Residents of northwest Bexar County blasted the City of San Antonio's attempt to annex them in testimony before a State Senate Committee, saying the city is violating their most basic rights, the right to vote, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"The right to vote to choose who is going to govern and tax us," Leon Springs resident Gregory Drollinger testified before the State Senate Intergovernment Relations Committee. "That is a constitutional right."
City Council voted last fall, over the almost unanimous objections of residents of the area to be annexed, to bring them into the City by 2019.
Mike Stewart said the only reason City Hall wants to annex neighborhoods is to prop up the City's tax base, not because they feel the residents would benefit in any way by annexation.
"Does the City need the power to insure financial viability, absolutely," he testified. "Bringing in a new pot of money will make things easier to manage. But if you have a leaking roof on your house, you don't go out and buy a rental property."
Many residents said the city's inefficiencies mean that they will have to pay more for services like fire protection. Some said if they would have wanted to live in San Antonio, they would have bought a house there, and their decision to live outside the City should not be overruled by a City Council they didn't even have the ability to vote for.
Others said the decision to bring them into the City was a 'corrupt bargain,' pointing out that residents of US 281 in far north Bexar County, who were 'willing to pay a lobbyist $100,000' were able to win an agreement from the City not to be annexed for more than a decade. There is talk by some Leon Springs residents of suing the City to block the annexation, claiming the fact that some people were allowed to avoid annexation violates their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection.
Speaking against the bill was Joint Base San Antonio.
In a letter, Gen. Healtehr Pringle expressed concern that, if the City of San Antonio is not allowed to annex the area, the protections needed to protect the Army's mission at Camp Bullis may be in jeopardy.
Ten year old Riley Stewart told the Senate Committee that the San Antonio City Council needs to pay attention to the words of Abraham Lincoln.
"Government of the people, for the people, means that the government will represent the people," Riley said, saying she was speaking 'on behalf of my college fund.' "Mayor Taylor and the San Antonio City Council are not representing the people. They are going against the people."