Interim City Manager Johnston told the Plainview City Council on Monday that the city should adopt a legislative agenda to guide staff and its state representatives during the 89th Texas Legislature.

The council adopted Resolution R-25-652, approving a set of legislative priorities the city will share with state legislators and the Texas Municipal League (TML). Johnston said the agenda is intended to guide staff and representatives, noting that "these legislative parties serve as a guide to our staff as we work with our legislators on various local issues that may have a strong impact on our community." The council voted to adopt the resolution; the vote was announced in the transcript as "we have a vote of 74," and the motion carried.

Why it matters: the agenda tells Plainview's elected and appointed representatives which bills the city supports or opposes as lawmakers file more than 1,100 bills in the early prefiling period. Johnston said roughly 1,200 bills passed in 2023 and that about 230 of those directly affected cities.

What the agenda supports: Johnston summarized the city's support for projects and policy changes intended to promote local growth and improve services. Items listed in the resolution as supported include efforts to "support the continued growth, development, and redevelopment of the City of Plainview," to address the state's water challenges and related funding opportunities, and to pursue designation, funding and construction of Interstate 27 north and south and replacement of the 24th Street overpass as part of the Ports-to-Plains corridor to "enhance safety, passenger and freight mobility, and support international trade."

The resolution also backs allowing cities to use either an official newspaper or a city website for publishing legal notices, conversion of parts of the state sales-tax refund/allocation process to an administrative review process, automatic city-specific sales-tax reporting from the Texas Comptroller to municipalities without a Public Information Act request, full funding for the Texas Parks and Recreation local grant program, requiring marketplace providers of short-term rentals to remit local hotel occupancy taxes directly to municipalities, and increased state funding for mental-health treatment.

What the agenda opposes: the resolution lists items the city will oppose at the Legislature, including any measures that "diminish or restrict an elected city council's ability to provide necessary and required services," increased pass-through or regulatory fees on cities collected for or on behalf of the state, unfunded mandates, limits on municipal participation in the legislative process (including restrictions on paying representatives to advocate the city's adopted priorities), limits on municipal home-rule authority or other forms of preemption (Johnston cited examples such as backyard-chicken limits, short-term rental regulation, tree protection, bond ballot language, and limits on certificates of obligation), and removal of municipal original jurisdiction in utility rate-making proceedings or the ability to recover reasonable expenses in rate-making contested cases (Johnston mentioned utility cases involving Xcel Energy and Atmos Energy).

How the agenda will be used: Johnston said the city will send the adopted priorities to Senator Charles Perry (Senate District 28) and Representative Ken King (House District 88) and will share them with TML; he described the priorities as a yearly practice and asked the council to approve them.

The vote: Council Member McDonough moved to adopt R-25-652; the motion was seconded and carried as announced in the meeting transcript. No public comments were recorded on the resolution.

Looking ahead: With the resolution adopted, staff will forward the city's priorities to the city's state representatives and to the Texas Municipal League for use during the legislative session and any special calls.