Gonzales works to redraw WilCo map

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Rep. Larry Gonzales has been working feverishly to present an alternative House redistricting map for Williamson County.

During a hearing before the House Redistricting Committee on Sunday afternoon, Gonzales, a first-term Republican from Round Rock representing House District 52, said he had been burning up the phone lines trying to address the redistricting concerns of elected officials in Southern Williamson County.

Those concerns include: splitting cities into multiple House districts; separating Round Rock from the educational landmarks it helped to create; and putting Round Rock's biggest taxpayer, Dell Computer, in a different district.

Legislative districts are redrawn with each census. The U.S. Justice Department also must make sure the rights of minority voters are proteted.

Plenty of lawmakers also were on hand at the hearing on Sunday afternoon to argue that districts did not preserve communities of interest, such as a lawmaker who saw the city of Garland split or representatives of a subdivision in suburban Fort Bend County being carved out and joined with a more rural House district to the west.

Gonzales, a former legislative staffer now in his first term in the House, presented 25 letters of support for redrawing the map.

Under the initial map, presented by Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, the Redsitricting committee chairman, cities such as Thrall, Taylor, Hutto, Round Rock and Leander would be split between two House districts. Cedar Park would be split up amongst three House districts, Gonzales said.

Local officials want their cities whole, Gonzales said. They also want to make sure the infrastructure created and supported by Round Rock, such as the Texas A&M Health Science Center and the Austin Community College Round Rock campus, are in a district that includes Round Rock.

To that end, Gonzales has worked with local officials to draw a new Williamson County map, which he said would reunite the fragmented cities and join Round Rock with its major landmarks. That map will be presented to the committee, once the final details are finalized, Gonzales told the members.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, who sits on the Redistricting Committee, also represents a portion of Williamson County. Hilderbran said he, too, has concerns about the map; specifically, how it separates Burnet County from the area traditionally known as the Texas Hill Country. Hilderbran said he and Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, were interested in working with Gonzales to resolve all the issues.

"We're interested in drawing it in a way that satisfies y'all's area and also satisfies the Hill Country interests west of Williamson and Travis counties," Hilderbran said.

The House committee took testimony on Sunday afternoon. The House redistricting bill, House Bill 150 , has yet to be scheduled for a vote, but the initial map can be viewed online .