Source: Sharon Henson, Chair, Rockwall County Republican Party
| March 31, 2025 |
| As we have done in past Texas legislative sessions, we will occasionally issue important Calls to Action and information on the legislative progress. This request is coming late and needs your attention today, even if after the committees have met. This week’s issues are particularly significant for the power of local voters and local government. You may access all bills HERE Here is the call for action on Thursday, April 3rd. CALL TO ACTION FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 3 We are asking you to support HB 602 being heard on Thurs., April 3. This bill will include a requirement that MUD Directors must live in the Municipal Utility District(MUD) in order to vote in the District. To offer your support, CONTACT THE Land & Resource Management Committee (512) 463-1623. Send comments to: https://comments.house.texas.gov/home SUPPORT Hearing scheduled for Thursday, April 3, 8am. HB 602 – Require that a member of the Board of Directors of a Municipal Utility District actually live in the District..Current Water Code section 54 102 requires that a Director live in the district OR be a qualified voter in the district. OPPOSE Here are 3 more bills being considered by the Land & Resource Management Committee on Thursday April 3rd that could substantially and negatively impact residents and cities’ management of city services. CONTACT THE Land & Resource Management Committee (512) 463-1623. H.B. 2225 (Buckley) – Impact Fees: This bill limits the ability of a city to impose impact fees or our ability to increase impact fees due to inflation. This shifts the cost of new development from the developer to the taxpayers. Other words, developers get richer and our taxes increase. H.B. 2304 (Dean) – Third-Party Review or Inspection of Home Power Stations: This is the second bill to move city processes, such as city engineering and home inspections to the developer. In other words, the average citizen would need to sue a developer to correct deficiencies in new development construction as the cities will have no liability or responsibility for the developer engineering decisions. H.B. 2494 (Craddick) – Disannexation for Failure to Provide Services: allows for a majority of qualified voters in an area to petition to disannex if the city fails to provide full municipal services. The definition of municipal services does not include a septic tank, so this bill will force residents from the city to the county. This moves the liability of the core essential services, normally expensive aging infrastructure, to the county. UPDATE FROM THE TEXAS HOUSE:  |
John N. White 