AUSTIN — As lawmakers announce plans to file special-session annexation and revenue cap bills, officials across Texas are preparing to dig in and fight to keep decision making at home.

“We had a decent session,” in recently ended 85th Legislature, said Paul Sugg, director of the legislative department at the Texas Association of Counties, “but Gov. Abbott has explicitly said there should be more power concentrated in Austin. 

“I don’t know what kind of conservatives they are.”

The conflict with Austin has commanded headlines since 2015 when Abbott signed a bill that pre-empted local control of hydraulic fracturing after Denton banned the practice, and it promises to continue in the special session, which begins July 18.

A so-called bathroom bill that would prevent cities and school districts from passing restroom protections for transgender students is a top priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

But Abbott’s desire to counter rising property tax with a spending cap is high on the list of headaches for many local officials.

State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, said in a statement that “the bill I will be filing during the special session will rein in irresponsible spending by local elected officials and grant the taxpayers with the ultimate authority to make the final call on government growth that exceeds that of growth plus inflation.”  

The real tax culprit is the school finance system, Sugg said.

“To fix school finance is complex and difficult,” Sugg said. “They’re counting on people being ignorant and so far they’ve been pretty ignorant.”

Lance Howerton, city manager for Mineral Wells, opposes a spending cap because it limits “being able to fund what we do,” he said. 

And, Howerton said “there’s a little bit of a disconnect here,” given the modest financial support for cities from state lawmakers who at the same time are seeking to limit municipal control.

“I’m a big supporter of the governor but he is attacking local control by making cities the evil empire,” Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said. “He can’t speak out of both sides of his mouth.”

Cleburne has “1,000 new houses,” Cain said, and “at the same time we have to add police and fire.”

Limiting cities’ ability to cover the cost of such items is “crazy,” Cain said.

As for annexation, Abbott said in a statement that, “cities abusing their authority with forced annexation practices is nothing more than a form of taxation without representation.

“Cities that annex property without the approval from those affected is piracy by government, and it must end.”

The Texas Municipal League in a recent legislative update said that while the governor “recently tweeted about Texas cities ranking in the top 15 for the most high-tech jobs … all prudently use annexation to deal with the resultant population growth and to keep their communities thriving.”

Jacksonville Mayor Dick Stone said that if buyers move to an area that’s near a fast-growing city “you should know, eventually you’re going to be annexed.”

As for rural communities such as his, Stone said they “have a lot of different concerns” from those of places such as Round Rock or Frisco, and “that’s why you have local laws.”

Cain said Texas cities are “as diverse as the boots we wear” and cautioned against yielding too much control of local issues to Austin.

“If you centralize power in Austin, when the Democrats regain control, you decrease the Republican’s ability to have another groundswell like we did 15 years ago,” Cain said. “You have to think about that.

“That can happen. The pendulum is going to stop at some point.”

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com.