The Texas Legislature can promote Texans’ right to self-determination consensual governance, and political representation by reforming the municipal disannexation process.
Key points
- A more equitable disannexation process should be established for qualified voters to disassociate themselves from a municipality whenever they are no longer well-served by their city government.
- Current law permits property owners to disannex only under limited circumstances, such as when a municipality fails to provide services or defunds its police department.
- Texans have a right to self-determination, consensual governance, and political representation. Those rights are not fully honored under the current system.
- The disannexation system needs reform to better balance Texans’ rights with municipal powers.