Municipalities in Fort Bend County will be lobbying state politicians on behalf of their cities during the start of a new Texas legislative session this week.
Reforming property taxes, granting more authority over land use, and promoting economic growth are among their wish lists.
Fort Bend cities are getting ready for this year’s session in the following ways:
The Land of Sugar
In October, the city council of Sugar Land issued a resolution defining its objectives for the upcoming biennial legislative session.
The city is against unfunded mandates, revenue caps, and lowering property appraisal caps, just like a lot of other Fort Bend local governments. Additionally, it is in favor of legislation that empowers cities to use redevelopment to address housing challenges. As its housing stock ages, the city has made this a priority, most recently by providing home renovation funds to specific homeowners.
“We know that housing is going to be a big issue in the legislature,” Spencer Gutierrez, the city’s manager of intergovernmental relations, stated in a presentation to the city council. “The ultimate point here is that we want to make sure … local entities have the representation to make those kinds of decisions and that the state isn’t mandating things upon cities without having that sort of close review.”
Additional financing for animal care and mental health programs are among Sugar Land’s other goals.
According to city documents, Sugar Land has allocated $64,600 for the expenses of a legislative consultant in fiscal year 2025.
The City of Missouri
Last Thursday, Missouri City Council members approved eleven legislative priorities. In addition to property tax reform, the city is in favor of “legislation that fosters a fair and transparent tax appraisal process.” Additionally, it supports legislation that promotes economic development and grants local governments more authority.
At a municipal council meeting last week, municipal Attorney E. Joyce Iyamu stated, “This will allow staff to respond when items come up during the session.” “We use this essentially as our menu, our authorization from you all to work on letters, responses, have staff go to Austin, requests that members go to Austin sometimes as well to speak about the different issues that come up before the legislature.”
Lawmakers from the municipality also stated their support for measures that would lengthen the minimum distance between residences and concrete batch factories. A hearing over a concrete crushing facility that would be situated close to houses in Missouri City was recently held by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. One advocate told Houston Public Media that the proposed plant is within a mile of more than 1,300 homes.
The annual cost of Missouri City’s legislative consulting contract is $96,000.
Fulshear
Although the resolutions have not yet been formally put to a vote by the city council, Fulshear started working on its legislative agenda last week.
The city is drafting resolutions ahead of the state legislative session for the first time this year.
After witnessing a rise in city-related bills over the years, city leaders made the decision to create legislative priorities, according to Assistant City Manager Kelsee Jordan Lee.
“It’s been really important for our city management, our city council, to not just be bystanders in the process, but to actually take a more proactive role in putting those issues that affect Fulshear, its residents and its businesses at the forefront of our Texas legislature,” she told Houston Public Media.
Land use, public safety, economic growth, transportation and infrastructure, and fiscal stability are the five areas in which Fulshear officials have delineated their goals.
Texas Senate Bill 2038 permits landowners to de-annex from the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), and the city is requesting changes to the bill. Since the bill was passed, requests to de-annex more than 10,000 acres from its ETJ have been filed in Fulshear, one of the nation’s fastest-growing communities.
“I think what’s important for the city of Fulshear and other cities like ours that are fast-growing is to get some clarificatory language in that bill,” Zach Goodlander, the municipal manager, said.
At its meeting next week, the city council will examine contracts and cast a vote on whether to hire a lobbyist.
County-wide initiatives
Prior to the state legislative session, local government and business officials convened in November for the Fort Bend Legislative Conference, a program run by the Fort Chamber of Commerce, to discuss objectives.
Mayors from Arcola, Meadows Place, Sugar Land, Fulshear, and Needville were among the Fort Bend cities represented on one panel.
A news release from the chamber states that four key topics were discussed by conference participants:
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Funding for education and workforce development
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Support for economic development, through incentives to bring in new businesses, along with tax relief and fewer “regulatory hurdles”
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Drainage and flooding prevention, with a particular focus on underserved and older communities
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Infrastructure including a more resilient power grid, broadband and 5G expansion and “sustainable water systems,” as well as a focus on transportation projects
A ban on open carrying of firearms in libraries, support for local governments, and calls for the establishment of “County Industrial Development Districts” to aid in the development of infrastructure for new industrial sites were among the five legislative resolutions that the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court passed late last year.
Regardless of whether the state legislature is in session or not, the county hires three legislative advisors annually. The county pays these consultants a total of $216,000.
Considering the future
Some state Republican lawmakers want to prohibit cities from lobbying in Austin, even as they are ready to voice their interests there.
A bill filed by Galveston Republican State Senator Mayes Middleton would forbid local governments from lobbying the state legislature with tax monies.
However, with the election of Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) as House speaker and his heavy reliance on Democratic lawmakers, the bill’s future is still uncertain.
Before Tuesday’s speaker election, Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told Houston Public Media that a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying is likely dead on arrival if Dustin Burrows is elected speaker with the backing of the Austin lobbyists, Democrats, and a few Republicans.
It is still challenging for Austin’s local governments to enact new legislation, even in the absence of a ban on lobbyist spending.
The Texas Municipal League reports that during the most recent state legislative session in 2023, over 1,800 legislation pertaining to cities were introduced. Of those legislation, only 230 were approved.
Commissioner Andy Meyers of Fort Bend County Precinct 3 pointed up the difficulties in promoting new state legislation during a December commissioners court hearing.
It is extremely difficult to get any legislation, regardless of its form, enacted since the legislature is essentially set up to kill proposals, he added.
