Published: 02-10-09
(AUSTIN) — The Association of Hispanic County Judges and Commissioners Association today announced that it will officially endorse U.S. Senate candidate John Sharp during its state convention this year saying that the South Texas native is perfectly positioned to provide Texas the kind of balanced leadership called for in these challenging times for local budgets and public programs.
“John Sharp will be a champion for Texas counties in Washington” said Travis County Commissioner Margaret Gomez president of the association. “He is one of us and like us he believes in the power of good government to make a positive difference in the lives of our communities. He has a proven record of making government work better for the taxpayers who pay for it and the citizens who depend on it.”
Gomez said the association will make its endorsement official at its state convention on South Padre Island this summer.
The Association of Hispanic County Judges and Commissioners represents 5.2 million Hispanic Texans or about 45 percent of the total 11.3 million population in the South Texas counties that belong to the influential group.
Sharp 58 is a former state representative state senator and chairman of the state’s energy agency and Comptroller of Public Accounts the state’s chief financial officer.
As Comptroller Sharp earned a national reputation for innovative solutions such as the Lone Star card which helped protect the federal food stamps program by replacing the inefficient paper coupon system with an electronic benefits card and the Texas Tomorrow Fund a unique prepaid program that allowed middle-class families to lock in the future costs of their children’s college tuition.
Sharp’s Texas Performance Review saved taxpayers more than $8.5 billion helped divert a proposed state income tax safeguarded vital public services and served as the model for Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review which Sharp helped direct.
A graduate of Texas A&M University where he was elected student body president and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves Sharp grew up in the South Texas farming community of Placedo near Victoria. He earned his master’s in public administration from Texas State University in San Marcos while working fulltime as a budget examiner for the Legislative Budget Board in Austin.
Sharp served as vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee as a state representative and was named Outstanding Freshman by Texas Monthly magazine. He later ran successfully for the Texas Senate and was appointed to the powerful Senate Finance Committee. In 1985 he was elected statewide to the Texas Railroad Commission and served as the energy agency’s chairman.
After leaving the Comptroller’s Office Sharp created the Travis Fund to fund a special scholarship program for the children of Texas-based soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq and co-founded Texans to Cure Cancer the largest anti-cancer initiative ever launched in the state. In 2006 with state lawmakers facing the prospect of shutting down public schools or advocating a state income tax he led a bi-partisan committee to find a solution to avoid both — cutting overall taxes by more than $1 billion in the process.
