Burt Solomons

Burt Rowe Solomons (born October 31, 1950) is an attorney from North Carrollton, Texas, who was from 1995 to 2013 a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 65 in suburban southeastern Denton County.

Background

Solomons was born and reared in Dallas, Texas, where he attended Thomas Jefferson High School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1972 from Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He subsequently received a Master of Public Administration degree from Southern Methodist University in University Park outside Dallas, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Tulsa College of Law in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 1978, Solomons was named assistant city attorney and was thereafter, briefly, the acting city attorney of Denton. He was the presiding municipal judge in Carrollton from 1987 to 1993 and an alternate municipal judge in Lewisville and Flower Mound. From 1993 to 1994, he was the president of the Texas Municipal Courts Association. He has served as a legal counsel for the Greater Lewisville Association of Realtors. Besides his own practice in Carrollton, in which he specializes in real estate and construction, Solomons holds affiliation with the Dallas law firm of Bell, Nunnally & Martin, LLP.

In 2001, Solomons was instrumental in the passage of the Texas No-Call List Act, which became a model for the National Do Not Call Registry, both measures designed to eliminate the problem of unwanted telephone solicitations. In 2001, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum rated Solomons 93 percent, among the higher evaluations of Texas lawmakers. By the time he left the House, however, Eagle Forum netted Solomons only 33 percent conservative; most Texas Republican lawmakers received rankings below 50 percent from Eagle Forum in 2012. The same kind of decline had occurred with Solomons' Dallas colleague, Will Ford Hartnett, who had been rated 93 percent in 2001 and 33 percent in 2012. On the other hand, the Young Conservatives of Texas rated Solomons 76 percent conservative in 2012.

In 2007, Solomons supported legislation to allow an individual to use deadly force in self-defense. That same year he opposed a pay increase for public school employees. He voted to require photo identification for voting or the presentation of two non-photo ID cards to verify a person's identity. He voted against the House majority to reduce the fee for a marriage license from $60 to $30. Solomons voted against casino gambling on Indian reservations; the measure died in the House on a 66–66 vote.

In 2011, Solomons voted to tax sales via the Internet if the company has a physical presence in Texas. Though the measure passed the House, 125–20, it was vetoed by Governor Perry. He voted to reduce funding for state agencies. He voted against a bill to ban texting while driving, another measure which Perry vetoed. He voted against a law signed by Perry which permits corporal punishment in public schools but only with parental consent. Hartnett voted against the House majority to ban smoking in most public places; cities may also limit smoking by local measures. He voted for a House-approved amendment offered in 2011 by conservative Representative Wayne Christian to require public colleges and universities to fund student centers that promote family and traditional values.

In order to spend more time on his law practice, Solomons did not seek reelection to the House in 2012

Solomons and his wife, the former Jamie Lynn Young (born 1960), have a daughter, Haley Solomons.