The Travis County Commissioners Court received multiple updates throughout the 85th legislative session about a few bills that would affect the way it governs. Here are five bills that the court kept a priority. A special session of the Legislature was called by Gov. Greg Abbott and is set to begin July 18. Senate Bill 2 is one of the bills placed on the special session agenda.

Senate Bill 2

The Legislature is considering a bill that would place a 5 percent revenue cap on the rollback rate, which counties collect to fund local services and state mandates. The existing revenue cap on the rollback rate is set at 8 percent. A rate above 8 percent allows voters to gather signatures to call for an election on the new rate. The proposed bill would lower that threshold to 5 percent and would require an automatic election. The bill passed 18-12 in the Senate and was sent to a committee in the House of Representatives. The bill died in the House committee but will surface again as part of the special session.

Travis County Commissioner Precinct 3 Gerald Daugherty, who testified against SB 2 earlier this year, felt the bill to be unfair to counties all over the state.

“It’s not going to be good for local government and it's probably not going to be very effective for people regarding a lower tax bill because school property taxes is the biggest part of everybody’s tax bill,” Daugherty said. “If the Legislature is serious about wanting to do something about [tax relief], then they would [better fund schools].”

Senate Bill 4

Senate Bill 4 requires local police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and allows police officers to inquire about the immigration status of people they lawfully detain. Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez refused to comply with the federal government and claimed the bill to be unconstitutional. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Travis County over the constitutionality of the bill. In a meeting June 6, the Commissioners Court authorized County Attorney David Escamilla to do whatever is appropriate to challenge SB 4, the so-called sanctuary cities law, including filing a lawsuit. All costs and expenses for litigation will be paid from risk management.

Senate Bill 1329

The bill creates a new civil court in 2017 and a new criminal court in 2019. Based on the growing population of Travis County, two new courts were created to help with the growing dockets. The bill passed in the Senate and the House and is awaiting action by the governor.

House Bill 8 

The cyber security bill will allow the Commissioners Court to discuss cybersecurity issues in executive session. Prior to the legislation, all cybersecurity issues were discussed in open session, opening the gate for potential hackers and other cyber criminals. The bill passed in the Senate and House and is awaiting action by the governor.

House Bill 4345

The bill  would create the Travis County Ground Water Conservation District. In a Senate committee, there was some discussion that even though the district did not have taxing power, some members of the Senate wanted the district to have a confirmation election to validate its creation in 2018. If the confirmation election fails, there would be another confirmation election in 2020. If that election fails, the district would cease to exist. A temporary board of directors would be appointed—one by the county judge, two by the commissioner of Precinct 3, two by the state representative representing the district and two by the state senator. The board would function as a governing body, and they would set up how the district would operate and pending a successful ratification election, there would be an election to elect permanent board members. The bill passed in the Senate and the House and is awaiting action by the governor.