Highland Lakes mayors bemoan lobby target

Staff Writer Area mayors are expressing concern over a flurry of bills in the recent regular legislative session and some corresponding bills in the current special session that would effectively keep cities from lobbying legislators.

In her report to residents, Horseshoe Bay Mayor Elsie Thurman noted that 8,719 bills were filed during the regular session that ended in June.

“Of those, 2,189 were written to impact cities (primarily to remove local community control),” she wrote. Adding that “1,231 bills passed and were sent to the governor. 262 of those bills will directly impact cities.”