isolated from the market; and

Establish labeling standards for genetically engineered products.

SECURITY FOR OUR FAMILIES

Texas Democrats are working to build strong communities with safe, healthy and thriving families. We support initiatives to ensure security for Texas families.

Long Term Care

The Texas Democratic Party believes we must keep the promise of Social Security available and certain for those who worked and contributed to the system all their lives. We believe the projected federal budget surplus should be used to strengthen Social Security. Texas Democrats support long term care services that promote independent living in the most integrated setting possible for elderly, chronically ill, and disabled people of all ages. This system should include community-based attendant services, in-home health care, adult day care and hospice care. We support:

The transition of our long term care system to home and community care with a funding focus on home and community services as opposed to the current institutionally-biased system;

A coordinated system of support services including personal assistance services, respite care, home delivered meals, transportation and homemaker assistance;

A goal of providing choice in decisions about where elderly, chronically ill, and disabled Texans live and receive support services;

The "de-medicalization" of services to contain costs and allow greater control by the individual; and

Regulation for board and care homes, stringent inspections, and enforcement of laws governing nursing homes, state-supported hospitals and schools to ensure safety, cleanliness, nutrition and quality health care for elderly and disabled Texans.

Safety from Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

Domestic violence threatens the health and safety of too many Texas families. We therefore support:

Programs, education, and centers for battered women and children;

Enhancement of adequate protective services for the victims of child, spousal, adult and elder abuse; and

Expansion of sexual assault crisis centers to the unserved and underserved areas of the state.

Hunger

Texas Democrats support public and private endeavors to provide programs and nutrition education to assure the absence of hunger and malnutrition in Texas.

Child Care that Strengthens Texas Families

Texas families should not have to choose between the job they need and the child they love. Affordable, quality child care is good for parents, good for children and vital for the Texas economy. Texas Democrats believe the private sector can do more to improve the availability of affordable child care and we propose the following initiatives to help parents succeed at home and at work:

Corporate tax credits, property tax cuts and entrepreneurial assistance to help Texas businesses invest in child care. We also support the creation of a Texas Child Care Fund to pool local, nonprofit and private dollars to be used to get the maximum available federal child care matching funds for Texas;

Expansion of after-school child care services to improve the safety of child care; the use of quicker, more effective criminal background checks for child care workers; and the provision of better information to parents so they can make informed child care decisions; and

Targeted tax credits and limited grants for investments in caregiver retention, staff training and educational equipment as well as scholarships to train a new generation of quality child care professionals to improve the quality of child care.

Expanding Economic Opportunities for all Texans

Texas Democrats believe the best program to end poverty and welfare is a job that pays a living wage. Government assistance should be a transitional effort to help people take responsibility for their own lives and become productive members of society. Both those who receive public assistance and those who foot the bill for that assistance have a responsibility to find ways to quickly move needy families from welfare to work. A society that emphasizes personal responsibility must also strive to create jobs, reward work, and provide an infrastructure that encourages people to work and to rear children responsibly.

Choice and Family Planning

Texas Democrats believe that people will make sound, healthy decisions for themselves and their families. We believe in every American's right to privacy and the right to make personal choices for ourselves and our families without fear of unwarranted governmental intrusion into our lives.

The Democratic Party trusts the women of Texas to make their own decisions about personal matters such as when or whether to bear children. No government, no politician, and no bureaucrat should interfere in an individual's private and personal decisions;

We will work to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including bearing healthy children and preventing unintended pregnancy; and

We must decrease the rate of adolescent pregnancy and the alarming rise in teenagers dropping out of school -- both of which increase the number of Texas children living in poverty. We must provide child care to allow teenage mothers to continue their education.

Housing and Homelessness

Homelessness is a problem whose solution demands strong commitment to public-private partnership and coordinated efforts at the federal, state and local levels. Secure and affordable housing is integral to giving families a sense of security, self-respect, and responsibility as part of a community.

Texas Democrats are committed to making the dream of home ownership a reality for more Texas families by:

Removing barriers, expanding resources, and increasing access to services that support progress toward self-sufficiency;

Increasing the range of services available to and used by homeless people in urban and rural areas;

Encouraging state and local agencies to work together to broaden the reach and increase effectiveness of housing opportunities and support services for people in Texas;

Eliminating all discrimination in the financing and insuring of homes; and

Encouraging local officials to make better use of abandoned housing to provide safe affordable housing.

HEALTH CARE

Texas Democrats believe that every family deserves health care they can count on and a health care system that puts family health first. We support the following policies to help provide for the health security of our families, our elders and children.

A Patient's Bill of Rights

Texas Democrats support a Patient's Bill of Rights to ensure that Texas families have the right to choose the doctor they want for the care they need. Medical decisions must be made by medical doctors, not insurance company accountants. Families have the right to know all of their medical options, not just the cheapest.

The Republican governor vetoed the Patient Protection Act that would have given Texans the right to choose their own doctor and opened the doors of MD Anderson and other premier cancer care facilities to all Texans who need and deserve the best cancer care treatment in the world. The Republican governor has said Texas families have enough choice of doctors within their HMO plans. He opposes constitutionally guaranteeing each Texas family the right to choose their own doctor.

We believe:

Doctors, not HMOs or insurance companies, should make medical decisions and HMOs and insurance companies should be banned from restricting a doctor's ability to tell a patient about all medical options;

Texas families need a Patient's Bill of Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution that will give every Texas family the right to choose their own doctor outside of their HMO plan and give access to MD Anderson or other premier treatment facilities;

HMO members should have the right to choose any doctor who is willing to accept an HMO's fee structure;

HMOs should be banned from rejecting doctors for reasons other than criminal wrongdoing, fraud or incompetence; and

HMOs and insurance companies should be barred from discriminating against pre-existing conditions such as HIV infection, Alzheimer's, cancer and other chronic diseases.

Protecting Medicare and Medicaid

Texas Democrats support protecting Medicare and Medicaid programs that maintain the safety net for vulnerable Texans, including a local and state partnership to maximize funds for Medicaid programs that assure coverage to pregnant women, infants and children as well as people with disabilities and senior Texans. Texas Democrats also believe our state and federal government should crack down on hospitals and health care providers who file fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims that cost billions of tax dollars a year.

Children's Health Insurance

Texas Democrats support public and private partnerships to provide access to affordable health insurance for the 1.3 million uninsured children in Texas. We support implementation of the Texas Healthy Kids Corporation Program and encourage the utilization of all federal funds available through the Children's Health Insurance Program to improve health care for Texas children.

Mental Health Services

Family preservation is maintained by enhancing the mental health of our family members. We support:

Comprehensive mental health services;

Expansion of community centers, home services, and school-based programs to assist children and their parents with emotional and traumatic problems; and

Appropriate acute in-patient services for victims of trauma.

Expanding Opportunities for People with Disabilities

Texas Democrats support choices that promote full and productive lives and initiatives affording equal opportunities to the physically, developmentally and mentally disabled or impaired. We support the Americans with Disabilities Act.

HIV Education and Services

Texas Democrats support education initiatives and services to address the HIV epidemic, including increased access to treatments and therapies that improve quality of life and help encourage the ability to return to the workforce.

An Affordable Health Delivery System in Rural Texas

Texas Democrats support improving access to a functioning and affordable health delivery system in rural Texas, including:

Programs that bring physicians and health providers to rural areas;

Equality of Medicare reimbursements to rural areas to encourage doctors to practice there and to keep rural hospitals from closing;

Improved emergency care systems that provide access to medical care facilities, especially trauma care; and

Utilization of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in underserved areas.

THE ENVIRONMENT

The Texas Democratic Party believes the environment is a safe neighborhoods issue. Today, 50 percent of Texans live in areas that fail to meet clean air standards. The Republican governor and his appointees have not developed a workable plan for clean air or the control of water pollution through effective permitting, regulation, inspection and/or clean up of toxic and hazardous waste sites and solid waste land fills. We pledge to:

Require "Grandfathered" industrial polluters to come into compliance with clean-air standards within five years;

Create an emergency plan for public health crises like the Mexican fires;

Support full implementation of the Clean Air Act and create incentives to reduce or prevent air pollution;

Make sure poor and minority communities, such as Sierra Blanca, are not victimized by the siting of hazardous facilities;

Continue and enhance registries for birth defects, cancer and environmentally related illnesses in Texas;

Support efforts to reduce pesticide use and promote less toxic methods of pest control while opposing any attempts to weaken existing pesticide or food safety regulations;

Support and enforce "right to know" laws allowing consumers and workers to be informed about possible exposure to pesticides and harmful toxins, and the right of persons to fully participate in challenging the issuance of permits and to access the courts to seek redress for damages caused by polluters;

Protect coastal bays, estuaries and all qualifying wetlands by protecting them from toxic contamination and maintaining freshwater inflows so that there is no net loss of these critical areas;

Prohibit transportation of nuclear waste across Texas without absolute safeguards for Texans and their communities;

Provide opportunities and incentives for businesses to employ energy-efficient and environmentally sound technologies, and enforce environmental compliance standards so that non-complying businesses do not get a competitive advantage over responsible businesses;

Support effective programs to address environmental problems and to construct water and wastewater treatment systems along both sides of the border; Support the full implementation of a coastal management plan;

Support aggressive measures to prevent pollution, reduce hazardous waste production, make industries financially accountable for pollution they cause, and protect Texans from toxic hazards;

Establish a plan to ensure that all toxic and hazardous waste sites in Texas are cleaned up in the next 10 years;

Implement aggressive water conservation practices for municipal, agricultural and industrial sectors and provide economic incentives for reduced consumption;

Protect Texas rivers, lakes, and streams, and improve current water-quality standards;

Support the protection of public lands and national parks, support expansion of the state park system, and oppose indiscriminate clear cutting, leasing, development and commercial exploitation of parklands;

Support and strengthen effective state programs to protect farmland and conserve precious soil and water resources; and

Support research on and use of renewable energy sources.

CIVIL RIGHTS, ELECTIONS & ACCESS TO THE COURTS

Full protection and equal opportunity under the law remain a bedrock value of the Democratic Party. To that end, we pledge to:

Fight discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin, disability, socioeconomic status, color, creed or age. This protection extends to the ability to contract, work, vote, serve in the military, obtain an education or engage in all other legal pursuits of happiness;

Promote diverse workplaces because it is moral and just, a sound business practice and a wise use of human resources;

Enforce laws prohibiting sexual harassment;

Promote the right to privacy;

Reaffirm our unqualified support for the Voting Rights Act; the protection of the right of minority groups to participate fully in the political process; and a fair, complete and accurate census;

Encourage full voter participation in all elections, including continued selection of Party nominees through primary elections;

Support open access to the court system for the weak as well as the powerful, including the right to fair and impartial jury trials and respect by the courts for jury verdicts; the right to seek redress for damages inflicted by the irresponsible conduct of others; the continued election of judges while working towards a more diverse judiciary; meaningful judicial campaign finance reform; and the provision of a full range of legal services to low-income Texans; and

Support an adoption system based on honesty and integrity, which allows adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates and court records.

ETHICS AND GOVERNMENTAL REFORM

Texas Democrats support comprehensive ethics and campaign finance reforms that restrict undue influence and special interest control of the democratic process. We support:

Continuing revision of state ethics laws to assure full reporting and disclosure of campaign finance, lobbying and other activities that influence the operation of government;

Limits on campaign contributions if those limits are accompanied by campaign spending limits; and

Reinstatement of the fairness doctrine of the Federal Communication Commission.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The Texas Democratic Party endorses the religious freedoms guaranteed by the state and federal Constitutions and calls upon government to scrupulously honor every Texan's right to religious freedom while respecting the separation of church and state. Many Democrats hold political views that are motivated by deeply held personal beliefs. No political party and no extremist group holds an exclusive lock on such beliefs. We recognize the importance of religion and prayer in the lives of Texans and support each individual's right to practice his or her own beliefs without imposing them on others.

MULTI-LINGUALISM

We believe that linguistic and cultural diversity present opportunities to develop a competitive edge in a growing global economy. The Texas Democratic Party believes all Texans have a responsibility to be proficient in the English language but opposes the efforts of the extremist "English-Only" movement to curb the use of other languages.

IMMIGRATION

The Texas Democratic Party believes that it is the responsibility and duty of the United States to secure its borders. At the same time, the Texas Democratic Party promotes immigration policies that create economic opportunities for all individuals and businesses, strengthen families, protect members of all communities against discrimination, and protect people from intrusive forms of personal identification. We believe that the United States has been -- and should always be -- the land of opportunity. Our strength as a nation lies in our diversity. Immigrant bashing and scapegoating are not only misguided, but inevitably polarize our society while failing to solve problems. We oppose any immigration-control measure that specifically targets children or the elderly for punishment through the denial of public education or health care benefits.