Charlie Mike The Podcast
Charlie Mike The Podcast
From Insurance Office To State House: Jeff Barry On Community, Policy, And Faith
We sit down with Representative Jeff Barry to unpack community-driven leadership, growth pressures in Brazoria County, the realities of lawmaking in Austin, and why water, taxes, and insurance costs are the fights that matter. Faith, service, and practical deals frame a conversation about doing the most good when the spotlight is harsh.
Contact me at Jeff at votejeffberry.com, jeff.berry@berryinsurancegroup.com, or call 281-352-3525
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SPEAKER_02:Yo, welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike the Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Rowe. Today, I have a very special guest in the house today. It's Jeff Barry, my friend. And I am excited and I want to let Jeff introduce himself. He's a busy man, and I am very appreciative that he took the time to come out and speak to us on the podcast today. Jeff wears many hats. Yes. And uh I'm gonna let Jeff introduce himself for the people that don't know who he is. Jeff, tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do.
SPEAKER_01:Hey Raul, it's always a pleasure to be with you. Uh uh I'm actually the owner of Bering Insurance Group here in in Paraline, Texas, been here for uh 26 years. Uh, gonna be 27 here coming up soon. Um, but uh I'm also the state representative for House District 29 and uh recently got elected to that post. And I'm looking forward to continuing the work there. We just had our first special session, and um it's it's nice to be back. You know, I was gone for nine months and come back and uh kind of get settled back in town and you know, hang out with my wife and my friends and and get out into the community and do the things I like doing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's amazing. With uh with you coming up in Paraland, what was the moment you decided, all right, I'm stepping up, I'm running for office?
SPEAKER_01:Well, uh if you recall, um our previous state representative Ed Thompson had been in that office for, I believe, 12 years. Um, and it it it was not on our radar. I think anybody that was involved with with the city or schools or anything locally, it wasn't really on our radar for Ed to step down. And when when Ed stepped down, it was a shocker to a lot of people. He's always done such a great job. We love Ed. Uh, we're very thankful for his service. Uh so there were a few people out there that kind of kicked it around a little bit and did their due diligence with their families and asked all the right questions. And and finally, uh when when those individuals decided that they it wasn't going to be something for them, I stepped up and you know that's that's what I've always done. Um when there's a when there's a void or or or a need in the community, I generally try to try to fill that void if I can, if the if the people will allow me to do it. Um I did the same thing on school board and city council and in other areas of of Fairland. So so that's that's kind of how it happened. It was it wasn't something I I sought out.
SPEAKER_02:You're you're very active in the community. What what are some of the organizations you're part of currently?
SPEAKER_01:Well, um I'm part of the one of the organizations I'm really passionate about um is the Northern Missouri County Education Alliance. Um they are an organization that supports current technology. They're 501c3 here in Parland. I think they've been in in existence since 2007. Um if I recall, it's been a long time. Uh, but um that's that's one of the organizations. I'm also members of of all the chambers, Parland, Alvin, Manville, uh, Brausselsport. Uh I'm also a member of the Associated Association of Builders and Contractors. Uh they support a lot of our industrial trades um around around Texas and the United States. Uh great organization. And and there's others uh that that we I'm a Lions Club member. I support our Lions here in Paraland, um, one of the largest Lions clubs in the state of Texas. And uh we we generally donate to our Lions Camp about$150,000 a year. So we're very, very proud of that to support our kids at the Kerrville Lions Camp too.
SPEAKER_02:So and uh and for you that don't know, the Lions Club in Paraland are everywhere. Yes, they do so much here in the community and elsewhere. I you you can't go anywhere without seeing the Lions Club participating in everything that's going on here in the community, and that's that's tremendous.
SPEAKER_01:That's yeah, if you don't know about lions in Parland, um the the there's a men's club and a women's club. Well, there's several women's clubs in Pareland. Uh so my wife is a lion, I'm a lion. So our whole household it revolves around Lionism. Uh, and we we believe in their mission. So it's a it's a wonderful organization. Lionism.
SPEAKER_02:Is that is that is that a real thing?
SPEAKER_01:Just made that up.
SPEAKER_02:It sounds good. Go with it. Go with it. That's hilarious. Uh since taking office, uh, what's something that surprised you? Um maybe something that you know the normal people on the outside don't see.
SPEAKER_01:You know, um since going in going to Austin, uh the beautiful pink building in Austin, Texas, uh some of the things that people don't necessarily see are are the relationships that are built in the background. Um everybody has their own approach to business uh and doing doing the people's business in Austin. But as a freshman coming in, the one thing that surprised me, and and looking back on it, it shouldn't have surprised me, but what really surprised me the most is that how much of the stuff that we were gonna work on had really already been defined during the interim, which is why you said, Oh, I see you everywhere. Well, I'm I'm everywhere because I want to make sure that I I see everyone, I talk to everyone, hear their concerns, could because now in the interim between this session and next session are when is when the work gets done. A lot of people have this uh misconception that we don't, you know, we're we're only working when we're on the floor. And that couldn't be further from the truth. Uh we're not doing work when we're on the floor. We may be having conversations and so on, but our real work gets done in our offices and our committee meetings when we're when we're we're trying to negotiate different bills and uh and things of that sort. So that's that's that was the surprising, surprising thing to me.
SPEAKER_02:So when when I when I see y'all sitting, you know, for a session, the way I picture it is like uh, you know, left, right, uh someone from the left shooting a spitball over there across to the right. Is it like that?
SPEAKER_01:Maybe not a physical spitball, but there are spitballs, you know, from uh um uh you know, a certain sense. Uh we do have heated discussions. I mean, there's no question about it. You know, we had um we had the recently we had um the THC bill. That was a heated discussion, never really got solved. Um we had uh property taxes. That that's not necessarily a heated discussion, but people are very, very, very passionate, as I as am I, about property taxes. Um you want, you know, we had the some social bills that were very heated. Um we had some bills that addressed um uh financial, you know, supporting uh or removing support from foreign adversaries, you know, and being able to invest our pension funds in foreign, foreign, foreign-owned entities that were our enemies. Why would we ever do that, right? Yeah, yeah. Why would we ever allow those entities to own property in the state of Texas? So those things were very, very uh, you know, passionate and heartfelt, I would say, on the floor. Um so so yeah, and some nights we didn't get out of there till three in the morning. You know, start at 10 a.m., get out of there at 3 a.m. So uh and then we started all over again the next morning.
SPEAKER_02:Is it is it ever like shake hands, let's let's grab a beer? Is it is it everybody's always? Yeah. Always.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, good, good, you know, it it is. And look, you and I can disagree. And uh one thing I want to stress, one of the most important things that I've always said, it's like, look, if you and I, it's it's like Reagan always said, if you and I can agree on 80%, that's a win. Right. Well, you and I are never gonna agree on 100% of the things. And if we do, great. I mean, that's unusual. But there are 20% of the things that we're commonly gonna disagree on, but it's the way in which we disagree. Do we disagree in a cordial manner to say, you know what, Ro, you and I are gonna disagree on this issue, but you're a great guy. Let's go have lunch. You know, so I remember uh I remember um a situation, a situation this session where we were having some conversations with a group of folks. Uh a friend of mine had a bill, and it was about it was a bill to support ATT. And ATT deals with a lot of copper theft. And one of the things is is that you know, people will actually, you know, pull copper out of buildings and um and they'll take those fiber, I mean those copper bundles and go to go to um metal yards, scrapyards, and sell the copper. And the scrapyards don't know where this copper came from. It's just another, it's more phone wire, right? So they buy it and and there you go. Well, next thing you know, they didn't know that it was AT ⁇ T's copper, you know. So they had this bill anyway. So a group of people came by my office. I was I was opposing their bill, or I wanted to change their bill a little bit. And um, you know, we were going back and forth and we weren't really making a whole lot of progress. But at the end of the deal, I said, look, this is the way I see this bill. It's ATT's problem. They're trying to, they're trying to fix their problem on the backs of on the backs of the metal recyclers in the state of Texas. And I understand that. And and everybody agreed. I said, so why don't we get AT ⁇ T to pay for all their training, all the software updates that they have to do for their businesses and things of that sort. Well, the person I was talking to didn't necessarily like that. He goes, man, he goes, I don't know, it's getting time close to lunch. Why don't we go have lunch? You know? So so those kinds of things, you know, and we still have a great relationship today, but we'll disagree. And that's fine. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, the whole time you were saying that, I was hearing, and get paid in two dollar bills. That's when I was hearing. You know, what what are some of the biggest challenges you're seeing right now around, you know, Paraland and around the district?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So uh we have we have several different, I mean, you want to start talking. I mean, we there's a lot of challenges we have, you know, countywide challenges. Um we have we have areas of the county um now, give I think it was since 2023 session, uh the ADA legislature uh allowed allowed uh businesses and property owners to uh de-annex themselves from ETJs, uh, move themselves out of ETJs. That's causing huge problems. Uh we have development, you know, moving into Brizouria County in droves. Uh I think you know, we either have you know 40,000 to 50,000 homes either in planning and or in actual construction phase in Brizzouria County right now. What that means is that that's all count, that's all in the county. Uh and when you're not within the city, a lot of our cities have development, uh, development codes and stuff like that where they have certain rules and guidelines that you have to follow when you build in the cities. But when you're in the county, there there are none. And our counties don't really have the the purview to uh to to create laws. So people move to the county because they want to be free of being in the city. They don't want the traffic, they don't want all the things that go along with living in a city. Um, so they want to be independent. Well, these a lot of our developments are they're like city developments, but they're putting them in the county. And the sheriff's department's the one that has to actually be the sole law enforcement uh officer in the county, which is huge. It's a huge burden on our sheriff's department. We have ESDs that are not new, but we have the largest ESD in the state of Texas, ESD3, in Brisbane County. Um, and they're growing like gangbusters. It's a taxing entity. Um, so again, you know, we need to support these things. Um we have property taxes that we need to control. And it's not really the tax rates per se, but it's the appraisal appraised values that I think people need to uh you know understand how to manage, you know, from the from the appraisal district standpoint. Uh we need to understand better how that's getting done. Um, what's with rationale for some of the values that are coming out of the appraisal district and so on. Um a key point on that is that those those appraisal districts are not county, they're not run by the county. They're actually run by the comptroller's office. So that's a key distinction that I think a lot of people get confused with uh when they think that you know Matt Sebasta in Brizouria County is actually running the appraisal district, and they're not. Um so the that they fall under the jurisdiction of the comptroller's office. We have insurance issues, whether it's property and casualty issues or health insurance issues, big issues. We still have just because we got rid of the border, border used to be number one, property tax is now the number one issue across across our district, and insurance costs are are very close to right now. I I believe that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What what with you your opinion, what's a what's an issue that doesn't make headlines um but really affecting everyday Texans?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I would say the I would say the actually really the health insurance piece. We all talk, we all hear about the health insurance issues at on TV and so on and so forth, but I'm not gonna walk up to you in town and say, man, our health insurance, we need to do something about the cost of our health insurance and this, that, and the other. But if you if you just recently had your homeowner's renewal, you would say, oh man, we need to do something about our homeowners renewal. A lot of people that have health insurance have health insurance under their company. You know, there are small, small business owners that have individual plans and small plans, and we sell those in our office. So I get to talk to these people all the time. Um, and over the years, what's happened is we've we've stacked regulation on top of regulation on top of regulation on these health insurance companies that's causing the cost of these plans to go up. Add to that, the Affordable Care Act in 2010. At the time, everybody, you know, back in the day thought it was a great idea. And it was a great start, I guess. It was it was a line in the sand that somebody had to draw and it got drawn. But with the unlimited claims fund and you know, things of that sort, it became extraordinarily important for insurance companies to start accumulating a lot of money to manage claims. So it's a very complicated issue. People don't necessarily understand how bad it really is. I know it's expensive, but most employees only pay 50% or less of what the total cost is. So uh that's a big issue to me, uh, along with the property and casualty issues we have uh in property taxes. So those are my three big issues that I'm gonna work on.
SPEAKER_02:You know what? Uh I this is one thing that I always want to ask you, especially you know, being in the office and and being in spotlight, you know, politics can get messy. How do you how do you stay focused in serving the people instead of just you know party lines? How do you do that?
SPEAKER_01:Gotta stay grounded.
SPEAKER_02:And how do you stay off of social media? And how do you not read the comments? How do you just say like we're we're different? Yeah. Because, you know, um, um yeah, just I I I respect you, man.
SPEAKER_01:Look, um sometimes you have to make some hard decision and pop decisions in politics, you know, and you know, I'll just take this one decision head on that everybody always falls back on. It was the it was the whole voucher vote, right? It was uh it was a situation where, I mean, all throughout the campaign, I always said that, you know, I'm gonna always support my public schools 100%. I come from public schools, I helped to bring bring, you know, Turner Career in Technology High School to Paraland. I did all those things, right? And I still support our public schools. The one most underserved uh demographic in all of our all of our public schools is are kids with disabilities. So when uh we got to the point where we're gonna have this vote on vouchers and stuff like that. Uh we went into a caucus meeting, you know, the governor was there, the president called into the caucus meeting and so on and so forth. I was still a no, still a no at that point. Um, but then once I got to the floor, I start to realize that they have 81 votes already. So, so I lost. And I'm fine with I'm fine with that. But what happened was when leadership comes to you and says, hey, you know, if you had your choice, what what is it that you can get into this bill that would make you vote for this bill? And I gave them a list, you know, on a on a card, and I said, I want 80% of all the money to go to kids with disabilities or economically disadvantaged permanently, not just for one year. I want uh annual audits to private schools. I want those to happen annually. I want the uh I want testing, the the tests that these students take that are getting the ESA uh funding. I want those test scores to go to TEA so that they can be reported to um to uh to TEA and reported to the public because it's public money. And then lastly, I wanted to I wanted to lock it in at a billion dollars on on the actual limit of money that we could spend. The way the bill was originally written was the 80% was gonna happen, but just for the first year. And then the billion dollars was gonna happen, but just for the first year, they were gonna roll the waiting list into the into the cost associated with that bill. So there's a lot of dynamics going on. And when I I said I want to lock in at a billion dollars, I really thought that that was a deal breaker. When I said that I wanted to make 80% uh of the kids with disabilities and economic disadvantaged uh have all the money, 80% of them, I thought that was going to be a deal breaker. And then only to realize that as you start looking at the cost of rolling in the waiting list, you know, and it being a billion dollars, by 2030, that cost would have risen to over four and a half to five billion dollars. This is on the taxpayers of of Texas, okay? And that we would have been obligated to pay that money. So what we did was, what I felt like I did was I protected kids with disabilities and those that are economically disadvantaged by giving them 80% of the money in perpetuity. And in order for us to increase the amount of money that the state of Texas has to pay, I required them to come back to the legislature and ask for more money. So the waiting list no longer rolls in automatically. And then the other things are kind of dichotomies that help control uh the cost, uh, control the the way that the the vouchers are distributed or whatever, and the reporting associated with that. So when all was said and done, I was a no, I lost. So if I lost a battle, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna try and get the best deal I can possibly get. And if you're gonna try and if you're gonna get five amendments on a bill, you have to vote for the bill. That's just the way it works in Austin. So if I go and it doesn't matter what it is, we had we had a couple bills that we worked on with the city uh for small lot sizes. They came in and we we had conversations with bill authors. The bill author, you know, implemented everything that we asked. So I'm obligated to to vote for that bill. Even though I still don't think it's a great bill, it's not as bad as it was.
SPEAKER_02:Uh that makes sense 100%. And to me, I understand what you're saying as well. With veterans and first responders are a big part of this community. Uh what's your take on how we can better support them after service?
SPEAKER_01:After service? Yes, sir. Uh so this session, what we did, we had a bill that that got passed, this session that that helped that helped the um uh surviving spouses of veterans that were disabled who ultimately paid the the ultimate price and passed. Those those spouses are now going to continue to have have coverage on you know tax exemptions and things of that sort. Uh so that's something new. Um there's not there's not any sort of undercurrent, I would say, in Austin that is trying to oppose our veterans and our service members whatsoever. Um I tried working on a bill to um get the Operation Lone Star soldiers uh back pay for um for their their service time going towards their retirement, because if you get deployed on a state level, it turns out that you don't get you don't get time. You don't get service time for that towards your retirement. It's only if you're federally deployed do you get that money. Um I got to a point where you know I think I think the legislature was a little bit confused on really what was going on, even though they knew how to do it, we had to bridge a gap between the state and the federal government because the federal government tracks that, the state doesn't. And that's where things kind of fell through the cracks. You know, we needed to literally update our state software in order to be able to track it. And then how do we track it and how do we calculate all the back pay? And I mean, it would have been um it would have been a yeoman's feat to be able to do it. I'm not saying that I still don't want to get that done. Right. I just um right now what I've done is I've gotten to a point where I think I can get a bill to the floor that says that state, if you're on state deployment, you can have like a 401k created under the state, state plan to to contribute to that. Um I'm still working out the details.
SPEAKER_02:But I'm I'm curious, uh who's someone that's influenced the way you lead and serve?
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, um you know, I I just don't really know. Um you know, growing up, you know, my parents were always they've they're the ones that probably influenced me the most. You know, it was you know, always think about others before yourself. You know, anytime that anytime that I do anything, you know, how is this gonna affect others? Even in my business, you know, if if I'm a client of mine, how do I want to be treated, you know, when it comes to these situations? And so I I always I always use that line of line of thought when when dealing with e whether my clients or my constituents or or anybody, you know, so so that's that's kind of the that's kind of what's influenced me the most is is you know just my Christian grounding. I'm I'm grounded in Christ all day long, every day. And if if I'm not, you can get really lost in in a lot of these things, right? You have people that want to, you know, take you places and take you to dinners and do all these things all the time, and you can get lost in what the real goal is. The real goal is to better affect my district. How am I going to address the needs of my district? And when you people say this all the time, well, when you go to Austin, when people go to Austin, they just get lost in all this stuff. It's easy to do. You just have to be focused on what it is, you know. I call it headstrong. You have to be, you know, headstrong in in knowing why you're there and knowing knowing the fact that you're there temporarily. Because I have to come back and face face everyone. Yeah. I have to face my district. I have to sit across this table and look at you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, that's uh that's I love that. Family. Yeah. And you and your faith. Uh you know, when you when you hear when you hear the phrase self uh service before self, what does that mean to you personally, especially with you being a veteran?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, you know, you always have to uh have your eye on the greater good. You always have to have your eye on the greater good. It's not about me. And and let's just kind of take a step back. You know, we're we're not here because we're put here. God put me here, and the reason I'm here is to be able to to leave my impression upon my community, my state, my world, or whatever it is. And um, I'm gonna be there. I want to leave, I want to leave this community better off today, uh, tomorrow than it is today. And I hope that I can lead in that way uh so that people can can look at the way that I've led in the past to say, you know what, he's always done the right thing. And I feel like I've always done the right thing. And um I know that there are those on social media that say otherwise. I'm sure you you probably uh I can name them all if you wanted to, but um, there are quite a few folks out there that are um probably disappointed in some votes or something like that. Uh one in particular, but um I get it. But what I would encourage all those individuals to do is call me. I everybody has my cell phone number. My cell phone number is plastered all over the place. I have a district office here in Parland, I have one in Austin. I'm I'm available, I'm probably one of the most available rep representatives in the house. So I'm in the community all the time and I'm easy easily accessible. So service before self, I always give to my community before I even think of myself. So that is always the way it is for me.
SPEAKER_02:I uh I love that about you, and I truly believe that. And uh I go to bat for you because I believe in you and and that's uh that's the truth. I appreciate it. I really do. I really do. What's uh what's one mission or goal that you're focused on for the next couple of years?
SPEAKER_01:We're just trying to get I'm I'm really trying to I'm I'm trying to get some dynamic funding for various things. You know, we you may have you may have heard that we have all these propositions on the ballot right now. Proposition four is a water fund, it's a billion-dollar water fund. Um it's a billion dollars a year that the state of Texas is going to guarantee for the next 20 years to address water issues. Um, if there's any one thing that you know I want to accomplish, I want people, whether it be the legislature or municipalities or whatnot, to understand the importance of infrastructure maintenance. If we can if we can encourage every municipality, every county in the state of Texas to take that challenge on, we would be a lot better off today. Uh we're gonna be a lot better off, let's say in two years than we are today because we're losing so much water. It's a precious resource that we have. Uh, it's probably one of the most valuable resource because we need it as humans to live, we need it in industry to drive business and support employment and so on. Um we need it all over. It's it's just the one basic fundamental piece thing we need. If we can get drive that home and try to make sure that our cities and municipalities are focused on updating their infrastructure uh over the next couple of years, I think we're gonna see a drastic change in the way that our water level levels look um and utilization for water so we can protect that over the next if we focus on it the next couple years we can protect the water water for a generation when when it's all said and done what what kind of legacy does Jeff Barry want to leave behind? No legacy here. Just gonna be I'm just gonna go. You know, let someone else take up the charge and hopefully you know hopefully whoever whoever does that um is in it for the right reasons. You know I still got a long way to go I hope and as long as the you know the citizens of you know District 29 want to continue to elect me to to do the job for them I'm happy to do it. But there will come a day and it generally does except for a handful of folks uh in the legislature where where those days those come to an end. And um it's not necessarily their fault. It's just things change and uh maybe they just weren't willing to change with the way their community's changed. I always feel like I have a pulse in our community um I'm in it for our community uh I'm in the community so I can continue to have a pulse in our community and uh I hope that whenever it's all said and done people know that I I meant that and I was in it for them not just for me.
SPEAKER_02:I think the true residents and the people that truly know you see that and see the hard work that you're you're you're doing. Well thank you. For anyone that's listening right now and who wants to make a difference in the community what advice would you give them I would say pick pick an organization and get involved.
SPEAKER_01:You know it doesn't have to be every day it doesn't have to be every week it could be monthly or or or or whatever whether it's your your church you want to get involved in whether it's a nonprofit do something to give back to our community and that's what I've always done. When uh my wife and I realized we weren't going to have a family per se you know we dedicated all of our time and energy into education that was a that was a decision we both made. But it doesn't have to be education it could be anything it could be help the homeless make our community better do something to address and affect our community whatever that is whatever you're passionate about. I know this lady who's passionate about dogs so she goes to the SBCA every single day. This lady doesn't have to work but she likes to go to the SBCA every single day and and walk dogs that's a value to that organization. Right. Right? And that's giving back in a big way to to them yeah so um just give back and it doesn't have to be a big way.
SPEAKER_02:That's that's amazing. Uh final thoughts what would you like to say to the people if they want to reach out to you um if they just like to say something to you anything.
SPEAKER_01:I mean you can shoot me an email um my email's um Jeff at votejeffberry.com or jeff dot berry at berry insurance group dot com or I have a house email uh call me on my cell phone 281-3523525 is my cell phone number uh feel free to use it tell you a funny story uh about that I sent out a bunch a bunch of Christmas cards last year after the election and stuff I think I would send out about 30 000 of them maybe more um people started I had my cell phone number on the card you know and I said hey if you want to contact me please feel free or whatever people were calling the number just to see if someone would answer the phone for but I I absolutely it's a funny thing then they would just hang up like is this Jeff Barry? Yes it is oh and they laugh and they hang up you know so uh just so you know that is a real number and I'm always here for anybody that needs my assistance at all.
SPEAKER_02:So that's that's amazing. Yeah uh Jeff again I want to say thank you for giving me your time today and I really appreciate you coming in and just spending some time with me and letting me just my pleasure it's been too long. It really has and I I I tell you man um just watching you is is amazing and continue the work and congratulations on the new baby too thank you thank you thank you I appreciate it you you just get him back for two months walking around everywhere I can't believe it. I cannot believe it all right Jeff thank you thank you again I appreciate you you're welcome anytime
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