Before becoming a mother of three, a best-selling author, and being elected to represent Texas House District 19, Ellen Troxclair was simply a taxpayer who was frustrated about her property tax bill. That frustration led to her becoming the youngest woman to be elected to Austin City Council.

“I was sick of my property taxes going up year after year, so I decided to do something about it,” Troxclair says.

But being a Republican on the Austin City Council wasn’t without its challenges, according to Troxclair. However, her perseverance and ability to get things accomplished saw her lead the implementation of the first general property tax homestead exemption in the city of Austin with it eventually reaching the full 20%. 

“It wasn’t easy to get the Austin City Council to worry about the rising property taxes they were asking constituents to pay but I got it done,” she says.

In her second term as State Representative from House District 19, she remains equally as motivated, although Troxclair has a few more friends than she did at Austin city hall. Her expectations for the upcoming session were optimistic. 

“We are just getting started on what is, hopefully, going to be an impressively effective legislative session,” she says. 

Troxclair seems excited. “I believe in a government that works for the people, not the other way around,” she says as she reflects on having less than 6 months to accomplish what she believes her constituents sent her to the state house to accomplish. 

“Listening to my constituents is my top priority. Their voices matter in shaping the policies that affect their lives."

Throughout her tenure, Troxclair says that she has championed legislation aimed at improving education in Texas. She is a vocal supporter of the school choice movement in Texas and recently signed on as a co-author of House Bill 3 which aims to provide universal school choice in Texas.

“Every child deserves access to a quality education, regardless of their zip code,” she says.

In addition to school choice, Troxclair has set her sights on an issue that she sees as important to more than just education outcomes in Texas, but also the well-being and mental health of Texas children — smartphone use. 

“The average American teen is spending five-plus hours on social media every single day, and suicide rates among that population have tripled since the introduction of social media,” says Troxclair. 

In response, Troxclair has filed and is championing House Bill 515, which would seek to have local school districts have policies in place that prohibit devices such as smartphones in Texas classrooms.

“We never really had a community conversation about whether or not it’s appropriate to have those devices in the classroom,” she says. “This is something that I think has been on people’s minds a lot recently.”

Data compiled by a research team led by Jonathan Haidt shows that since the popularization of smartphones, mental health problems among America’s youth has been trending upwards quickly. According to their research, major increases in depressive episodes in teens, children who experience anxiety and depression, emergency room visits and hospitalization for self-harm, and suicide are key indicators of the problem. These issues, in most cases, are limited generationally and they see greater increases among young girls.

In addition to the mental health concerns, there has been a national decline in education outcomes since 2012. Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath says Texas’ student performance peaked in 2013 and has been declining since. 

“When you’re at school, you’re there to learn math, science, reading and writing, and to socialize with your peers,” Troxclair says.

She believes that the introduction of smartphones, access to social media and games, directly into classrooms has contributed to this decline in student learning. She says kids are simply distracted and leaders need to intervene.

“You would laugh in my face if I said, ‘hey, we should have all our kids bring their own personal TVs to school and put them out on the desk while the teacher is trying to teach’,” says Troxclair. She believes allowing smartphones in classrooms is akin to this.

The response to her proposal has been incredibly positive, according Troxclair. “I have support not just from Republicans and Democrats, but also from parents, teachers, administrators, and superintendents.” 

While Troxclair is animated about protecting children and improving education, she has not forgotten about the burden property taxes place on her constituents, and taxpayers across Texas. 

Troxclair says on the one hand the state legislature is trying to reduce the impact of rising property taxes on Texans while some local governments are trying to create new ways to increase the tax burden.

“We have all these loopholes that local governments are trying to create to raise your property taxes,” she says.

She indicated that if state leaders wanted to make property tax relief permanent, then the legislature needed to work to stop new ways of raising the property tax burden on Texans. 

As a member of the House Ways & Means committee, she expects to be involved in many solutions to rising property taxes but in one particular case, she said she intended to file specific legislation.

“What it’s really about is a local government using a one-time property tax increase and trying to turn that revenue into an endless amount of property tax debt to fund long-term capital projects,” says Troxclair. She noted that in Texas, to issue property tax debt, local governments typically use bond elections which have protections and limits in place. 

She argues that current law does not allow them to do this but believed the legislation is needed to clarify the intent of the law since some local governments are trying to do this anyway. 

Another property tax issue that Troxclair intends to file legislation on is banning taxpayer-funded lobbying. 

“I filed the companion bill to Senator Middleton’s bill, to make sure that tax dollars are not being spent to hire outside contract lobbyists,” she says. 

She notes that lobbyists hired by local governments  often lobby against property tax relief. 

Although Troxclair has an even longer list of legislative efforts for this session that she did not discuss in the interview, she maintains a broader view of why she was elected and what she hopes to accomplish. 

“We have a responsibility to protect the Texas miracle and the low tax, reasonable regulatory environment that makes it possible.”