Margo’s First Session a Failure (by his own definition) Part 1

When asked by Sito Negron of the El Paso Inc if failure to secure the third building of the medical school would mean that the session would be a failure, Dee Margo said, “From my perspective it would be”. 

That being said, then yes, by Margo’s own definition, he failed in this session.

From The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia

The lack of funding for the third building was a major part of Dee Margo’s attack on Joe Moody during the campaign. In this article in the El Paso Inc, Dee Margo says, “My point is not one legislative bill filed by Joe had anything to do with the third building,” Margo said. “If you say it’s that important, I don’t care if you’re a rookie or whatever, go fulfill what you say is important. What changed?”

I don’t care if you’re a rookie or whatever, go fulfill what you say is important. 

That line may very well end up being Dee Margo’s Read my lips, no new taxes moment of his political career.

If you visit video of the debate on ABC 7 Xtra between Joe Moody and Dee Margo before the election, you will see that Dee Margo says that not one bill was brought up related to funding the third building. If you read the entirety of the article in the El Paso Inc above, you will see that delegation made several attempts to secure that funding through riders, which are amendments put on bills in committee.

In my opinion, Margo either lied or didn’t know what he was talking about.

Representative Margo simply was not able to secure the funding that he made such a big deal about during the campaign. I spoke with several sources in Austin that said that Margo was simply out of place in Austin. He was unaware of process and didn’t really other any legislation other than two bills, one of which was The Dora Oaxaca bill, which came for the county.

Sources also say that Margo needed help on how to vote on issues that affected his own district. One lobbyist and a legislative insider said they observed one member of the El Paso delegation having to physically guide Margo over to change his vote on a bill, HB 1649 that was related to building code standards for colonias in the Anthony and Canutillo areas.

Dee Margo did not author a bill to get funding for the 3^rd building, something he was critical of Moody for not doing.

He did however author a Tuition Revenue Bond amendment to a bill. Austin insiders say that Margo was actually trying to pull a fast one, but I’ll explain in Part 2 of this piece.