Temporary Injunction Hearing Set in Austin on City of McAllen-led Lawsuit Against State of Texas
Texas Border Business
The lawsuit filed by a coalition of 58 Texas cities, led by McAllen, and including Austin, Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio, as well as many other Rio Grande Valley cities, is set for a temporary injunction hearing tomorrow morning, February 19, 2020 in Austin, Texas. The City of Houston has intervened in the suit on the side of the cities, as well. The suit was filed in 2017 by the City of McAllen in Travis County against the State of Texas and challenges the constitutionality of two laws: SB 1004 of the 2017 Texas Legislature and SB 1152 of the 2019 Legislature.
“SB1004 has pre-empted cities from negotiating reasonable compensation as adequate compensation for the use of public property,” said City of McAllen Mayor Jim Darling. “According to the Texas Municipal League, the potential loss of right-of-way fees to municipalities is estimated to be $813 million annually.”
The first, SB 1004, allows wireless infrastructure providers and telecommunications giants to place small cell nodes, along with bulky ground equipment, in the city’s rights-of-way for approximately one-tenth of market value and with minimal local authority regarding safety or placement. The second, SB 1152, allows companies that offer both telecommunications and cable within a city to only pay the lesser of the two-fees, effectively creating barriers to competition for smaller companies and providing a gift of public land to private corporations.
At the hearing, the coalition of Texas cities, represented by C. Robert Heath of Bickerstaff Delgado Acosta LLP and Snapper Carr of Focused Advocacy, will seek an injunction from the enforcement of these two laws. The Texas Attorney General’s Office will defend the State’s position. It is the hope of the coalition that the hearing will result in a just outcome, namely the prohibition of taxpayer money subsidizing telecommunications corporations with unconstitutional grants of public land.
The McAllen City Attorney’s Office created a unified coalition to fight the two laws.
“Any successful constitutional challenge on both of these laws is going to require a coordinated effort from every available Texas municipality,” said McAllen City Attorney Kevin Pagan.
Below is a list of all of the cities in the coalition.
