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Republican State Representative Ken King announced today his campaign for re-election to the Texas State House of Representatives in House District 88. The district covers Armstrong, Bailey, Briscoe, Castro, Cochran, Donley, Gray, Hale, Hansford, Hemphill, Hockley, Lamb, Lipscomb, Ochiltree, Roberts, Swisher, and Yoakum counties.

“I’m proud of what we accomplished this year,” said King. “We passed a conservative, balanced budget and ensured an additional $800 million in border security funding. I’m especially proud of our work to increase penalties for incest after working with Lamb County District Attorney Scott Say, and secure much-needed resources for our volunteer firefighters.”

As a former Canadian ISD School Board President, King prioritized improving public education in Texas this session by leading the way on the monumental school finance reform package, which ensured a much-needed raise for Texas schoolteachers and funded a full-day pre-K program to give our children a head start in learning.

“It is for our rural communities in the Panhandle and South Plains that we continue to improve public education,” said King. “House Bill 3 provided the necessary funding to better our broken school finance system—putting vital dollars back into our kids’ classrooms and giving active and retired teachers the pay raises they desperately needed. At the same time, we cut $5 billion in property taxes.”

A strong, pro-life Christian, King helped pass a measure that banned local governments from funding abortion providers.

This session, King also passed new measures that empower people to carry in churches, schools, apartments, and disaster zones. He is ‘A’ rated by the NRA and Texas State Rifle Association and fully defends our 2^nd Amendment right to protect our families.

Representative King currently runs energy service businesses, and co-founded KK-125 Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. He and his wife, Robin, live in Canadian, Texas.

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House Bill 3, joint-authored by Rep. Ken King, invests $9 billion in Texas classrooms to improve public education and provide property tax relief

AUSTIN, Texas — Wednesday, April 3, the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 3 that invests $9 billion in Texas classrooms to boost student achievement, support teacher quality, reduce recapture and provide property tax relief. Following a full day of discussion on the House Floor, Rep. King voted in support of House Bill 3, which passed the House with 149 votes.

“We have come together, because we all have a common goal,” said King. “That is what the entire House did today and I am so proud of every member, it says a lot about the priority of the House.”

House Bill 3 is the first major rewrite of school finance laws undertaken without the threat of a court order, and it puts a stop to decades of patchwork fixes by creating a more equitable public education system.

“This is the fourth session that I have worked on school finance legislation, and I am so proud of the work that the House has done to make sure that this bill is an equitable system to improve our education system as a whole,” said King.

Representative King has served on the House Committee on Public Education for four consecutive sessions and served as a member of the Texas Commission on Public School Finance during the interim of the 85th Legislature.

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Austin – Monday, March 25, State Representative Ken King (Canadian) laid out House Bill 3070, which would allow emergency grants for volunteer fire departments after responding to a governor declared disaster.

“This legislation will help our volunteer fire departments receive support to repair or replace their fire fighting equipment after fighting disasters around the state.” King said. “Whether it is a wildfire in the panhandle or a hurricane that hits the coast, our volunteers need to ensure they have safe and reliable equipment following these disasters, to continue to assist our communities.”

The bill will require the Texas A&M Forest Service to prioritize emergency grant requests that result from a response to a declared disaster, before other requests for grants under the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program, otherwise known as 2604 grants.

Additionally, Rep. King offered House Bill 669 before the House Committee on State Affairs. If this legislation were to pass it would allow Universal Service Fund monies to be used to pay for the establishment and maintenance of broadband service in rural areas.

“After the 85th Legislature drew down federal money through the e-rate program, all schools in this state were equipped with broadband services. However, once students leave the parking lot of their school in rural Texas, they lose access to reliable internet services. This hinders their ability to connect with school resources at their home, and to continue work that might be required of them,” remarked King. “Broadband services are important to businesses in rural Texas, allowing them to communicate with other areas of the state, which will help bring their goods and services to market.”

Ken King was elected to serve the citizens of District 88, which contains counties in both the South Plains and Panhandle sections of Texas, in November of 2012. He served as member of the Canadian ISD school board for 5 years and President for 3. He also serves as President of
Black Gold Pump and Supply, Inc. in Canadian, Texas.