Nearly 10 years after SpaceX, Elon Musk’s effort to colonize Mars, began operating in a small community in Cameron County just a few miles inland of the Gulf Coast, employees who live there and other residents will vote next month to incorporate their Starbase community as Texas’ newest city.
If the majority of them vote yes on May 3, the leaders they elect at the same time will have the responsibility of creating a city from the ground up.
What does it take to have a fully functioning city?
A few of Starbase's first steps as a newborn city can be anticipated because state law sets certain requirements for raising and spending public money and how governing bodies can operate.
- State appeals court strikes down Austin’s marijuana decriminalization ordinance.
A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday that the city of Austin cannot enforce its law that prohibits police from citing and arresting people for carrying a small amount of marijuana. This is the second time this month that the appeals court has ruled in favor of the state against ordinances that decriminalize marijuana.
Last week, this same court overturned a lower court ruling that denied a temporary injunction to prevent the city of San Marcos from enforcing its voter-approved ordinance to decriminalize marijuana because it conflicts with current state law.
- Texas lawmakers want to exempt police from deadly conduct charges.
When Austin police responded to a 911 call in a downtown high rise in 2019, they confronted Mauris DeSilva a few feet away from the elevator, in a mental health crisis holding a knife.
Christopher Taylor, an on-duty officer, shot and killed DeSilva that night. DeSilva’s father has said his son was not a threat to the police, only to himself. Prosecutors agreed.
Taylor last year was sentenced to two years in a prison for deadly conduct, a charge only a handful of officers have been convicted of in recent history. Lawyers for Taylor after the sentencing have called the prosecution an abuse of power.
Texas lawmakers are now working to make that kind of sentence impossible. House Bill 2436 would exempt law enforcement officers from being charged with deadly conduct for actions taken in the line of duty. The lower chamber is expected to vote on the bill Monday. The Senate approved a nearly identical bill, Senate Bill 1637, earlier this month.
- Texas poised to ask voters to approve $3 billion to study dementia.
Texas voters will likely get a chance to decide whether to spend $3 billion in state funds on dementia research after the House preliminarily approved Senate Joint Resolution 3 on Monday.
Both chambers voted earlier this session to create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, to study dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other brain conditions. Modeled after Texas’ cancer institute, the new initiative was a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and received bipartisan support from the majority of lawmakers.
But it’s not up to them whether taxpayer dollars can be used to fund this project. That decision will lie with the voters, who, after SJR 3 is finally approved by the House, will be asked at the next election whether they want to allocate $3 billion of general revenue to this work.
“I don't know [any one] in this House who doesn't have a family member or a friend or a neighbor … impacted by dementia or Alzheimer's,” said Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat. “This Constitutional Amendment gives us the funding to do the research so that we can give those persons who are impacted with these dreadful diseases a better quality of life.”
- Texas farmers could have greater access to low-interest loans under a bill the Senate is considering.
Texas farmers and ranchers may get a new lifeline from state lawmakers.
The Texas House has approved a bill that expands one of the state’s most successful loan programs for the agriculture industry. That legislation, House Bill 43, is now up for debate in the Senate.
The relief can’t come quickly enough, said state Rep. Stan Kitzman, a Pattison Republican and the bill’s author.
“What House Bill 43 does is it makes funds available to help these producers hang on,” Kitzman said. “It's not subsidies like the federal program. It takes an existing program that's already at the Texas Department of Agriculture — the Young Farmer program — and expands that.”