Zooming in
At a Jan. 6 meeting, Missouri City City Council approved 11 priorities for the upcoming legislative session, highlighting local government control and economic development.
According to agenda documents, the priorities include:
- Allowing cities to fund superior property tax reform services for residents and businesses
- Fostering a fair and transparent tax appraisal process
- Protecting and enhancing city’s ability to control its boundaries and extraterritorial jurisdiction
- Returning control of building regulations to municipalities
- Requiring generators and supplement equipment for water and wastewater plants and facilities that serve vulnerable populations
- Allowing political subdivisions to require construction building permits to expire
- Regulating group homes at the local level
- Fostering economic development
- Clarifying legislation to allow cities to move elections back to May
- Improving railroad crossings and installing signal lights
- Increasing distance requirements between concrete plants and residential land
What they’re saying
With the approval, council member Jeffrey Boney said he encourages staff and the city’s consultant to be proactive in ensuring these priorities become bills.
“I want us to solicit through representatives ... some bills that are introduced to address these things, versus waiting on someone else to propose them,” he said.
Going forward
The legislative session is slated to begin Jan. 14 with a bill filing deadline of March 15, according to the Texas Legislative Council’s website. The session is slated to adjourn on June 2, barring extensions through special sessions.
