Fort Bend County on the Southwest side of Houston is a picturesque Texas landscape. The county includes part of the city of Houston with its largest city in Sugar Land. Representative Gary Gates, who tries to embrace pragmatism and innovation, has emerged as a leader for the area in state policy making.
Since taking office in 2020, Gates has focused on pressing issues that resonate within his community, with his most notable work during this session on youth vocational training and housing finance reforms.
Gates, now 65 years old, not only takes his role as a public servant seriously but also his personal health. Prior to sitting down for this interview (at 9:30 in the morning), Gates had already ridden 65 miles on his bike.
“I have an indoor bike. I’ve set it up with my heart rate monitor,” Gates says. “It’s not just for entertainment and health, it also requires mental fortitude.”
Gates is in incredibly good physical shape. He is a triathlete and is preparing for his next Ironman event, in which participants attempt to complete an excruciating 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. This is Gates’ 65th time competing in an Ironman event.
The grit and work ethic of an individual required to complete such an exhausting physical challenge is also part of what makes Gates an effective and tough policymaker.
When you start to understand where Gates came from, his temperament and determination becomes more clear. Son of a talented and successful airport pilot who had been selected for the U.S. Space Shuttle Program, Gary experienced a horrific tragedy. His father was murdered when Gates was just 18 years old.
After his father’s death, Gates became a truck driver and would soon find success in buying, renovating, and renting homes and apartments. Over the years, his business grew from a single home to now having more than 500 employees. Gates uses that experience at the Capitol.
“I’ve made it my mission to bring my innovative ideas and business acumen to the Texas Legislature,” Gates says.
That business experience and know-how made Gates a great champion for two of his legislative priorities this session— reforming what he sees as a broken Affordable Housing finance system and expanding high school training programs for students to learn vocational skills.
“Our vocational training in our high schools right now is sort of a joke,” Gates says.
Gates explains that high-school students can earn certificates in a wide range of fields, such as floral design and Microsoft Word, but there is no connection or emphasis in those programs on what jobs are actually out there or needed.
“For example, in my district, there were only 23 flower shops, yet schools issued 1,550 certificates for floral design,” says Gates.
In response, Gates has championed House Bill 20 to establish the Applied Sciences Pathway program which allows 11th and 12th graders to enroll full-time in Texas technical colleges or community colleges to be trained in high-demand careers such as plumbing and electrical work.
“In Texas, we have a severe shortage of critical, skilled labor. As an example, the average age of a master plumber in Texas is about 59 years old,” Gates says. HB20 is “about making vocational training a priority in Texas.”
This approach, Gates says, not only provides students with real-world skills and industry credentials, Texas high school graduates could “come out of high school with a diploma and an associate degree.” They could choose to go to college or enter a number of fields with a starting salary of around $70,000 with the potential to grow over six figures within a few years.
HB 20 was passed by both the Texas House and Senate and is now on the Governor’s desk. And while Gates believes he has built the foundation of a program that will have a real impact on Texans and the Texas economy, there are other existing programs in place that need some renovation.
Back in April of 2024, Lone Star Standard spoke with Gates about Housing Finance Corporations. Gates was raising the alarm bells, saying that private developers were exploiting a loophole in the state law that provides major tax breaks in exchange for providing affordable housing. The program, according to Gates, was taking huge amounts of tax revenues off of local tax rolls and was not providing the espoused benefits—providing affordable housing for Texas families.
“The true crisis in Texas is families can’t afford homes. Most of these projects do nothing to provide two bedrooms or three bedrooms for families,” said Gates. “I think we’re going to be able to address it comprehensively.” Enter House Bill 21.
HB21, unlike HB20, became quite a controversy at the Capitol. Many organizations and businesses raised concerns about changing a program that was currently being used for long-term investments.
But Gates was undeterred. The program, in Gates’ view, was falling well short of what it needed to provide in exchange for a major investment of taxpayer resources. According to Gates, up to $15 billion in local taxes had been exempted for developers to provide affordable housing.
Under the current program, developers “could still charge market rent and receive a property tax exemption,” says Gates. This is anathema to the purpose of the program, according to Gates. “Worse yet, the definition of low and moderate income would change for each project.”
The bottom line for Gates, even though he recognizes that not all developers using the program are bad actors, is that the program is dysfunctional and is not providing the benefits. For those bad actors, Gates says, “it’s pure greed.”
HB 21 is intended to impose stricter guidelines and requirements on tax exemptions. It requires things like getting local consent to move forward with the project and using the tax rebates to lower rents and home prices.
Under HB 21, “50% of the tax exemption will actually go to lowering rents below market rate,” Gates says.
The bill passed the House and Senate and has been signed into law by the Governor. Because it received a significant number of votes in both chambers, the law is effective immediately.
“If an owner wants to provide truly affordable housing, they must align their financial practices with that mission,” says Gates.
Some businesses who were using the program are scrambling to understand the implications of the new law on existing projects. Properties were purchased, applications were filed, money was invested, and loans were secured under the previous rules.
While Gates was resolved about the need to pass HB 21, he is a Republican, a Chairman of a House Committee, and a business owner himself. He says he does not take the potential impacts of policymaking on Texans and Texas businesses lightly.
“Every bill, every law that’s passed gives power to something at the expense of freedom and liberty,” Gates says.