South Texas Alliance of Cities focuses on local control, legislative priorities at Edinburg meeting

The South Texas Alliance of Cities talked legislative priorities and regional initiatives at the organization’s quarterly meeting Friday.

The executive legislative roundtable discussion included the mayors of four Rio Grande Valley cities, two state senators and six state representatives.

The meeting wasn’t open to the media, although participants took questions from the press when it ended.

Attendees said a key concern at the meeting was a desire for more local control, and John Cowen, Brownsville’s mayor and the alliance’s chair, said pushing for that control is increasingly a priority for the group.

He pointed to often polarizing new possibilities in Austin — like the state taking away entities’ ability to issue certificates of obligation and restrictions on property taxes — and said cities have to walk a tightrope to balance restrictions the legislature imposes with things cities have to provide, like a balanced budget and public safety.

Cowen said the loss of local control leaves cities struggling to provide what they’re supposed to deliver and what the public wants them to.

“Residents want us to provide more services, not less,” he said. “We’re the closest to the people. And it’s a challenge.”

Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza echoed that sentiment. She said a one-size fits all approach mandated by the state will likely hurt cities rather than help them.

“We’re all different and we all have different needs,” she said. “If we’re doing well as a city we should be able to run ourselves.”

Cowen said legislators at the meeting were open to that sort of feedback. He highlighted the number of legislators who attended, either virtually or in person, and says that number indicates the influence the alliance has.

“That’s the power of having this group. Is to be able to convene and speak as a region about what our challenges are, what the state can do to help us,” he said. “And ultimately to ask for more local control. I think the state has been restricting cities on what we can do, what we can’t do, and I think every city has its own challenges and they really need flexibility.”

State Senator Adam Hinojosa, R-Corpus Christi, attended the meeting and said the regional approach is probably the most effective way for Valley municipalities to leverage state help on challenges they face.

“Quite honestly we admit at the state level that we’ve left the burden of very expensive infrastructure needs solely on the backs of cities and communities, and it’s time that the state realizes that we need to participate more in those efforts,” he said. “But as such, the state is growing so much that there’s not enough money to do it individually. So promoting these regionalized projects is a way that we can make our money from the state level and they can capitalize on economies of scale.”

The challenges discussed at the meeting, attendees said, are issues that have become staples for Valley cities: water shortages, electrical grid capacity, transportation infrastructure and education.