Recap of the Regular Session of the 89th Texas Legislature

by Ty H. Embrey and Audrey Cooper

The 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature came to an end last month on June 2nd. While the state legislators were busy this year, filing a total of 9,000 bills and joint resolutions and passing over 1,300 of those bills and joint resolutions over the course of this session, their work appears to be far from over. Governor Abbott issued a proclamation on July 9th calling the Legislature back for a Special Session scheduled to begin on Monday, July 21st, to address issues ranging from property tax relief and THC regulation, to emergency warning systems and disaster relief following the recent tragic floods in the Texas Hill Country.

The Regular Session kicked off on January 14th with the election of State Representative Dustin Burrows of Lubbock as the new Speaker of the Texas House. Speaker Burrows has served in the Texas House since 2014, and has held key roles on committees focused on state elections, higher education, agriculture, trade, and financial services.

After the Texas Legislature adjourned Sine Die on June 2, Governor Abbott had twenty days to sign, veto, or allow bills to become law without his signature. The Governor ultimately vetoed 28 bills and signed 1,155 bills into Texas law.

This article summarizes the major legislation passed by the Texas Legislature that addressed issues relevant to Lloyd Gosselink’s clients.

I. Open Government Legislation

HB 1522 (Gerdes/Kolkhorst) makes significant changes to the notice requirements for governmental entities under the Texas Open Meetings Act. Beginning on September 1st, governmental entities must post notice of their meetings at least three business days in advance, instead of the previous requirement of 72 hours. HB 1522 also imposes additional notice requirements for meetings to discuss or adopt a proposed budget, and requires certain local governments to develop and post a taxpayer impact statement. In addition to HB 1522, several other notable bills were passed related to open government that will affect many local governmental entities:

• HB 3512 (Capriglione/Blanco) requires certain local government employees and public officials to take an annual training course on artificial intelligence (“AI”).
• HB 762 (Leach/Bettencourt) amends the Local Government Code to limit the instances when employees or independent contractors of political subdivisions may collect severance pay.
• HB 3112 (Tepper/Perry) allows governmental entities to hold a closed session to deliberate on certain cybersecurity matters connected to critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater facilities

II. Investments in Water Supply and Infrastructure

The 89th Regular Session was an important session for water policy and state investment in water supply and infrastructure in Texas. During his annual State of the State Address on February 2nd, Governor Abbott pledged to make a “Texas-sized” generational investment in water this session, and the Governor made investments in new water supply strategies and critical water infrastructure one of his emergency items. Working in conjunction, SB 7 filed by State Senator
Charles Perry and sponsored by State Rep. Cody Harris which amended Texas law and HJR 7 (Harris / Perry) which proposed a constitutional amendment to dedicate $1 billion in state sales and use tax revenue each fiscal year to the Texas Water Fund beginning in 2027 and ending in 2047. The Texas Water Fund, created by the Legislature in 2023, provides funding for loans and grants to implement water supply and wastewater projects through existing Texas Water Development Board programs, including the New Water Supply Fund for Texas and the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas. The funding proposed by HJR 7 must first be approved by Texas voters at the constitutional amendment election held in November 2025, but represents another significant step toward securing Texas’ water supply for future generations.

III. Water-Related Legislation

The 89th Regular Session also saw the passage of legislation affecting the regulation of water utilities and groundwater. These significant bills include:
Water Utilities
HB 29 (Gerdes/Perry) requires certain municipally owned utilities to develop water loss mitigation plans, including water loss reduction strategies, estimated water savings, and cost estimates. Such mitigation plans must be filed with the Texas Water Development Board.
HB 2712 (Darby/Perry) amends the ratemaking process for Class A, B, C, and D utilities at the Public Utility Commission. The bill requires the test year used by a utility during the ratemaking process to include historic, future, or combined historic and future data, begin on the first day of a calendar year or fiscal quarter, and run for a consecutive 12-month period.

Groundwater
HB 2078 (Gerdes/Perry) amends the Texas Water Code regarding joint groundwater management planning and tracking progress toward achieving desired future conditions (DFCs). The bill requires groundwater conservation districts to include a plain-language explanation in their management plans detailing how they monitor and assess progress toward meeting DFCs, as well as a summary of the district’s performance in meeting those DFCs over the previous five-year planning period. The bill also requires districts to adopt DFCs for each 50-year planning period used for state and regional water planning, and allows for the adoption of interim DFC values for periods up to 10 years to track interim progress toward achieving the 50-year DFCs.
HB 1633 (Gerdes/Kolkhorst) requires groundwater conservation districts to consider potential unreasonable impacts to surrounding exempt wells when deciding whether to grant or deny a permit application.
HB 2080 (Gerdes/Perry) clarifies several aspects of the petition for inquiry oversight process at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) related to groundwater conservation districts. Specifically, HB 2080 clarifies the notice requirements for review panel hearings, and allows TCEQ to provide technical and legal assistance to review panels.
HB 5560 (Harris/Perry) increases the maximum civil penalty groundwater conservation districts may seek for violations of their rules from $10,000 per day per violation to $25,000.

IV. Solid Waste Legislation

HB 3071 (Geren/Hancock) requires TCEQ to cancel certain permits issued to municipal solid waste landfills that have not accepted waste for 25 consecutive years. However, this bill only applies to facilities in counties with a population greater than 2.1 million that are located in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the county’s principal municipality with a population of more than 900,000.

HB 5057 (Landgraf/Nichols) would require public agencies, including municipalities, that enter into, renew, or amend an exclusive contract for certain solid waste management services to: 1) publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the jurisdiction of the public agency; 2) publish notice on the agency’s website; and 3) give notice to each current provider in the jurisdiction of the public agency (only if the public agency requires providers to register or obtain approval). Such notice must include a summary of the purpose of the contract or amendment, a description of the change made by the contract or amendment, and a summary of the effect of the contract or amendment on the operations of privately owned solid waste management services providers operating in the public agency’s jurisdiction. Under HB 5057, a privately owned solid waste management service provider that has an existing contract may continue to provide services until the earlier of the date the existing contract expires, or one year after the notice was published. A privately owned solid waste management service provider that is providing services but does not have an existing contract may continue to provide services for 60 days.

SB 2078 (Kolkhorst/Gerdes) prohibits the disposal of composting waste in certain areas that do not have a commercial food waste ordinance.

Ty Embrey is Chair of the Firm’s Governmental Relations Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s Water, Districts, and Air and Waste Practice Groups. Audrey Cooper is a Paralegal in the Firm’s Districts Practice Group. If you have any questions concerning Legislative tracking and monitoring services or legislative consulting services, please contact Ty at 512.322.5829 or tembrey@lglawfirm.com, or Audrey at 512.322.5843 or acooper@lglawfirm.com.