El Paso County laying out legislative agenda for upcoming session

With the next Texas legislative session looming in a few months, the process is already underway for El Paso County to coordinate with staff and the state delegation to set their priorities.

“I’m very pleased with the process,” said County Judge Veronica Escobar (D). “We go through a very thorough vetting process and as you all know, counties have more at stake every legislative session because we’re an arm of the state. And much of what we can and cannot do is determined by the legislature.”

There are some things that the county wants to work against already lined up.

“There are efforts in the state legislature, not by our delegation, but by members in other parts of the state,” Escobar said, “efforts to reduce the ability of local government to control it’s local budgets.”

At the same time, there are other priorities where county leaders would like to see expanded abilities, such as dealing with flooding in the eastern unincorporated parts of the county. Possibilities like a storm water fee, similar to the city of El Paso’s, or some form of zoning or ordinance creation have been discussed and are currently in the agenda.

“As all of you are well aware,” said Ruben Vogt, on the county judge’s staff, “we unfortunately don’t have any authority of funding mechanism to be able to alleviate the flooding that occurs in primarily our unincorporated areas of El Paso County, but which also trickles into some of our incorporated municipalities.”

Bills can start being filed for the next legislative session on Nov. 14. The session itself starts Jan.10.