By Mike Norman
mnorman@star-telegram.com
It took me a while to warm up to the idea of a Young Texans Legislative Caucus. I'm not all the way there yet.
I mean, why? The YTLC is a group of state representatives who have banded together to "highlight and address the needs of younger Texans" in the legislative session that begins Jan. 8.
Don't they have enough to do already? And don't all Texans pretty much have common needs -- a whole pile of which need to be addressed by the Legislature?
You might be able to tell by the grumpiness of the above questions that I have passed the sell-by date for the new caucus.
Membership is bipartisan, the group says, but is limited to representatives who are no older than 40 or who represent districts in which the percentage of the population younger than 40 is higher than the statewide percentage. Census figures show that 58 percent of Texas residents are younger than 40.
That number brought the first
a-ha moment for my attitude about the caucus. I thought I had read a lot of stories about the 2010 Census, and I don't remember the part about so many people in my home state being so much younger than I am.
It's true. I looked it up.
I don't consider myself old, but 40 was a long time ago. Still, I know how to handle the challenges of today's world. I Googled it.
News stories about state Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, and his efforts to form the YTLC started coming out around Thanksgiving. There was some social network chatter about it, too.
"This is cool," someone posted on Facebook. That didn't do a lot to boost my attitude about the younger crowd.
Cool doesn't really convey a lot of meaning, because it can translate to anything from "yeah, whatever" to "the best thing I've ever heard about in my whole entire friggin' life, man."
I'm thinking this person liked the idea of the new caucus. So did some others on Twitter and Pinterest. Where else does the under-40 crowd go for news?
Tuesday, Johnson's office sent out a news release listing 22 charter members of the YTLC. Sure enough, it's bipartisan, although a bit heavy on the Democratic side, 13-9.
No one from the Tarrant County delegation was on the charter-member list, although we have some who are eligible. Rep.-elect Jonathan Stickland of Hurst is 29. Rep.-elect Matt Krause of Fort Worth is 32. Both are Republicans.
Some others could join the caucus, but they'll soon age out: Republican Rep.-elect Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake is 39. Reps.-elect Nicole Collier of Fort Worth and Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, both Democrats, are 40.
That's five who are 40 or younger out of the 11 Tarrant representatives.
My most powerful
ah-ha moment came when I looked up the Census Bureau's report on 2010 demographics for Tarrant County. I missed this in previous news stories: 66.8 percent of Tarrant County residents, about two-thirds, of the people in the county are under 40 years old.
Take the kids under 18 out of the picture (and wouldn't we all sometimes love to?). Of Tarrant County's voting-age population, more than half (54 percent) are 39 or younger.
Not that they all vote, or even register to vote, but I see why the politicians are paying attention.
So, what issues will the Young Texans Legislative Caucus champion? As Johnson put it in a news release, "our state's long-term investments in education, infrastructure and the management of our natural resources."
Even an old guy like me can get on board with that.
Mike Norman is editorial director of the Star-Telegram.817-390-7830Twitter: @mnorman9
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