The Texas Senate has rejected the wishes of the City of San Antonio, and has voted to strip San Antonio of its ability to annex outlying areas of Bexar County solely on the initiative of the City, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Senators approved a bill sponored by Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) to require a vote of people who live in an area to be annexed before any annexation can take place.
"I am trying to get the most egregious players out there, the biggest cities, which take thousands of people and put them in a city without their vote."
Campbell and other supporters of the anti-annexation bill said for San Antonio to absorb some 16,000 residents of fast growing northwest Bexar County without their consent is the definition of taxation without representation. A City Council, which none of the people to be annexed were allowed to vote for, is making a decision that people will be governed by a body they did not choose.
"Their house didn't move, but a big city reached in a grabbed them," Campell said of previous annexations. "They had no choice, they had no vote."
The Senate rejected numerous amendments from Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio) to kill or water down the measure, including a proposal that the 'right to vote' be extended not just to the people who are targeted for annexation, but the entire community.
"If a public vote is required before a city can annex, I would suggest that the entire city should vote, not just the area to be annexed," Menendez said. "Otherwise we are allowing a relatively small number of people who are not citizens to determine the fates of our cities."
San Antonio city officials say it is important that the region be annexed so the city can use its zoning authority to regulate development around Camp Bullis. They also say that annexation is the best way for a city to continue to grow and be prosperous, and avoid the fate of northeastern cities which have become hollowed out shells surrounded by prosperous suburbs.
The anti annexation measure is given a good chance of passing in the Texas House, but Menendez, who filibustered it to death in the Regular Session, indicated during Wendesday's debate that another filibuster may be on the way.