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El Paso council adopts 2025 state legislative agenda, staff flags school vouchers and property-tax proposals as priorities
Summary
The El Paso City Council on Jan. 21 adopted a 2025 state legislative agenda after a presentation from city legislative staff and the city's Austin consultants that highlighted priorities including infrastructure, public safety, workforce development and concern about proposed school-voucher and property-tax changes.
The El Paso City Council on Tuesday adopted the city’s 2025 state legislative agenda after a briefing that flagged school vouchers, property-tax proposals and a $10 million rider request for port-of-entry improvements as items the city will track and advocate for during the 80th Texas legislative session.
Jasmine Flores, Strategic and Legislative Affairs, told the council the agenda was formed with city departments and council input and has been shared with the city’s state delegation. “We will provide regular updates and tracking,” Flores said during the presentation.
The agenda groups city priorities into three areas: infrastructure, public health and safety, and workforce development. Infrastructure examples cited by Flores included the East Leto Port of Entry international trade expansion, stormwater and flood prevention projects, and military-value projects at Fort Bliss. Flores said the city submitted a rider request to the state seeking funding to help close infrastructure gaps at the port of entry, noting work already done in prior sessions.
Snapper Carr, partner and general counsel at Focused Advocacy, the city’s Austin advocacy firm, told council members that preserving local decision-making authority will be a recurring theme this session. “Preserve local decision making and tools for you all and your management teams to deal with community and city issues locally,” Carr said, describing the Texas Municipal League priorities that align with the city’s agenda.
Flores and Carr warned council that two large statewide debates — school vouchers and property-tax changes — are likely to dominate early session activity. Flores said vouchers appear likely to pass in some form and that property-tax proposals range from modest relief measures to more substantial changes, but she cautioned that fully replacing property taxes would require a sustainable revenue source that does not currently exist.
Council members questioned staff about specific requests and tactics. Representative Canales moved to adopt the legislative agenda; the motion was seconded and approved on a unanimous voice vote. During public comment, Lisa Turner criticized the city’s handling of veteran services and said several priorities in the agenda did not reflect the needs of veterans. Representative Canales responded by pointing to language in the adopted priorities that calls for increased accessibility for people with disabilities and expanded funding for women’s preventive health and veteran-related relief.
The adopted agenda gives staff authorization to formally support or oppose bills consistent with the principles provided to council, and staff said they will continue to track approximately 300–400 bills that they have identified as potentially affecting El Paso. Council members and staff noted they will be in Austin for El Paso Days to press the city’s priorities with the delegation.
The resolution to adopt the legislative agenda was approved by the council and will guide the city’s advocacy and bill positions for the 80th Texas legislative session.
