A Message from Advocacy Director, Charles Maley

It’s that time again.

The Texas Legislature is back to work this week with early bill filing for the 89th Regular Session, so I will be in “Austin” mode for the next several months.

Last week brought a historic election cycle to a close. Although there are still a few votes to be counted around the country, the outcome was quite clear, the country is tired of the immense impact of illegal immigration and an inflationary economy, and the Republicans were the clear winners. To cap off the election from a Texas perspective, Starr County voted for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in 120 years.

Here in Texas, Republicans also saw significant gains across the state. Perhaps propelled by the national campaigns and a hard-fought senate race, most of the open seats in the Legislature were filled by Republican members and some contested races were flipped in their favor. South Texas has two new Republican members. Adam Hinojosa was elected to serve as State Senator for District 27 and Denise Villalobos will be representing House District 34.

This legislative session is shaping up to be very busy indeed. Bill filing began yesterday and there are over a thousand House bills and three hundred Senate bills already filed. With ongoing drought conditions across the state, water policy is being discussed as a top priority for this session by many in the Capitol. Border security is also already on the table with SB 135 looking to create a Texas Division of Homeland Security within the Department of Public Safety. Eminent domain, deer breeding, foreign land ownership, and property taxes are all on the table after the first day to file. In case you were afraid it would be forgotten from last session; chickens are back on the list with SB 141 making sure everyone can have their table graced with homegrown eggs from no fewer than six hens if they so desire.

It is too early to tell exactly how this session will shape up. Leadership positions are still to be determined and will greatly affect the direction and momentum of various issues. As has been our goal for the past several sessions, STPRA will be working to continue to grow our presence and influence at the Capitol on your behalf. To that end, we will be calling on more of you this next spring to make the trip to Austin either to testify at a committee hearing or meet with members to express your concerns about various issues that affect landowners. If you would be willing to testify at a hearing or would just like to visit the Capitol during the session, please let me know.

Thanks to all of you who helped make last month’s fundraising event a great success! Thank you for your continued support of our work.

Til next month,

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Charles Maley
(254) 644-7071
Charles@STPRA.org

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