Area dignitaries make rounds at Texas Capitol

By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM

Lobbying lawmakers can by a hard day's work. That truism was on full display last Thursday as a large contingent of people from Fort Bend County and environs traveled to Austin to take part in Fort Bend County Day at the Texas Capitol. The event was co-sponsored by the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Bend Economic

Development Council, and the Central Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce, the Katy Area Chamber, the Fulshear-Katy Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Needville Chamber of Commerce, collectively known as the Fort Bend County Business Collaborative, along with a host of corporate sponsors. The event is a longtime fixture held every two years when the Texas Legislature is in session.

A chartered bus set out at 6:30 a.m. from the Safari

Texas Ranch event center, filled with people who were set to meet with legislators on a set of topics that are the focuses of the collaborative's legislative agenda for the biennium: local control, public safety, economic development, healthcare, education and workforce, and infrastructure. Others traveled to the capital on their own. Winding through a fogshrouded central Texas landscape, the bus made

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