Austin News November 2024
December 13, 2024January 2025
January 8, 2025December 2024
A Message from Executive Director, Susan J. Kibbe
Dear Members,
I’m excited about what the upcoming year holds for STPRA. We have some additions and changes planned to help grow and expand our reach and effectiveness in our region and the state.
Also, I’m thrilled to announce our new 2025 incoming board of directors and advisor who will help guide and direct the association going forward. They are as follows: Frank Massey, Caroline Nunley, Michael Sasser, and Anne Brady Thurwalker; and new board advisor Mark Burrows. Please join us in welcoming them. We greatly appreciate their leadership!
Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Until next month,
Susan J. Kibbe
Office (361) 522-5194
Susan@STPRA.org
Update from Membership Director, Sarah Jones
| Well, it is the final countdown to Christmas! As my daughter reminded me this morning, only five full days left. I hope everyone is enjoying this Holiday Season. We have been working on plans and goals for the new year and are going to strive to make 2025 STPRA’s best year yet! Our first event of the year will be in Bee Cave on February 5 and will celebrate the start of the 89th Legislative Session. It will be at Spanish Oaks Country Club. We are excited about this gathering, as it will bring together Texas landowners, policy makers and local community leaders. I encourage anyone in the area to join us! If you know others in the Austin area who would like to attend and find out more about the organization, please let me know. Invitations will be coming out soon! We are also working to plan some future events, such as a Rio Grande Valley informative gathering on the dire water situation, as well as an event in the Houston area. We are looking for help with these engagements, so please reach out to me with any suggestions or if you would like to be involved in organizing. If you have any suggestions for additional meetings or events, as always, please share them. We want to continue to help our membership grow, so please contact me with any questions or concerns about membership or if you know of someone who may enjoy being involved in STPRA. A Lifetime Membership is available for those who do not wish to be bothered about renewing again. The cost is $1875 per individual, and with your membership you receive a Lifetime Member gate sign as well as your choice of a No Trespassing, Livestock Liability, or Agritourism gate sign. If you are interested in becoming a member at this level, please contact me! Yearly memberships are always available at various levels. In this season of gratitude, I want to express my appreciation for all our members. You truly made a difference, and we are grateful for your commitment to supporting landowners and the broader mission of the South Texans’ Property Rights Association. Happy Holidays to all!  Sarah Jones 361-537-7037 sarah@stpra.org |
What’s on the Horizon
Austin Update by Advocacy Director, Charles Maley
| Hope this finds you in good spirits and looking forward to a Merry Christmas next week. My prayer for you is to be surrounded by family and friends. Governor Abbott has outlined some of his priorities that he is asking the Legislature to address early next year. Water, water, water, power grid stability, nuclear power possibilities, school choice, continued property tax reform, and cyber security. Lieutenant Governor Patrick would like to see school choice, power grid stability, and further property tax reform. Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature is in the midst of a major turnover. Mobs of members, staff, and stuff moving out, mobs of new members, staff and stuff moving in, and current members moving to choice office space based on growing seniority. All while the House is definitely not in order. Even though the technical record vote is held after the members convene in January, the race for Speaker of the House would usually have been decided at a Republican caucus meeting in early December since they have a significant majority of the seats. A clear winner did not emerge as Rep. David Cook and Rep. Dustin Burrows both seem to still have their sights set on that goal. Rep. Cook appears to have won the contest during the caucus while Rep. Burrows feels like there are enough Republican members that would join with his support among Democrat members to give him the edge in the January vote. If a speaker is not chosen till then, it will have a delaying effect on the early work of the House since the new leader’s staff will take some time getting settled in and on top of priorities. STPRA has friends supporting both sides of this race. While we have not worked directly with Rep. Cook on any specific issue, I have no reason to believe that he would be adversarial to our efforts to support strong private property rights. We have, on the other hand, worked with Rep. Burrows on specific legislative efforts that we asked for his assistance on. Rep. Burrows lives in Lubbock but has solid South Texas ranching ties. With whatever outcome, our work will remain the same, holding fast on private property rights. As of today, there have been over 2200 bills pre-filed. The Senate has proposed 27 new constitutional amendments and over 600 new pieces of legislation while the House is at 84 and 1525. You would think, with so many members of the Texas Legislature that are vocal about their support for private property rights, that our work would be easier. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Even self-declared property rights advocates file bills that would effectively erode away some of the rights we as landowners hold dear. In their efforts to balance the needs and desires of a diverse group of constituents, they often write legislation that can have lasting negative impacts on private property rights. I do not believe that the intent is always to harm private property rights, but the actual implications can often be misunderstood in the preliminary stages. That is where our Austin team comes in, educating members and staff on the actual impacts. With a projected 7000+ bills to ultimately be filed this session, it can be a daunting task. When we do find filed legislation that could have significant property rights implications, we will need you as our members and fellow advocates to be available to travel to the pink granite building in Austin to step along side of us in educating its occupants. While our team is capable of the job at hand, having “the folks back home” come to their offices makes every member more acutely aware of what is at stake. As I mentioned last month, 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. Thank you for your continued support of our work, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Until next month,  Charles Maley (254) 644-7071 charles@stpra.org |