Hank Gilbert Visits Lubbock (video)

Fox TV Lubbock |

09/08/09 – A Democrat candidate for Texas governor says the state’s $50 million in matching contribution toward creating more tier one research universities just isn’t enough.

Hank Gilbert says he is a fiscal conservative with a plan to allocate $500 million per biennium to allow Texas Tech and the six other emerging research schools to all reach the goal in ten years.
Gilbert’s idea is to gain voter approval for a constitutional amendment to capture and dedicate unused funds instead of rolling them over into the general fund.

“Not any taxes are gonna have to be raised or anything like that. It’s gonna be budget neutral and it only accounts for 2.97% of the current state budget of $168 billion,” says Gilbert.

Gilbert says he’s not concerned that the “Democrat” label will be a hindrance to his gubernatorial aspirations.

He got 43,000 more votes in his race for State Ag Commissioner in 2006 than Governor Perry got in his re-election bid that year. Gilbert will have to best his party primary opposition first.

Other democrats in the field Kinky Friedman, Tom Schieffer, and Mark Thompson.