| Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
SB 468 would amend Local Government Code by adding a subsection that would allow certain municipalities the option of determining extraterritorial jurisdictions based on the statute governing all counties as opposed to a different set of rules enacted by the 84th Legislature that are bracketed specifically for those municipalities.
The issue this bill is intended to address is well explained in the author's statement of intent quoted below:
"The 84th Legislature, 2015, enacted H.B. 4059 to address a situation in Cameron County in which certain communities found themselves unable to grow as they had become encircled by Brownsville's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The bill required Brownsville to withdraw its ETJ two miles from the ETJ of any community which it completely encircled. The bill only applied to communities which were completely surrounded by Brownsville's ETJ and which were consequently prevented from growing on their own. H.B. 4059 did not roll back Brownsville's city limits and therefore had no effect on how emergency services were provided in annexed areas. While the two-mile buffer solution provided in H.B. 4059 worked for some communities, it did not work for others.
Some communities found that having a two-mile buffer of land surrounding
their ETJ, which was completely devoid of any municipal regulation, would not be in the best
interest of their respective communities. Other communities simply wanted the freedom to
continue to amicably resolve their ETJ issues by agreement, or to follow the legislative scheme
for calculating ETJ utilized almost everywhere else in the state."
SB 468 does not appear to have a connection to our liberty principles, therefore we remain neutral.