The City of San Antonio’s Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) Committee received an update on state legislation affecting the city as the 89th Texas Legislature opened, including a set of bills the city will monitor for impacts on local authority, public safety and municipal operations.

Sally Baserto, a member of the city’s government affairs team, told the committee the Texas comptroller projects "the state will have a $195,000,000,000 for general purpose spending this session that includes a $23,800,000,000 surplus," and that leadership priorities and committee assignments were still being finalized on the legislative session’s first day. She said the city’s Government Affairs group, working with departments and external partners, has already identified bills it considers high-priority for San Antonio.

Baserto said the city is watching proposals that would limit local advocacy and restrict municipalities’ ability to hire outside advocates or join associations that do work at the state capitol; she described those measures as "taxpayer funded lobbying" bills and noted the language could reach statewide advocacy organizations. She also identified several land-use and development bills on the city’s radar, including measures affecting accessory dwelling units (ADUs), lot-size rules and extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and subdivision authority (listed in the packet as bills including HB 369 and HB 282). Baserto said city departments are reviewing those draft bills and providing technical analyses.

Public-safety and community-development bills highlighted by staff include a refiled dangerous-dog bill carried by state Rep. Diego Campos and Sen. José Menéndez (city staff said they have provided language to address concerns expressed by the governor’s office), a proposed statewide homeless data-sharing network (listed as HB 636), mental-health changes expanding emergency-detention authority for paramedics (HB 1656), and a firearms restriction tied to family-violence convictions (HB 498).

Baserto also detailed infrastructure and technology bills the city will review, including a proposed preemption on local rules for "high risk" uses of artificial intelligence (HB 1709), a bill requiring residential construction to be compatible with specific rooftop solar devices (HB 407), and a pedestrian-infrastructure grant program administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (HB 769). She said the city has opened discussions with authors and delegation offices on its priorities, including an "east–west business corridor" project connecting I‑35 and I‑37 that the city has briefed to every member of its state delegation.

Pending items that IGR staff asked members to consider for committee support included bills to limit retail sales of electronic cigarettes near schools (staff listed multiple filed measures with 300- to 1,000-foot buffer proposals, cited in the packet as SP 464, HB 1183 and HB 1816), legislation to increase penalties for vehicle burglary (packet reference: HB 548), and procurement-related bills to raise competitive-bid thresholds and allow alternatives to newspaper posting (packet references: HB 790, HB 386 and HB 1080). On procurement posting, Halika Mata, assistant finance director for procurement, said: "Right now in a newspaper. Yes. Right now in a newspaper per statute," and described the proposal as a move toward posting notices online instead of paying for newspaper advertisements.

On the San Antonio Fire & Police Retiree Health Care Fund, staff presented proposed statutory changes to Article 6443q that would give retirees flexibility to pay post-retirement health contributions directly or in lump sum, permit remarried surviving spouses to remain in the plan, and allow married couples who are both active members to defer participation by one spouse until retirement. Frank Berney was introduced as a representative of the fire and police pension group who can provide technical detail on those changes.

Committee members asked staff to provide more granular tracking. Councilman McGee Rodriguez asked for a follow-up memo listing specific bills filed or sponsored by delegation members so council members can see which of their priorities their state representatives have introduced or backed. Baserto said the government affairs team will provide a clickable memo and maintain an online tracker of bills the team is monitoring.

Near the meeting’s end, Jeff Coyle, identified in discussion as a city intern, reported that Representative Dustin Burrows of Lubbock had been elected speaker of the Texas House; the committee noted it would await full vote counts and the implications for committee assignments and legislative strategy.

No formal council votes on state legislation were taken at the IGR meeting. Staff told the committee it will continue to brief council members and seek direction as bills evolve through hearings and amendments.

The city’s Government Affairs team will provide monthly written updates, a public tracker on the city website, and memos with links to individual bills the city is reviewing.