Today's Lackland Air Force Base

Lackland Air Force Base, popularly known as the “Gateway to the Air Force,” is located at the edge of San Antonio’s south-west suburbs, and is unique for several reasons. It is a training base, and has been ever since construction began on a permanent facility to train aviation cadets in 1941. If you have served in the US Air Force at any time since the Korean War, the odds are very high that you have come to Lackland, since it was designated the main training base for officer and enlisted Army Air Force recruits in 1946, and continued in that capacity for the Air Force – although wartime demands during Korea and Vietnam sent overflow training missions temporarily to other bases in Texas, California and New York.

Another singular oddity of Lackland is that for many years, it was an Air Force base without a flight line. Beginning as just another annex of Kelly – and housed in tents and flimsy temporary barracks, Lackland drew in more training missions, more and more buildings and schools, eventually becoming the sole provider of enlisted Basic Military Training (BMT) for regular active duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, even as Air Force basic and commissioned officer training moved to Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Ironically, in 2001, Lackland’s parent base of Kelly AFB shrank to a mere field annex of Lackland, following the closing of the San Antonio Air Logistics Center. With that closing, Lackland finally acquired an operational flight-line and a flying mission. Being relatively new, in contrast to established military bases around San Antonio – Randolph, Brooks, Kelly and Fort Sam Houston – Lackland itself boasts little in the way of historic buildings. Historical relics are confined to a half-century of aviation history, on static display around the perimeter of the parade grounds. Aircraft on display there include a B-52 Stratofortress, F-4 Phantom II, an SR-71 Blackbird, C-121 Constellation, B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-25 Mitchell. Every Friday morning, Lackland AFB hosts graduation exercises and parades at that parade ground, for graduates of Air Force Basic Military Training.

Well into the 1990s, much of Lackland was housed in WWII/Korea era one or two-storey temporary buildings. Beginning in the late 1960s, when these structures were well past their “best if used by date,” substantial renovations and upgrades began with the construction of Wilford Hall. A modern, permanent 9-story hospital building and a 500-bed wing added several years later replaced a sprawl of 94 flimsy temporary buildings. A series of huge, and rather futuristic-appearing structures – with a ground-level core housing classrooms, mess halls and offices, and multiple upper-level barracks wings, built out on stilts above concrete pads which afforded shelter from the weather consolidated and replaced facilities which had formerly been scattered just as much as the hospital operations.

Today, Lackland hosts more than just Basic Military Training. Working dogs and handlers for the DOD and various federal agencies are trained at Lackland, as well as Air Force Security Police personnel, pararescue specialists, explosive ordinance disposal experts and tactical air control, as well as enlisted aircrew specialists are all trained at Lackland. The Air Force Audit agency, Air Force News, and Tops in Blue – the annual traveling Air Force talent contest are all headquartered there as well as the Defense Language Institute’s English Language Center, and the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, which offers technical training for enlisted students from Air Forces throughout North and South America and the Caribbean. Another portion of Lackland, formerly a part of Kelly, is the Security Hill complex, which houses the Air Forces’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, among others.

Nearby attractions include San Antonio’s Sea World, and Nelson Wolff Stadium, home of San Antonio’s minor-league baseball team, the San Antonio Missions – who often host ‘military nights.’ Suburbs and developments close to Lackland include Lackland Terrace, Rainbow Hills, Adams Hill, Heritage and Oak Creek.

A River Flows Through It

As the Riverwalk of San Antonio is such an ornament to the city and such a popular tourist attraction (only second after the Alamo) that one of the nicknames for our fair town is 'The River City' you'd think that any municipal organization possessing the necessary attribute – a permanent body of water deeper than a puddle in, or flowing through downtown – would have been been seen as a gift and an opportunity to do something like it. Maybe not cheek by cheek eateries and boutiques – but at least a pleasant string park, paralleling the river bank can this be created, for the benefit of the residents, the enriching of those retail establishments lucky to overlook it, and the sheer aesthetic pleasure of visitors to such a blessed community.

And so has the community of Boerne done, for a number of blocks paralleling River Road, on either side of Main Street. There is a generous paved trail, some added landscaping and stone work, paralleling the northern bank of Cibolo Creek as it runs through town. It seems that back in the day, Cibolo Creek was just as prone to overflow its banks and flood out parts of Boerne – just as the San Antonio River did, although on a much grander scale. We had noticed the new construction being done on the park, once we discovered Route 46/River Road; the back way between San Antonio and Boerne. So, last weekend we took advantage of slightly cooler temperatures to make a return trip to Boerne, as my daughter had her eye on certain items at the Squirrel's Nest Resale Shop. The Squirrel's Nest benefits Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation – an organization that everyone in this part of Texas ought to know about and support, since they are the go-to people when you find an injured, distressed and otherwise out-of-place wild animal or bird.

We had lunch at the Bear Moon Café – which was quite good; everything is made in-house and the servings are generous. Then we walked around a bit, and checked out some of the shops. This was not so much for what was in them, a lot of which was terribly high-end and pricy, but rather to look at the buildings themselves, many of which are historic old houses and business premises, and enormously charming in that respect. They were built for Texas, in the days before air conditioning, and some of them even before electrification: small rooms which opened into other rooms, or a central hall, with high ceilings, and tall windows. Usually there was a wide, shaded porch across the front, and if two-storied, those rooms on the upper floor also opened onto a verandah..

The Riverside Park already seems to be popular; we saw one family eating a picnic lunch, and a number of others settled in with fishing gear, sending their hooks into the lazy green water. The ducks and geese had all sought out shady places, on the opposite bank, though. The only other water critters we saw were turtles; and we didn't realize at first that they were turtles. I thought their heads sticking up above the surface were just lengths of broken branch, until the heads vanished below the water, and there was a soup-bowl sized turtle, just dimly seen, diving down into deeper water.

All in all, a lovely afternoon in the Hill Country. That was my Saturday – and yours?

Texas Hill Country

Just north of San Antonio lies a majestic, expansive countryside that is a natural world all onto its own.  Residents of San Antonio know it as a wild and untamed patch of land that extends as far as the eye can see, while outsiders simply know it as the “Texas Hill Country.”

There is much to see and do in this area, from strolling down the quaint and picturesque Main Street in search of a one of a kind item to hiking or biking through scenic landscapes full of wonder.  In fact, there are several rugged trails scattered throughout the Texas Hill Country with different sections of terrain that makes these trails passable by foot or by horse, or one can simply venture off and explore the hidden countryside itself.  Common hiking trail favorites include Pedernales Falls State Park, Enchanted Rock State Natural Rock, Lost Maples State Natural Area as well as many other offerings.  Some of these areas even allow for rock climbing, which one has the opportunity to do after besting one of these trails.  Just being on top one of these granite giants can take a rock climber to a whole other world.  Not to mention the elation one has after reaching the top of one of these monoliths.

The area has no shortage of wildlife one can spot and the beautiful patches of wildflowers are endless.  The area also offers tubing, which is one of San Antonio’s favorite summer sports.  The water is crystalline and usually warm to the touch.  There are also often shuttles available around the river areas.

Now My Dream Texas Garden

by Celia Hayes

In my last post I outlined what I would like to have as my dream Texas dream retirement home; a lot about the houses and some generalities about the landscape. I'd like a slightly rolling property, oriented towards the west, and studded with a handful of oak trees and a bit of a wildflower meadow at a slight distance. I didn't put in much about the garden around it ... just that there would be one. Being that I would like this dream home in the Hill Country someplace, I'd have to take care of the tender plants during those cold winter snaps when it gets down to or below freezing. Plants that scrape through a cold snap in San Antonio would not do as well during the winter in the Hills ... so I would have to have some kind of accommodation for them. A permanent small greenhouse would be a graceful addition to my notion of a compound of small cottages – especially one of those ornate Victorian style ones.

I'd actually look to having a good-sized vegetable and herb garden; what I have now but expanded at least four times. I have read good things about straw-bale gardening – that is, raised beds constructed of straw-bales. In any case, raised beds, and filled with good soil and the proper nutrients. A good-sized kitchen garden would have to be surrounded with a stout wire fence, though. It is exasperating to have a good crop of tomatoes or squash coming in, only to discover that hungry rodents have helped themselves. I'd have a good variety of kitchen herbs, too – hanging from baskets, of course. Herbs seem to do incredibly well in coconut-fiber lined baskets; this year I have one with a thyme plant spilling over the side and hanging halfway to the ground – and I've never before gotten thyme to thrive in a terra cotta pot. Perhaps I'd connect two of the cottages with an arbor of unpeeled cedar poles, to hang the baskets of herbs from.

I'd add a scattering of trees to the oaks on my dream property; at least a couple of almond verbenas, which start as shrubs and with any encouragement at all turn into medium sized ornamental trees. They are not much to look at, but the clusters of tiny flowers have the most amazing sweet almond smell. I'd have some redbud trees for the look of them, and finally a couple of bearing fruit trees; peaches, or plums most likely, and a good pecan tree, too. The trees would bridge the gap between the practical vegetable garden, and the ornamental garden – which would be heavily tilted towards native and native-adapted plants which look after themselves, pretty much.

There would be roses, though – I couldn't get along without roses, although they would also be the hardy sorts, and picked out more for their scent than their appearance. There would be shrubs to attract birds, butterflies and bees, much as I have now, only spread out a little more generously. I'd have a large area close to the entertainment kitchen and the grill paved in brick or stone ... and that is where the main garden ornament would be; a fountain; a good-sized tall stone one, rather like the ones that adorn the private courtyards in the old houses I used to see in Spain, with a wide enough ledge to sit on surrounding the lower pool. And when I had a party, the guests could enjoy the sound of trickling water, the scent of almond verbena, and look at the late afternoon sun setting in the distance ...

and that is my dream Texas Hill Country garden – what is yours?

Gov. Perry Attends Grand Opening of Caterpillar Manufacturing Facility

Gov. Rick Perry toured Caterpillar Inc.'s new hydraulic excavator manufacturing plant, which has been expanded thanks to a $1.175 million investment from the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) in 2010. Caterpillar has already created 225 new jobs and will generate $200 million in capital investment with the new facility, and plans to continue hiring in Victoria.

"Caterpillar is no stranger to the way we do business here in Texas, and they've made it clear, through commitment after commitment, they like what they see," Gov. Perry said. "We happily return that sentiment and remain committed to our successful formula of low taxes, predictable regulations, fair courts and skilled workforce that has made Texas' jobs climate second to none."

Gov. Perry also congratulated Caterpillar on finding the right place for this facility in Victoria and making the right call to build in Texas, and congratulated Victoria on officially becoming home to this manufacturing center which expands Caterpillar's presence in Texas to include about 3,000 employees.

Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. The new plant triples the company's current domestic production capacity for hydraulic excavators, and doubles the number of Caterpillar employees in the U.S. making excavators.

"This new facility in Victoria will help us better serve our customers in North America, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to meet some of our newest employees and to see first-hand a factory that I am sure will be among the very best we have anywhere in the world," Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman said.

In 2008, the company received an $8.5 million investment through the TEF to bring an engine manufacturing facility to Seguin, creating more than 1,400 jobs $111 million in capital investment. Caterpillar also has operating locations across the state, including Amarillo, Channelview, Coppell, Dallas, Denison, De Soto, El Paso, Fort Worth, Garland, Houston, Laredo, Mabank, McAllen, McKinney, Midland, Sherman, Waco and Waskom.

The Legislature created the TEF in 2003 and has re-appropriated funding in every legislative session since then to help ensure the growth of Texas businesses and create more jobs throughout the state. TEF projects must be approved by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The fund has since become one of the state's most competitive tools to recruit and bolster business. To date, the TEF has invested more than $470 million and closed the deal on projects generating more than 63,400 new jobs and more than $22.3 billion in capital investment in the state.

For more information about Caterpillar, please visit http://www.caterpillar.com.

For more information about the TEF, please visit http://www.texaswideopenforbusiness.com/incentives-financing/tef.php or http://www.governor.state.tx.us.

Fort Sam Houston

Fort Sam Houston is considered to be the home of Army medicine, since all Army medical training was consolidated there at the end of World War Two. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission of 2005 recommended that all military medical training be consolidated at Fort Sam Houston – popularly known as “Fort Sam.” Both Navy and Air Force medical training programs are scheduled to move from their present locations in the near future. But Fort Sam was not always the home of military medicine – for at least fifty years, it was the main supply depot and headquarters for the US Army on the southwestern frontier . . . and in 1910 it was the birthplace of military aviation, when then-Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois took off from the parade ground in a 1909 Wright Flyer, dubbed “Army Airplane #1” for a series of demonstration flights.

Fort Sam Houston started as a single structure, now known as the Quadrangle, an open courtyard with an ornamental clock tower at one end. It was originally meant as a supply depot – and to replace the various existing warehouse structures around the Alamo, which had been used for that purpose by various armies ever since the Alamo was abandoned as a mission and repurposed as a military garrison. By the mid 1870s, military needs had rather outpaced those capabilities offered by crumbling ranges of buildings around Alamo Plaza – and in any case, urban San Antonio had spread out far enough to encompass the old mission. The Army wanted to close the post to save money – and in response, the City of San Antonio donated 92 acres of land on the low hills north of town.

This was a chance to build a new and more up-to-date structure; lots of clean new warehouse space to store Army supplies brought up from Galveston and other coastal ports, offices for the supply sergeants and officers to work in, a marshalling yards for wagons, water and pasturage for those teams of draft horses who hauled those supplies to their eventual destination – those Army forts on the far frontier.

Curiously, the Quadrangle also served as a prison for a short time in 1886 – Geronimo, the last of the fighting Apache chiefs and some of his warriors were held in the quadrangle for 40 days, while the federal government decided what to do with him. It is purely legend that the small herd of deer housed in the Quadrangle today are descended from a herd provided to Geronimo provided as part of his rations. (The Quadrangle is today open to the public.)

By the time of Geronimo’s short visit, Fort Sam was the second largest military post in the United States; practically the entire garrison was posted overseas to fight in the Spanish-American War. Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” rendezvoused and trained there before shipping to Cuba to charge up San Juan Hill. Fort Sam also supplied the men and material for General John “Black Jack” Pershing’s expedition into Mexico, chasing after Pancho Villa in 1916. Dwight Eisenhower met and married his wife, Mamie Dowd while stationed at Fort Sam as a young lieutenant. General Billy Mitchell was assigned to Fort Sam after being court-martialed and demoted. Practically every Army officer serving since 1880 and up until World War II passed through Fort Sam, at one time or another.

Since many of the approximately 900 historical structures on post - quarters, barracks and administrative buildings - are still in use, only the Quadrangle is open to the general public. However, there are two museums on post, which between them give a very good idea of the scope of Fort Sam’s history and present missions: The Fort Sam Houston Museum, and the US Army Medical Department Museum. In addition to serving as headquarters for Army Medical Command, Headquarters for US Army South and US Army North, Fort Sam also hosts Brooke Army Medical Center.

Fort Sam Houston now covers more than 3,000 acres, just north of downtown San Antonio, on the east side of town adjacent to IH 35 on one side, and significant roadways such as Rittiman, Harry Wurzbach, and North New Braunfels. It is adjacent to the San Antonio Country Club, Mahncke Park, and surrounded by suburbs such as Terrell Hills, Tobin Hill and Government Hill. Government Hill, which contains many distinctive old houses in poor condition, has been designated a historic area, and is considered by many to be in the early stages of gentrification. The Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery is also adjacent to the post.

The Way of the Okra

Although I have only one huge okra plant, and a couple of others which have produced intermittently and spasmodically, individual okes (is that the singular of okra, like meese should be the singular of moose?) my garden just doesn't seem to produced sufficient of them in a short period of time to make a decent batch of okra pickles on any given day. At least, not enough to be worth firing up the canning kettle. It's really not worth heating up the kitchen in my San Antonio home unless there are at least three quarts or six pints in contention ... and my okra plants just aren't that prolific. So I cheated – I went and bought two pounds of okra at the Indian market (cunningly disguised as a gas station on the corner of 410 and Starcrest) and added into it the gleanings of the last week or so and made a batch of spicy okra pickles from a recipe that I found on the interned and amended. Oddly enough, we like okra as pickles, in gumbo and even breaded and deep-fried, in which format it is as addictive as popcorn although somewhat more fattening ... but okra on it's own ... that is a vegetable that needs work.

Basically, make a pickling brine from 2 ⅔ cup cider vinegar and 1 ½ cup water, and 1 ½ teaspoons salt, and when it comes to a simmer, either add to it, or steep in a tea-ball, 2 Tbsp. pickling spices.

I used another net-recipe for pickling spice, which called for 2 Tbsp. mustard seeds, 2 Tbsp. whole allspice, 2 teasp coriander seeds, the same of cloves, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger and the same of dried red pepper flakes, a crumbled bay leaf and a two-inch length of cinnamon stick. This makes more than needed for a single batch, so save the remainder for the next batch.

Meanwhile, pack the raw okra into 2 hot and sterilized 1-quart jars, and tuck in among the packed oke pods in each jar, 2-3 peeled and lightly crushed garlic cloves, 2-3 dried chili pods (I used ripe red jalapeno and paprika pods from my garden) and two or three small bay leaves ... I have a small bay tree in the garden, so again ... from my garden. It helps to pack the first layer of okra in the jar with the wide end down, and then wedge the next layer into it pointy end down, and distribute the garlic cloves, the pepper pods and the bay leaves as they fit. Fill the jars with okra and all until just below the point on the jar where the threaded rim begins, then pour in the hot brine and process at least 20 minutes in boiling water, as per the usual canning instructions.

This week, one of our dinners included a salad – of halved fresh garden tomatoes and sliced segments of home-pickled okra, adorned with crumbles of feta cheese and fresh parsley – again from the garden – and splashed with some olive oil. Alas, the olive is not home-grown from my own tree. That will take ... a good few more decades.

My Dream House

by Celia Hayes

I have about decided what I should like to live in, as my Texas dream house. Alas, it is not the house that I currently live in, which is a comfortable, small and relatively undistinguished tract house in a pleasant neighborhood full of other homes filled with variations on the same generic theme of brick and siding and vaguely neo-classical trimmings. Lots of tall windows, fan-lights, and fireplaces; shoot a brick at supersonic speed across those parts of San Antonio built up in the last thirty years and you'd hit two or three or four dozen pretty much like it.

No, what I would like in the way of the retirement property is pretty much what my parents got for themselves, when all of us had flown the parental nest; they built a nice house with a verandah all the way around it, on a knoll with a view out in the country. I wouldn't go as far out as my parents did – for much of their lives together, directions to their current residence usually included the phrase, "Turn off of the pavement and onto the dirt road." I've a liking for paved roads, myself – bouncing from rut to rut and dodging the gullies carved into a dirt road after a rain is not my idea of fun.

But I would like a house of a certain sort – a small one of a particular tradition. Not a single big house, but an eccentric collection of cottages, set in a rambling garden. A little house of mine – and two or three others, one for my daughter, and another one or two which would serve as guest quarters when I had company, just enough set apart that we all would have privacy. I'd love to have a well, with one of those old windmill pumps, to bring the water to an above-ground concrete or wooden cistern on legs ... just as I have seen on some old properties here and there. There would be a scattering of oak trees – post oaks, live oaks, red oaks, for the shade, and to hang a wooden swing from a thick branch that parallels the ground.

The grounds around would be planted with native plants and tough adapted old roses, a tangle of jasmine somewhere, which would bring their scent in through the windows on those spring days before the summer heat sets in. There would be a wildflower meadow on the part of the property distant from the houses and I'd like a bit of a view from here and there, so my dream house and the others would probably have to be on a gentle slope. I don't need a spectacular view, but I would like it to be mostly of countryside: Rolling hills, and all of that, maybe a glimpse of a distant creek or river. I think I would like the view to be towards the west – to catch the sunset, late in the afternoon.

As for the little houses on the property ... I would love them to be Craftsman-style bungalows or small Texas farmhouses, maybe even a one or two of them might be repurposed log cabins. There are one or two lovely ones that I have noted here and there and admired extravagantly. I am thinking of the kind with a main room and a loft bedroom over, a kitchen lean-to on the back and a deep porch across the front. One or two of those would suit just fine, but even just a couple of those kit houses from Home Depot would work well, assuming that I could adorn them with vintage architectural surplus.

The final element that I would like in my dream country residence would be a separate entertainment kitchen – just one large room set up to do brewing and cheese-making, an industrial-sized stove and a deep sink, and outside of it, another deep porch with a barbeque grill and enough space to throw a good party. That's my dream Texas dream home – what's yours?

Today's Randolph Air Force Base

Randolph Air Force Base serves primarily as Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, as well as headquarters for the Air Force Personnel Center and the Air Force Recruiting Service. It is home to the 12th Flying Training Wing, whose mission is to conduct pilot instructor training and combat systems officer training. It is located a little east of Universal City, an independent municipality located north and east of downtown San Antonio. These days Randolph looks as if it is right on the edge of the various suburbs, spreading out along that length of IH-35 which connects Austin and San Antonio, and Loop 1604, the ring-road which encircles San Antonio – but when it was first completed in 1930 it was some distance out in the country. Two parallel runways, with a central tower ringed by concentric avenues and incorporating the very latest architectural design and modern conveniences; the future aerodrome had arrived! The central part of Randolph AFB today, centered around the trademark Building #100 (the so-called“Taj Mahal” tower) is indeed a historical district, having that in common with the older portions of Ft. Sam Houston.

Randolph was planned all of a piece and all at once, unlike many other military bases and posts, which usually come about in an untidy sprawl of bits and pieces, added onto and expanded as necessity, military mission and finances permit. Randolph Field was intended to be the showplace of the brand-new Army Air Corps, created in 1926 by an act of Congress. This act also created two new general officer positions; one of them was General Frank P. Lahm, who was tasked with organizing all flying training for the new corps. No sooner than General Lahm had set up his training command, then he discovered that existing flight-training facilities at Kelly and Brooks Fields were completely inadequate temporary buildings, put up during World War I, and expected to last no longer than a few years. By the early 1920s, the urban sprawl which has now entirely engulfed those two locations had begun to make flight operations difficult, so General Lahm began casting around for a new location: far enough from San Antonio that starting afresh wouldn’t be a problem, and not so far as to be inconvenient.

The original plans for Randolph were drawn up by a young officer, 1Lt. Harold Clark, who- although having trained as an architect – was serving as the dispatch officer in the Kelly Field motor pool. He used the back of old dispatch sheets to sketch out his idea of a perfect “Air City,” which he daringly showed to General Lahm. General Lahm was so pleased that he made Lt. Clark the architect-in-charge of the building project. Work was undertaken on the new project by the US Army Corps of Engineers – the largest project they had undertaken since completing the Panama Canal. The entire complex was finished in three years. Ironically, Captain William Millican Randolph, the flier for whom the “air city” would be named, was actually a member of the name-selection committee, when he was killed in a 1928 air crash at Gorman, Texas. (Capt. Randolph is buried in the Ft. Sam Houston Cemetery.) The resulting facility was built in a very pleasing Art Deco and Spanish Colonial style, of hollow-core tile and conblock covered in stucco, with tile roofs. Many were built to standard institutional plans common to the time, but many – like the Taj – were unique, and one-off structures.

Randolph Field was dedicated on June 30th, 1930, and was functioning as the Air Corps flying school by late 1931. The Congressional act which established the Corps required that 90% of the commissioned officers serving in it be qualified as pilots, and so quite early on, Randolph was known unofficially as “The West Point of the Air.” A movie by that name was filmed on location in 1934 – and the overall layout of the field itself was unique, in being designed specifically for military aviation operations.

Upon establishment of the Air Force as a separate military service in 1947, Randolph was renamed Randolph Air Force base. In addition to the primary mission of providing basic pilot training, instructor pilot training, undergraduate navigator training and advanced electronic warfare officer training, Randolph also hosts the Air Force Manpower Agency, the Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron, the Air Force Services Agency, the Joint Personal Property Shipping Office and the 340th Flying Training Group.

Randolph AFB hosts regular air shows, and on the 4th of July in alternate years, a spectacular and very popular firework display. Adjacent communities, which provide a wide range of off-base housing options include Schertz, Universal City, Live Oak, Selma, Converse, Garden Ridge and Windcrest, as well north-east suburbs of San Antonio itself.

Gov. Perry: Sales Tax Holiday Gives Texas Families the Opportunity to Gear Up for the School Year

Thursday, August 16, 2012  •  Austin, Texas  •  Press Release'

Gov. Rick Perry encouraged Texas families to get started on their back-to-school shopping during the state's sales tax holiday this weekend, which exempts school supplies, clothing, shoes and backpacks priced at less than $100 from state and local sales taxes. This year's tax-free weekend runs from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 17, until midnight on Sunday, August 19.

"As summer turns to fall and Texas children get ready to head back into the classroom, the state's sales tax holiday provides a great opportunity for families to get the supplies they need to help their children succeed in the upcoming school year," Gov. Perry said. "I encourage Texans to hit the stores this weekend and take advantage of this holiday as we gear up for another great school year in Texas."

While shoes and clothing priced under $100 have been exempt from sales taxes during the holiday since its inception in 1999, Gov. Perry signed HB 1801 in 2009 adding a variety of school supplies to the exemption list, ranging from pens and pencils to scissors and calculators. Texas shoppers can save about $8 for every $100 they spend, and are expected to save a total $64.8 million in state and local sales tax during this year's holiday weekend. Texas shoppers have saved $626.9 million since the first tax-free holiday in 1999.

"Since 1999 shoppers have taken advantage of the sales tax holiday and saved money in their budgets," Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said. "Families gearing up for the new school year do not have to worry about paying sales tax for many back-to-school items from clothing and shoes to school supplies this weekend."

"The Texas sales tax holiday weekend has grown in popularity each year since its inception in 1999. It presents a wonderful opportunity for parents to make sure their children are well-stocked with the supplies and clothing they need to start the school year on a positive note," Ronnie Volkening, president and CEO of the Texas Retailers Association, said. "Additionally, Texas retailers are providing great bargains on popular items throughout their stores, providing even greater saving opportunities for Texas families this weekend."

For more information about the sales tax holiday, or to view a list of tax exempt items, please visit http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx98_490/tx98_490.html.